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Looking for an alternative to 2 x Drobo S's

Tags:
  • NAS / RAID
  • Storage
  • JBOD
  • External Hard Drive
Last response: in Storage
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March 13, 2014 6:33:36 AM

I currently have a custom built PC, top of the line specs. I use this PC as a gaming rig and a media server via Plex.

Currently I have 2 Drobo S's (usb2/firewire/esata model) I use one as my main storage of Movies, TV Shows, and Photos. I use the second one as a mirrored back up of the main one. Ever since I moved to Windows 7 (Drobos were originally on a Mac), I have noticed horrible reliability with the Drobo's. When I start windows, it takes about 10 minutes for the drives to mount and sometimes, the Drobo Dashboard crashes my Windows machine. I have reset my Drobo's, lowered the overall formatting to from 16TB to 8TB, and changed out my drives. Nothing fixes the problems, so I feel it is time to move away from Drobo.

I am looking for a solution that will allow me to use my current drives (mismatched brand and size, mainly caviar green drives), be extremely reliable and quick on Windows 7, will mount quickly and without formatting errors, and wont break the bank. (-$500)

I don't know much about RAID, but I believe I can't use it because of my diverse drives collection. Is this assumption right? Does RAID require identical drives?

Would I get better performance if I just used a tower that mounted all of the drive independently, then used a program like SyncBack to back them up on a schedule?

This is the box I am currently looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

What would you all recommend? Do you have specific software I could use? Specific equipment? ...

More about : alternative drobo

a b G Storage
March 17, 2014 4:37:31 PM

atlchris said:
I currently have a custom built PC, top of the line specs. I use this PC as a gaming rig and a media server via Plex.

Currently I have 2 Drobo S's (usb2/firewire/esata model) I use one as my main storage of Movies, TV Shows, and Photos. I use the second one as a mirrored back up of the main one. Ever since I moved to Windows 7 (Drobos were originally on a Mac), I have noticed horrible reliability with the Drobo's. When I start windows, it takes about 10 minutes for the drives to mount and sometimes, the Drobo Dashboard crashes my Windows machine. I have reset my Drobo's, lowered the overall formatting to from 16TB to 8TB, and changed out my drives. Nothing fixes the problems, so I feel it is time to move away from Drobo.

I am looking for a solution that will allow me to use my current drives (mismatched brand and size, mainly caviar green drives), be extremely reliable and quick on Windows 7, will mount quickly and without formatting errors, and wont break the bank. (-$500)

I don't know much about RAID, but I believe I can't use it because of my diverse drives collection. Is this assumption right? Does RAID require identical drives?

Would I get better performance if I just used a tower that mounted all of the drive independently, then used a program like SyncBack to back them up on a schedule?

This is the box I am currently looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

What would you all recommend? Do you have specific software I could use? Specific equipment? ...


No, RAID does not necessarily require identical drives, but there is NO SCENARIO where consumer drives in a large capacity RAID like this will be reliable. Obviously a RAID 10 set up would be best, but don't count on it being a long term solution of any kind with consumer drives.
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