Drobo: A Miracle Backup Solution?

If you're like me, you are always on the lookout for a better way to backup and archive all your photographs, videos, and other digital materials. Right now, I have 11 different external drives plugged into my desktop and laptop computers. 11! And I keep having to add more, with larger hard drives, as my backup and archival needs expand. That's a lot of extra drives to juggle and keep track of. Isn't there a simpler, more efficient way to handle this?

Looks like there might be. A company called "Data Robotics, Inc." has created an intelligent backup system called "Drobo". The idea is glorious: The system provides space for four different hard drives and makes all four hard drives function as one drive (like a RAID setup). If, however, one of these drives fail, Drobo lets you know and the other drives compensate allowing you time to replace the bad drive. No data is lost. You can change any hard drive any time you want without affecting any of your stored data. If, for example, you want to replace a 200 Gig drive for a 500 Gig drive, you simply remove the 200 Gig drive and insert the 500 Gig. The system formats the new drive and includes it in the backup system. The main advantages of this system are: 1. Any time a single hard drive fails, or prepares to fail, Drobo can protect your data; 2. The system can be constantly expanded as your storage needs expand. The main disadvantages are that the Drobo system is currently built around a USB 2.0 connection, so backup speeds (how fast data is transfered from your main computer to Drobo) may be an issue for some people. Also, if the unit fails, the only way to retrieve your data is to get a replacement.

To find out more about Drobo, visit their website. Among other things, they have some great introductory videos and also support a growing community of Drobo fans. You can find a list of resellers on Drobo's website. You can also purchase one through Amazon, which currently lists 12 helpful customer reviews.

I ordered one yesterday and will let you know how Drobo works for me.