DO NOT BUY A DROBO!!
DROBO FAIL!
If you know me, you know that I make videos. I use a computer to edit these videos. And since video files on a computer are very large, this requires a lot of hard disk space to archive the videos I want to keep. And, if you are responsible with the data you want to keep, you will keep it on at least 2 hard drives, because hard drives fail. So storing these large files requires at least twice the space that they actually take up. As a consequence, over the time I have been doing serious video work, I have amassed an array of external hard drives on which to store my work. It’s quite a pain in the ass because each has its own power supply and connection cables and it doesn’t take too many of them to clutter my desk. At some point I began thinking about how nice it would be to have a single, multi-bay enclosure with a single connection cable and a single power supply that I could use for backup. RAIDs do this. But the problem with a RAID is that when it comes to expanding a RAID they aren’t very flexible–they have to have multiple matched drives to work. Well, last year I began to hear about a product that might be the answer to my dilemma–the DROBO.
DROBO is short for Data Robot. It’s a RAID-like piece of hardware in that it’s a multi-drive storage solution, but unlike a RAID you can put miss-matched drives in it–and the enclosure has handy-dandy slots that allow you to pop in and out drives when needed. So as bigger hard drives come along you can just keep swapping out smaller drives for bigger drives in the DROBO and all your data stays protected–and distributed among the multiple hard drives in a single enclosure. BRILLIANT! (or so I thought).
Well, I was fortunate enough to get a deal last year where I was making a little bit of extra money every month making videos for my video blog, LO-FI SAINT LOUIS. Because of that, I was able to purchase some things for this work that I normally wouldn’t be able to afford (I have a decent job, but I have a family and am not rich by any means). One of these things was a DROBO–because it seemed like a perfect solution to my data backup needs. So last fall I went ahead and ordered a DROBO and also ordered three identical 500 gb hard drives from Other World Computing. When everything arrived I started setting everything up. Right off the bat the DROBO indicated that one of the three hard drives was bad. So that was removed–it’s not unheard of to get a brand-new DOA drive, so no big deal–I can get a refund on that, right? So with the other two drives in place, I began backing up some data to the DROBO that needed to be backed up because all my external drives were full. I also needed space on the Firewire drive I was backing up so that I could continue to work. Once the backup was complete and all the data seemed to be in place, I made the mistake of deleting the data off the Firewire drive–yes a mistake I know, as I have very painfully learned, but hey, I had a Data Robot where the data was duplicated between two hard drives, right? What could go wrong?
Well the very next day or maybe later that afternoon (I can’t exactly recall but let’s just say that it was mere hours later) I was copying some other data to the DROBO and it suddenly stopped and rebooted itself. I thought it was a fluke but soon it was doing this every 5 minutes, which was a problem because it takes more than five minutes to copy even one of the very large video files to another drive. OK, time to call tech support. It took a couple of days to get a response from support. Once contact was made, the back and forth begins. Finally they send me a replacement DROBO. I load the drives into the replacement unit and the same thing starts happening again. They ask me to send them the DROBO with the hard drives and they will try to get my data back for me. So I (mistakenly–but they weren’t specific as to which one they wanted back, frankly) send back the replacement DROBO to the company and a couple of weeks later I get an email saying that they are able to recover MOST of my data but one of the drives is bad, and the other is on its last legs. They send me back the drives and tell me to put the one that still works in the DROBO along with a new drive so at least my stuff will be backed up. So I do–in the original DROBO that I started with. I bought another new 500 gb drive and let it run for a few hours backing up the data and BANG! It happens again–constant rebooting. Long story short, they send me yet ANOTHER replacement and as near as I can tell the drive with the data on it is hosed at this point and nothing can be done about it.
So the CSR emails me one more time and says:
Ok, here’s what Engineering says to do. Boot your Drobo with both drives in it and let it attempt to complete the re-layout even if it keeps rebooting. The reason it keep rebooting is because the Drobo needs the data that is on the bad disk (because it is the critical disk) to complete the re-layout. In an attempt to get around all the errors it keeps encountering on that disk, it power cycles the slot (and reboots the system) to try and clear the problem. The hope is that the Drobo is able to read more and more of the data between reboots and eventually complete the re-layout otherwise the data will be lost. If the re-layout does complete, then swap the bad drive with a new one.
So I do. I let it run for a week. Still rebooting over and over and over again. Finally I pulled the plug on it. I took the bad drive out. Let the thing cool down a bit and then restarted the Drobo with just the one drive in it. Nothing happens. NOTHING. My system doesn’t detect the drive, all the lights turn red on the DROBO and it goes to sleep. I don’t even hear the drive spin up. I realized then that the drive was probably cooked in that week of “trying to relay out the data.” So that’s it. No more Drobo for me.
Here’s what I figured happened. The first DROBO I got was defective. It was a drive killer. Because, while there is a chance that I could have gotten ONE bad brand-new hard drive form a reputable dealer, the chances of getting THREE are nearly impossible. So the first DROBO must have damaged the drives. When I got the recovered drive back I must have put the drive back in the original faulty DROBO and killed it again for good. Their advice to put the drives in a third DROBO and let it run for a long time to re-layout the data cooked the 4th good drive and killed that one.
So at this point I figure it’s time to give up. I want a refund. I email my CSR contact and tell them as much.
A few days pass.
Finally tonight I get this email:
Hello Bill,
You actually needed to boot up the Drobo with both of your drives and
let it go through the repeated boot cycles until it finishes the
re-layout it is trying do. With any luck it will eventually finish the
re-layout and you will have access to your data.Unfortunately there will not be any type of refund available because of
the time that has elapsed since you first purchased your Drobo.I’m sorry that I do not have any better news regarding your situation.
Best regards,
Carl
Drobo Support Center
I reply:
I did that for a week. I told you that. As for the refund, that’s
complete bullshit. I was never able to use the thing for more than a
day before it malfunctioned.
I get this back:
Hello Bill,
Unfortunately the problem(s) you encountered were with your drives and
not the Drobo. The two replacement Drobos we sent you were thoroughly
tested to ensure there were not any problems and when we checked your
original Drobo it was also found to be good working order too.Best regards,
Carl
Drobo Support Center
Which is bullshit–I still have the original DROBO sitting on my desk. I never sent that one back–which they KNEW because I told them this in an exchange in December.
So I emailed them back:
Bullshit.
That’s where I’m at with this. So far I am out $500 for the DROBO, plus about $500 for the four hard drives I purchased for it, and all the data I lost, not to mention all the time and headaches dealing with this.
So… um yeah. Fuck DROBO.
Photo By: HumanBehaviour via Flickr
My Drobo Nightmare was similar.
After much research I decided to get a Drobo as I had read positive reviews ( I didn’t dig deep enough to find the real truth )
After setting the thing up with brand new 1TB drives I copied all my data across to it. This took approx 10 hours.
Once done it was up and ready and my primary source of data.
One of the things I wanted it to do was to host my Tunes library. Straight away I noticed jitter with playback?
The thing was so slow I couldndn’t even stream itunes from it??
Well all was well apart from this for an hour when Drobo says one of the drives has failed. ( Go Figure )
Well I hot swapped another new drive and it started to rebuild the file system, or so I thought, until it went into a looping reboot session. I had to power the thing off and then back on and then after another 10 hours it says the file system is ready. But uh oh the drive now won’t mount. You guessed it, I lost all my data!!
Lucky I had a backup. But the thing is I had bought the Drobo as a raid solution so I didn’t have to have multiple fire wire drives everywhere.
A bit of digging on the internet and I find many tales of horror stories about the Drobo.
I tried to take the thing back but my vendor told me I had to go through trouble shooting with them etc. I have the latest dashboard and firm-wear on it and since I am a Systems Administrator I believe I know what im doing.
I didn’t deserve this pain.. I think its only a matter of time before someone powerful takes a class A action against the manufacturers.
In the end I now use my Drobo as my backup container. I use Chronosync to do nightly mirrors from my precious data drives to the Drobo. I also use it as a Network Time Machine drive for 2x Macs.
If the Drobo goes down well I have only lost my backups which are just mirrors anyway.
It’s been two weeks now and this solution is ok so far.
The Drobo has turned out to be a ‘pretty’ but expensive and slow backup container.
If you are thinking of using a Drobo as a primary storage container and thinking you have data protection, please think again.
“DONT DO IT YOU DONT DESERVE THE PAIN”
i won a drobo from scott bourne last year for making a macbreak weekly video. i immediately slapped 4 brand new 1.5TB seagates in there… excited to never worry about data loss again. i’ve had no issues with it at all until last night when i got home from work and it wouldn’t mount. 1 soild red light at the top and the other 3 not lit at all. i figured it was a drive gone bad so i checked their site to verify colors. the site says solid red on top indicates full capacity (but with 3 solid green as well… and as i said mine is 1 solid red and that’s it.)
here’s the thing… for over a year now the capacity has been 3 blue lights, about 30% full. yes, i’ve been consistently saving more data to it, but in an entire year it hasn’t even increased to 4 blue lights. capacity full? ummm… right. so if that’s true then the blue indicator lights don’t work?
ugh. my only option now is to buy a 2TB drive and hope it’s just blue light suckage. but if full capacity IS my problem then their ‘solid red-green-green-green’ code is incorrect too. in any case, if i am actually able to salvage my data i’m just getting 5 external drive cases and dealing with manual duplicates myself, because after this headache and everything i’ve read i don’t trust this thing at all anymore.
…
and on a sidenote… the drobo site says to update your firmware you should first backup your drobo. ok, so now this product requires a SECOND 6TB drobo to backup the first?!?!? or should i just burn like 4000 backup DVDs?!?!? isn’t the entire selling point of these things that it’s a LARGE, SAFE place to keep your data?
Now this post scares me
I have a 2nd gen Drobo for over a year now (no more warranty) and i had no problems with it ever. I have 4 different drives inside and one (rly old one) failed and i just replaced them. everything works as advertised.
I have a lot of data on it and no where else so i dont want it to fail. Ever.
Is there any alternative to Drobo?
hi am saad from kuwait i want now i have my work video editing
big file video avi in my desktop slow player iwant now my work wont drobo
or no i want my file fast player my video file big avi ok
My Drobo Nightmare was similar.After much research I decided to get a Drobo as I had read positive reviews ( I didn’t dig deep enough to find the real truth )After setting the thing up with brand new 1TB drives I copied all my data across to it. This took approx 10 hours.Once done it was up and ready and my primary source of data.One of the things I wanted it to do was to host my Tunes library. Straight away I noticed jitter with playback?The thing was so slow I couldndn’t even stream itunes from it??Well all was well apart from this for an hour when Drobo says one of the drives has failed. ( Go Figure )Well I hot swapped another new drive and it started to rebuild the file system, or so I thought, until it went into a looping reboot session. I had to power the thing off and then back on and then after another 10 hours it says the file system is ready. But uh oh the drive now won’t mount. You guessed it, I lost all my data!!Lucky I had a backup. But the thing is I had bought the Drobo as a raid solution so I didn’t have to have multiple fire wire drives everywhere.A bit of digging on the internet and I find many tales of horror stories about the Drobo.
+1
DO NOT BUY A DROBO!!!!!!!!
This solution is not failsafe by far. My drobo suddenly failed and I lost all my backups (which was put on an expensive device I thought I was failsafe).
Stick to standards that can be read in other devices (like RAID). This drobo technology should never even have made it onto the market.
Even the apple storage devices seems to be a better option that this piece of marketing.
hi am saad from kuwait i want now i have my work video editing
big file video avi in my desktop slow player iwant now my work wont drobo
or no i want my file fast player my video file big avi ok
Drobo is a raid as any other. It rely on the control mechanism of the raid to know where all data is and know it’s state. First problem, you are mixing hardware that “may” not work together. They all follow the same specs but until you actually tested every combo, you don’t know.
I have used raid for many years, and ALL of them have failed at some point. Some with data loss and some have been minor. If you add drives the first rule of data safety is: you must add redundancy MORE then the increased probability of total failure.
If you store your files on one drive. This happens:
- The drive is self contained. All hardware associated on the storage process is inside the drive chassi. If the drive is in a normal room/temp/humidity/vibration the drive may have a failure rate of 1/100 units in a year.
If you then add another drive for redundancy, then you also ADD the risk of failure at the same rate. You also have the control mechanism raid card/drobo/raid software and you must also add the risk of failure for this entire mechanism, and what you end up with is a data safety LESS than you with have with just one drive. But you have a more graceful failure procedure, and that is sort of the hole point. BUT what if the raid control mechanism have a magnitude higher probability of failure? Then you may end up with a system the fails not just 1/100, but 1/10 in a year. Maybe even 1/5 or if it’s totally faulty and have 100% failure rate? Until you tested you don’t really know.
My point, decide who you want to trust. If you can rely on fewer components the better. Now I use single drives and they are backup-ed using rsync to just another. I manage a video network with multiple editing stations, 3D graphics and renderfarm. Usually it’s not the drive that is slow but the crappy $99 gigabit switch that is the real bottleneck!
@Janne Actually the Drobo is not a RAID like any other. It’s function is similar but it doesn’t use any standard RAID technology. They have their own proprietary file system and OS, a RAID is a group of specific standards. This is a fundamental difference that is what differentiates Drobo as a product and their value proposition and is also their weakness.
@MR Foto Standard RAIDs are an alternative. Not perfect, but then no mechanical storage is, but at least if something breaks you have other alternatives besides a single company to get it fixed.
Wow. Horror stories!
I’ve had my second gen Drobo for about 2 years and love it!
I use it as a backup for my primary drives, along with a backup set of DVD’s.
I think the key three words here for anyone serious about the security of their data is, “Multiple Redundant Backups.”
Just a thought…
If you get a Drobo which is reliable, great. But I didn’t. The device has lost its formatting a number of times and has had to be wiped. It also has Firewire port issues. data robotics, the makers of Drobo have not been very good on the Tech Support front, it should be replace able under warranty which you have to pay for and you also have to pay to ship it across Europe because that don’t have a repair center in the UK. A full review is here http://web.me.com/jamie_jones/Drobo-Review/index.html because it would take up to much space on this website. I also suggest other options.
When an array drops a disk 9/10 this is because the drive has entered a Error Recovery mode so the Raid controller drops it. I wonder if DROBO is doing the same thing.
Western Digital RE “RAID edition” hard drives have a feature called TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) which stops the hard drive from entering into a deep recovery cycle. This means that the hard drive will not be dropped from a RAID array, allowing the RAID card to repair the error. Though TLER is designed for RAID environments, it is fully compatible and will not be detrimental when used in non-RAID environments. These disks are expensive and most people wont justify the $200.00 difference for 2TB.
We just had our first issue with Drobo. We have two DroboFS versions. 1 is having hanging issues nightly. Both have the exact same 2TB HDs. After we backup our db servers, the next day the drobo is hung. I have to physically unplug the unit from power. Once power is reestablished the unit works fine until the next night. I’ve pulled all 5 disks and verified using SpinRite they are ok.
Our other backup arrays use FreeNAS. It includes ZFS support….never had issues.
For you people video editing you should be using Infiniband based storage arrays for speed…then back that up to TWO different backup arrays. 1 copy of data shouldn’t be considered a backup. You always need two for critical data.
I should add that Drobo replaced the DroboFS next day…after tier 2 support got involved. Time will tell if we have more problems or not.