Dear DataRobotics, I Hate Your Drobo

I have somehow the same problem, and I found this blog while I was searching for a solution.

I have a Drobo 2nd Gen and Droboshare, I've noticed some awkward behavior where my files are missing from explorer and no where to find them.

I have a movie folder and I was setting up XBMC. I wanted to move some movies around, but I was surprised that they disappeared. Luckily I had them in the library and surprisingly they still play, fast forward, etc..

This means that the files are there, but there are no more pointers in explorer, the only pointers I have are in XBMC!

Anyone has an idea of what is happening?

Thanks! I have no clue, maybe someone else can chime in

I had problems with mine - got REALLY slow drive speeds. Mine was out of warranty, when I finally got around to doing a formal drive speed analysis - this proved that i was getting read/write speeds around 12 MB/s.

I wrote in on their support site, and said the unit was about 16 months old, but that i had had problems with since day 1, and that I wasn't too happy about it. We did a few emails back and fourth, but they actually ended up giving me a new one at no cost, that does a pretty solid 70 MB/s with FW800.

I'm new to your blog, and I think you're a PC guy, but for me, I decided to grab a G-Raid 2TB RAID0 to use a scratch disk / vid projects, and to store my ProRes files from my 7D, and then use the Drobo to store my 7D original H.264 files and also to backup my 'puter using Time Machine. It's a good system. Happy with my Drobo now.

RP

Hey Ryan, thanks for checking out the blog and sharing your thoughts! I'm
actually a Mac guy..well, I use both- in this capacity it's my MacPro setup.
I've been using it pretty much exactly as you outlined. I've got my internal
RAID and CalDigit stuff I use for my main editing, the Drobo simply remains
my working footage backup drive (usually masters). I have a second copy of
my editing footage since it's usually transcoded.

This thing is just obnoxious. The drives haven't ever failed, it's always
been the journaling. My speeds are pretty slow as well, but I really don't
care too much about that since it's a backup drive I only access once every
few months anyway.

I used Disk Warrior to fix it and it's currently at capacity but working.

Thanks for dropping by and I hope to keep hearing your thoughts!

~JR

oh... let me guess....

Drobo with Droboshare on Mac (hfs+)?

Some more guesses: Disappearing data? Corrupted files? Or even right lights on hard drives?

Nope, just Drobo...I got rid of the DroboShare a long time ago; that was a
nightmare. Bad header information in the RAID- wouldn't mount. I've had
corrupted files and disappearing data before though.

So, what are you looking at - eSata array?

We've finally gotten our XRAID/XSAN stuff working. I have a cheap OWC 4-drive blade mirroring that, and we're going to get an 8TB chassis soon (2TB FTW!)

So what you're trying to say is....

Actually, I'm not sure.... What are you trying to say?

Just don't buy a Drobo