Drobo FS
Last year we purchased a couple of Drobo’s arrays to use a storage/file sharing, and just as a project management archive, and thus far we are extremely pleased. We are using a Drobo FS to share file between 3 computers. The “FS” stands for “file sharing.” You can plug it into your network via ethernet and if your other computers are on that network (via ethernet) you can share files. The Drobo FS can take up to 5 hard drives, giving you plenty of room for music, photos, stock video, etc.
Drobo Pro
Our Drobo Pro is a monster of am array. No issues to date. We’ve even lugged it on road trips. The enclosure is pretty sturdy, and solid. It has an 8 bay hard drive capability. You can plug into it with USB 2.0, FireWire 800 (400 compatible) and iSCSI (Gigabit Ethernet). With 8 hard drives at 7200 rpm, you’ll have no issues working and pushing your system with HD content. The setup for both of these Drobo was extremely easy.
Drobo Pro rear view.
These are not RAID are they. Does it need software or does it just work like individual hard drives and you manually back up?
Larry Ray…the Drobo is redundant raid system. Meaning it backs its self up. If one drive fails, the info is not lost. It does have some software. No need to manually back it up.