Do you think that the new Drobo S is overpriced? So do I. Over at Technorati.com, I outlined the arguments what Data Robotics should really charge for the Drobo S.
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Storage
Have you ever lost an entire hard-drive full of data? I hate to admit it, but I lost probably more than a dozen.
Only one was lost to a physical error, all the others to “delayed write failed” errors which are my most feared errors on Windows, even more so than the Blue Screen Of Death. Why? Because best case, you lose just a file or a folder, but sometimes the entire drive is gone. Which happened to me more often that I care to admit.
One of the main reason why I had these delayed write failed errors is power. To be precise, the lack of enough power. If power goes down while you write on a hard drive, the outcome is usually not that bad assuming both your hard drive and your computer go down at the same time. If power fluctuates while you write to a hard drive, the outcome is often disastrous. This is especially true when you connect multiple external hard drives through a USB hub and the hub is either not powered correctly or suffers from power fluctuations. When that happens, the results are entirely unpredictable, but in many cases the disk signature of my external hard drive was lost. The only way to recover was to reformat the drive, thus accepting a total loss of all my data. Talk about stress, esp. when you realize there might have been some data on that drive that you were not sure that it was backed up. And just in case you are wondering – yes, that can happen on both Windows and Mac OSX.
How can you protect yourself from disasters like these? Use a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)! A UPS not only gives you battery backup for a limited time, but also protects you from power fluctuations, surges and brownouts. Depending on the vendor and the feature set of your UPS, you can automatically shut down all the computers connected to a UPS, if a power-out occurs. You can even reboot as soon as power is restored. But more importantly, it ensures that you either get enough power to all of your storage devices or that a controlled shutdown can be executed, so you have that peace of mind that you did everything you could to minimize power related storage failures.
My fileserver and every hard drive connected to it, including the Drobo, are plugged into a UPS
How many UPS’s do you need? It depends on your setup. While Scott uses two UPS’s, I use three:
- My work area consisting of a Macbook Pro, some external drives and a USB hub is connected to a UPS.
- My server environment (file server, my Drobo and my backup drives for the Drobo) is connected to the second UPS. This UPS also uses software that automatically shuts down my file server in case of a power failure.
- I have a third, smaller UPS to keep my router and DSL modem alive, so I have a connection to the Internet for my laptops while the power is out.
I don’t use a UPS for my notebooks, since their batteries last longer than any UPS.
While there are several vendors providing UPS, I’ve been using APC
In case you are wondering: Ever since I put any of my external drives and USB hubs on a UPS, I have not received a single delayed write error!
I back up my Macs and PCs. I back up my backups. And I protect my backups and backups of backups. Call me anal retentive, but I sleep soundly at night. Do you?
[Editor's Note: This article was written by me and first appeared on mydl.me in late June 2009. It is posted here with permission]
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Car magazines often run long-term road tests of some of the vehicles that they review, thus providing updates at certain times during the life of a car. Similarly, my first generation Drobo just turned 18 months, so I thought it’s time to provide a quick update on how it is performing.
When I purchased my Drobo, I intentionally bought the first generation Drobo (USB only) and not the second generation, which features Firewire support and claims to be 30% faster. Since my Drobo is connected to a backup and media server via USB, I did not think I needed the speed improvements and was proven right.
Server Environment
Drobo is used as a backup and file/media server
I run a pretty standard server environment: A bunch of Mac and PC clients back up automatically to a file server, which also does double-duty as a media server throughout the house. While each client has its own storage (and in case of my photos, mirrored storage), I wanted to have every file on my server on three hard-drives. Thus the Drobo, which keeps a copy of each file on two drives, thus protecting against a physical hard drive failure. And frequent, automated backups of the Drobo to external hard-drives in case of a Drobo controller failure. Pretty simple set-up overall.
Here’s how the Drobo performed in this environment so far:
The Good
- Setup: Setup was very straight-forward. Install the drivers, connect the Drobo, put in at least two hard drives and copy your files. Done. Copying took quite some time, but once the files were on, I was all set
- Expanding storage: Initially, I started with two 1 TB drives, but have since added two more, for a total net capacity of 4 TB and an actual capacity of 2.6 TB. All drives are Western Digital Green drives. When adding drives, I simply slid them into the Drobo and it recognized the drives. It then spread all the data over the newly added drive which took quite some time (more than 24 hours), but the Drobo was operational during that time. I did not experience any problems with this process.
- Reliability: I’ve had zero problems with the Drobo. None. Even when I inserted a very old, non-supported hard-drive, the Drobo shut itself down to protect the existing hard-drives. Once I took out the old hard-drive, I powered the Drobo up and everything worked normally.
- Speed: I have not done any speed tests, because my Drobo is connected to a server, where the Wi-Fi throughput is the weakest (slowest) link in the chain. So the Drobo’s speed is fine with me.
The Bad
- Noise: The first generation Drobo is noisy and constantly emits a high-pitched vibration noise (I put 4 bricks on top to get rid of it). My assumption: Drives spinning at different speeds and times cause the noise due to insufficient shock absorption of the drives. I do not know whether this is fixed in the current Drobo, but I would not use the Drobo on my desk where I work. It’s simply too noisy. But no problem when connected to a server that is tucked away.
- Windows XP 2TB drive limit: Windows XP has a 2TB drive limit, where any drive with an assigned drive letter connected to an XP machine cannot be larger than 2TB. Since my Drobo’s capacity is 2.6 TB, Drobo dealt with the issue by spreading the content of the Drobo over two logical drives (D: and E:), even although everything resides on one Drobo. This is the worst that could happen – since I run automated backup routines, I need control over what goes where. The worst thing for automation is that Drobo randomly puts files all over the place. The partially good news is that my server, at over 7 years old, is on its last legs and will get replaced with something else (Mac, Win7 or Win Home Server machine) that is capable of handling drives with more than 2TB. Until then, I do everything to keep my data on my Drobo under 2 TB. I wish Drobo would give me a chance to override the way they deal with this Windows XP issue, though.
- Unattended driver upgrades: I performed multiple driver upgrades during the time I had my Drobo. All went well. However, their way to upgrade a driver is to run their InstallShield set-up program, so you have to effectively perform a re-install. This might work fine on a Drobo next to your desktop, but not when you are in a confined server space. I wish they would do upgrades as simple as most Apple programs do – launch the download, then auto-install and restart the driver. Two clicks, no more. Their way simply feels very consumerish.
- Support nag screen: This one was pretty galling. My Drobo came with one year of free support. Once that year was up, the Drobo software started to nag me with Support renewal screens, with no way for me to opt out. Given how much the Drobo cost, this is a no-no and drove me nuts. I finally stopped it by writing a batch that killed the screen – not sure whether it would still be around otherwise.
Overall, the Drobo works for me in my environment. Reliably, expandable and with adequate speed. Mileage may vary for you – I know that my co-editor Joe is a friend of less expensive RAIDs and thus would not even consider a Drobo. But the box works and so does its software (despite its consumerish feel). If you can live with its short-comings, you will definitely like what the Drobo will do for you.
Verdict: Recommended!
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This one is very cool – it’s the Space Station 6, a little credit card size thumbdrive holder from Ultra Products that holds 6 USB thumbdrives. Each drive is either 1 or 2GB, so you can carry 6 or 12 GB. Literally in your wallet, since the holder is very flat. How cool is that?
Price: 25.95, Amazon: $24.95
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If you are like me, you have a lot of old hard drives lying around – some of them still in use, some of them rarely used and some not at all. Whenever I have the need to quickly access one of them, the main question is always how to best connect them to my Mac or PC.
Vantec has a clever solution for this. Simply insert any 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA I/II hard drive into Vantec’s NexStar Hard Drive Dock, connect it via USB2.0 or to an eSata port and you are ready to view, transfer, copy, or backup files.
Price: $46.99 (without hard drive), Amazon: $36.97
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This is the number one questions I get asked with regards to memory cards. When do I erase my pictures from my memory cards?
The answer is short: When I have at least two copies of every images that is on the card. In reality, whenever I return from a photo shoot, I import the card(s) I used into Lightroom. As part of the Lightroom import, every image is copied to a “workspace” which resides on a RAID-1 external drive which consists of 2 physical disks (a Western Digital MyBook Studio Edition II
Then, and only then, do I format my memory card. I never erase any picture – I just put the card back into the camera and then format it in-camera. That way, the card is freshly formatted and ready to go the next time I grab my camera.
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If you are like me, your memory cards lead a hard live. They’ve been sat on, washed in the laundry, lost, broken and had to endure much abuse. That is, until I discovered memory card holders.
The one featured here is the Lowepro Pixelpak. It’s small and compact, but can still hold 8 SD cards. One of the insets can be taken out, so you have space for a PCMCIA card adaptor or business cards. It protects cards from moisture and shock. It is made from plastic, but the cover is brushed aluminum, so you can find it easier in dimly lit places.
Size: 3.9W X 0.6D X 2.6H inches
Weight: 0.2lbs
Added bonus tip: Insert the cards with their label facing up before taking off on a field trip. When changing cards in the field, put the used cards back into the case with the label facing down. This way, you will always know which cards were used and which ones are still available for use.
Price:
Holder for 8 SD cards: $19.99, Amazon: $11.49
Holder for 4 Compact Flash cards: B&H Photo: $19.99
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New 32GB compact flash cards are showing up in stores near you. For example, Kingston increased the capacity of its newly redesigned CompactFlash Elite Pro Flash memory cards to 32GB.
The new card offers a minimum sustained write speed of 133X and transfer rates of 25MB/sec. read and 20MB/sec. 32GB capacity allows you to store approximately 1,000 RAW images shot with a Canon 5D (~13 mega-pixels) or more than 3,600 super-fine large JPG’s. On the new crop of 20+ mega-pixel cameras, the capacity should be around 600 RAW images or 2,000 JPGs. No matter what camera you use, that is a lot of images you can store on this card!
One word of caution, though: If you have an older camera, check your manufacturer’s web site. Not all cameras support 32GB cards or you might need to install a firmware update before you can use this card.
Price: $154.00, Amazon: $62.94
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If you want an even easier way to burn backup copies of your images in the field, check out EZDigiMagic’s portable storage solutions. They allow you to copy your memory cards straight to CD or DVD. They are battery-operated, so you can backup anywhere. Some even come with 2″ color displays, so you can preview your images. And some have TV-Out playback for viewing your images on a big screen. And all feature USB 2.0 connectors so you can later transfer the contents of your memory cards or your burnt DVDs to your computer at home.
While we have not tested these, this product line seems to be a very flexible backup and image management solution for your needs while in the field.
Prices starting at $249, Amazon: from $249.00
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Do you like to burn backup copies of your images while you are on the go? If you rely on external DVD burners, esp. bus-powered burners, the new Portable DVD MultiDrive from BuffaloTech might be what you need.
While officially launched a new DVD Reader/Writer for netbook users due to its slim, compact and lightweight design, but also appeal to photographers and others who travel frequently. With no need to lug around an AC adaptor, it’s most interesting feature seems to be their built-in Buffer Under-run Prevention feature that allows users to work on simultaneous applications whilst burning DVDs takes place.
Included Software: from CyberLink Software that allows users to write content to CD-Rs and DVDs.
Price: $93.99, Amazon: $82.13
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