As many photographers, the thought of a disk failing or being full is unbearable. There are many solutions out there providing various levels of options to back up your photos.

I’ve looked into Sonnet, Netgear and Synology. I came very close to buy the Cube Station from Synology but to be honest, it was overkilling it for my needs…

I was looking for a simple to manage, convenient to access, reliable method of keeping vast amounts of data in one place and safe!After testing the water for a few months, I’ve decided to invest into a Drobo, the “world’s first storage robot“. So why a Drobo instead of an enclosure and RAID technology?

First of, these guys have really look at how Apple presents their products. Unpacking and installing the Drobo was as big a joy as you are used to as an Apple user.

The care that has been given every detail in this product, from wrapping to design and instructions, shows a commitment to deliver beyond all expectations.

The main reason being that creating a RAID 1 or RAID 5 array isn’t full-proof and is quite complex to configure!

RAID is a 20 year old technology and the capacity is limited by the smallest disk in the array…

When you need to swap drive and rebuild the array, well, it can take quite some time and your data is unavailable…

A buddy had to rebuild an 1.5TB array and it took 12 hours to replace a 500 GB drive with a 750GB!!

Here is a Storage Comparaison chart (click on the image to enlarge - also available in PDF) to make it clear for you.

I based the comparaison on the Synology CS407e NAS Server set up in RAID 5.

Like I said earlier, the CS407e is  overkilling it for me… You can do MUCH more than backing up your data! But I am not sure you want you main storage unit for back ups to be an iTunes server, Audio Station, Photo Station, FTP server, Printer sharing, UPnP Multimedia services, etc.

I don’t need all that! All I need is a redundant storage unit flexible enough to allow me to grow at affordable cost…

How Drobo uses your HDs to store your data :

1. Available data : Total protected space and available
2. Reserved for Expension : Unusable capacity reserved for future use when one HD is larger than the others. This space will become available when you add a larger capacity HD or replace a smaller HD with a bigger one.
3. Used for Protection : Used to protect your data against drive failure
4. Overhead : Used for management

I suggest you try the Drobolator capacity calculator to test different combo of HDs.

Drobo isn’t your average external drive array enclosure, it’s great but it doesn’t replace off-site , off-line backups. But nor will RAID…

It’s the perfect answer to my needs (at the moment). When I need to access the data, I just launch the Drobo Dashboard and it becomes available. When I don’t need it for long periods, I just put is to rest either by ejecting the drive or by clicking the “Standby” button in the advanced controls.

Couldn’t be easier! What I also like about Drobo is that after the initial formatting, there is no need to ever format a drive before adding it to Drobo! Plus, you get immediate access to that additional capacity.

In case of a power outage, Drobo has an internal rechargeable battery that preserves data being written during an outage. Smart!

Drobo is Time Machine ready, just so you know.

If you are interested in buying one, go to the DroboStore and be sure to use this special code: EVMICHOT so you get the $25 instant rebate. Act soon, because the $25 rebate expires on June 30th, 2008.  Drop a comment if you want to know more.

More photo here…