DROBO - Three hard drive failures in 3 weeks

[SteveNC]

Just a personal experience for those considering this:

I've had 3 brand new Western Digital Green 1.5TB drives fail in the 3 weeks that I've had this unit.
Each time I've had to wait to get a replacement drive, which means no access to client data.
Once the replacement comes, it takes 25+ hours for the DROBO to restore the data array, during which time my 1.2 TB of data is sitting unprotected.
Drive cannot be removed from DROBO and placed into an external enclosure, leaving my data on a single drive, confined to a device I do not trust.
After both the 1st and 2nd drives failed, Data Robotics support repeatedly reassured me there was nothing wrong with the DROBO; "You're in good shape, you'll be fine."
It has been 4 days and no response to my request for customer or technical support on the latest Fail.
Since I cut off the UPC for the DROBO rebate, B&H isn't helping me out at all in getting a refund or replacement (perhaps understandably so).

In conclusion, I'm out hundreds of dollars, have no access to my data, am receiving little to no support from the manufacturer who claims the device is fine despite the above, and face the real possibility of having to pay $500-1,000 to a data recovery service. Did you know it costs $120 just to evaluate a failed drive?

[panda-R]

booo to drobo... what file system is the drobo using? can you take out the drives and move it onto something else?

[SteveNC]

I can't, that's what really is a bummer. I'm completely stuck. I went from having my data relatively stable on one 1.5TB drive contained within my computer, to having it extremely unstable in this device after spending $660 on the DROBO and two drives. By putting my data on the DROBO I achieved the exact opposite result of what I had hoped. I'm so worried that the final drive is going to die before I get a chance to get the data off of the drive in the DROBO and back to how it was before.

[Balliolman]

:shock:This sounds serious -- I have the same system. Please keep us informed!!

[SteveNC]

:shock:This sounds serious -- I have the same system. Please keep us informed!!

I most certainly will

[xenomorphic]

Sorry to hear about your situation. This won't be of any help in retrieving your data, but I've used a system of external disk-cabinet (JBOD - Just a Bunch Of Disks) + self-fitted, separately bought internal Western Digital drives for years without troubles. I use a hardware SATA2 multi-port interface for my working desktop to connect to the JBOD, and a software RAID solution (SoftRAID) for mirroring pairs of drives for redundancy/safety purposes. Yours is the first case of Western Digital drives failing I've heard of. Not good. :(

James

[rklepper]

So is it the Drobo, or the drive?

[SteveNC]

So is it the Drobo, or the drive?

I really question placing blame on the drives; the chances of receiving three defective drives in a row must be very low. Say you have a 5% defective rate coming off the assembly line, the probability of three drives failing by chance (ie. independent of the DROBO) is:

5% * 5% * 5% = 0.000125 or about 1 in 10,000 or about 0.01%.

I'm not a gambling man, but to blame Western Digital rather than this device isn't the most logical or rational explanation.

[dandig]

I think this is the first serious problem i have heard about Drobo. Mine has been great.

What really disappoints me is Data Robotics' handling of your situation. I cant understand why they wouldnt replace yours. If you were to lose all of your data , it would be hugely bad press for them! What you are telling us is bad enough but if yours is faulty and it took out your data you would think they would want to avoid that situation.

As has been said, i cant see how you would have 3 faulty drives....

[wyofizz]

I've heard there have been issues with the 1.5 drives.
Stick with 1T for now.

Dave

[Steve Beck]

I have been using three drobo units for over two years now with no issues and am now running two drobo pro units with no issues.

My first drobo I got a couple years ago was actign wierd. I ordered 4 brand new 500gb western digital drives at the same time as the drobo. Three of the four was bad out of the OEM static bag. I have noticed a large number of drive failured from western digital, mainly if they are oem type drives and not retail boxed.

[SteveNC]

This is ironic. I purchase a backup solution, which destroyed three hard drives. Four days, no help, no data. Unfortunate :(. Still crossing my fingers...

[CyberDyneSystems]

Very bad...

I'm not a fan of the DROBO for the very reason you list (not the failure, that's just bad luck)
That the info on the drives is not retrievable without a functioning DROBo.

I use RAID for data back myself, but insist on plain jane "mirroring"
(ie: copy the data to a pair of identical mirrored disks.)
In all but the weirdest implementations, the data on a Mirrored raid can be retrieved by any PC... you should not need the original host controller hardware to access the drive data.

I agree with your feelings that this is clearly a defective unit..
DROBO needs to send you a total replacement.

[stathunter]

Ouch! I cannot believe Drobo has not replied to you yet. If this continues let us know - maybe we should all put an email into the support at Drobo and ask them what their delay is.

[Snow001]

Thank you for posting this and I am sorry to hear of your troubles with Drobo. My brother and I have actually decided to buy a Drobo unit. We thought it would be an upgrade to the drive "Mirroring" method that we currently use. I did not realize that one would not be able to access the data on the disc drives without using Drobo. I guess we should stick to our method for the meantime.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you and good luck! Hopefully it will be resolved to your favor soon.

[damnit]

I would suggest that the DROBO is at fault ... Western Digital are about the best drives you can get these days, and for 3 x to go pop in one week is highly suspect ... its either very bad batch from WD (search the web for any info you can on that score), or its defo the DROBO malfunctioning.

I set my brother's business up with 2 x NAS systems from QNAP (http://www.qnap.com/) a couple of years back now - they are really quite sweet bits of kit, and have been very reliable too (couple of old specialist Seagate Barracuda drives built prior to them getting involved with Maxtor).
EDIT: I am also currently considering investing in the same kind of kit myself, but would use Western Digital not Seagate these days ...

Hope you get it sorted soon Steve ...

[nadtz]

WD 1.5tb green drives have some known issues with failure and a raid array is *not* a backup. I doubt the drobo is ruining the drives (this is admittedly a guess, I acknowledge I could be wrong), so drobo support is probably correct, the drobo is working correctly, you are just getting craptastic luck with the drives populating the drobo. (you think 3 failures in 3 weeks is bad, try 16 out of 24 wd 1.5 drives in a storage array over the course of a week.)

If you have client critical files that you need to be able to access while an array is rebuilding (and the array is not available while rebuilding) another $100 on a 1tb external drive for critical files seems a no brainier. While I sympathize with the problems you have been having, properly addressing your issues instead of blaming (possibly) the wrong source will be more useful to yourself and your clients.

[Moose408]

I would try again with Drobo. There customer support has always been excellent when I have dealt with them. I have also had problems with Western Digital Green drives and have heard rumors that the 1.5 TB drives have some reliability problems. Because if this I've been sticking to 1TB drives until the 1.5TB mature a little.

[gooble]

Get SpinRite to recover your data. http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

[SteveNC]

Data Robotics just sent an email asking for more information on which bay failed. I will say it is nice that they recognized my case and transferred the case to the same person that worked on it before. I'll keep the thread updated.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I was wondering the same thing, if the three drives were in the same bay.. like a bad power connection or something....
(of course bad power could be going to all drives I guess, but if it's the same bay, I'd say that certainly narrows things down a bit! )

Good luck!

[SteveNC]

WD 1.5tb green drives have some known issues with failure and a raid array is *not* a backup. I doubt the drobo is ruining the drives (this is admittedly a guess, I acknowledge I could be wrong), so drobo support is probably correct, the drobo is working correctly, you are just getting craptastic luck with the drives populating the drobo. (you think 3 failures in 3 weeks is bad, try 16 out of 24 wd 1.5 drives in a storage array over the course of a week.)

If you have client critical files that you need to be able to access while an array is rebuilding (and the array is not available while rebuilding) another $100 on a 1tb external drive for critical files seems a no brainier. While I sympathize with the problems you have been having, properly addressing your issues instead of blaming (possibly) the wrong source will be more useful to yourself and your clients.

I actually still have the critical data on the CF cards on which they were originally taken, and they are being stored in a static, electric, water, dust, shock, and crush -proof CF card case . The only media that I truly trust is solid state, and even then there's potential for failure but far less likely. I was simply pointing out that I have no access to client data that is stored on the DROBO after experiencing the failure.

[CyberDyneSystems]

That said, Steve if you can stand to, it might be a good idea to double up on the redundancy...

I have all my Images on a RAID 10 array within the PC...
I then copy that data to an external RAID 1 array via E-Sata.
I fire this up to back-up only when I've added new photos.
Lastly, I have a simple external via USB with yet another copy. (backed up to that rarely)

That's copies on 5 physical hard drives,. on 3 different volumes.
I gave up on DVD two years back...

If I were using an item liek the DROBO, or any RAID 5 or similar,.. I'd want at least one other form of readily available storage at all times.

[SteveNC]

That said, Steve if you can stand to, it might be a good idea to double up on the redundancy...

I have all my Images on a RAID 10 array within the PC...
I then copy that data to an external RAID 1 array via E-Sata.
I fire this up to back-up only when I've added new photos.
Lastly, I have a simple external via USB with yet another copy. (backed up to that rarely)

That's copies on 5 physical hard drives,. on 3 different volumes.
I gave up on DVD two years back...

If I were using an item liek the DROBO, or any RAID 5 or similar,.. I'd want at least one other form of readily available storage at all times.

That's a very good suggestion, I'll be backing the images up again tonight. The funny thing about this whole thing is that I was planning on buying a second DROBO as a tertiary backup solution :).

How large is your external USB? What do you do with the data once the RAID arrays are filled? The thing I liked about the DROBO is that you gain extra storage capacity, over what you would get with a "regular" RAID setup.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I've not outgrown the raid arrays recently.. (currently @ 1TB ) but over the years I just keep upgrading. Last array was 500GB, before that 320GB etc..

My current external single drive is now outgrown (at 500GB) so I have a second one keeping the overflow.... these are almost never actually turned on, only when I am adding the files.

the internal RAID array is 1 terrabyte, it started out as a pair of 500GB drives in RAID 1, when I was approaching the limit I added two more 500GB drives and coverted to RAID 10 ging me 1TB.

the external is newer and is a pair of 1TB drives in RID 1.

If I outgrow 1TB, I will swap all four internal 500GB drives with 1TB drives instead,. giving me 2TB in RAID 10. (or 1.5TBZ or 2TB drives for 3 or 4 TB total array, depending on the current cost of the drives)

The data will be safe on the externals when I do this replacement/upgrade.

Then I can take the external E-Sata RAID 1 array and span it to another via software RAID.. again to double capacity.

It's a pain, the DROBO definitely sounds appealing in this way, but it' not that bad,. and I can't imagine having to do it too often.

[SteveNC]

Data Robotics just sent an email asking for more information on which bay failed. I will say it is nice that they recognized my case and transferred the case to the same person that worked on it before. I'll keep the thread updated.

Just an update that there is no update. No response. Now going on 5 days with no real progress from Data Robotics support. I'm not sure they recognize how critical this situation is. I guess it would be pretty costly to ship out a replacement DROBO without thorough evaluation of the unit I do have, though I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish through email that they could not have already ruled out when the second hard drive failed. This is just an unacceptable level of customer support from my perspective. The chances of the defective product being the three western digital drives are, in my estimation, literally about 1000 times lower than the chances of the defective product being the Data Robotics product (as per above calculation). I hoped Data Robotics would have given me the benefit of the doubt. Instead I'm left twiddling my thumbs and crossing my fingers.

[-g-]

I saw this and you got me concerned. Three weeks ago, I had a 5 month old Lacie 1TB drive fail. As it was my primary drive, I was worried but took consolation in knowing I had pretty much everything backed up on an additional 1TB drive. While working out the details on returning the defective drive, my back up drive calved leaving me without anything. I contacted a data recovery company and both they and somebody on this board recommended a Drobo.

I just picked up the Drobo with all my data on it. Talking to the tech, I mentioned this thread. His response was that with many of the Raid failures he's experienced, the drives tended to have been purchased at the same time, from the same place, same manufacture and the same lot. His advice was that at any time you have one of a lot of drives fail, you are at increased odds of another failure.

I will be purchasing an additional 1TB drive strictly to back up and store. I don't need the expense of data recovery again.

BTW, which drobo?

[SteveNC]

Sorry to hear that both of your drives failed, but at least you've gotten the data off of it one way or another. What data recovery service did you use, if you don't mind my asking?

It's the second generation USB/firewire DROBO device.

The initial two drives were manufactured in different lots (I specifically checked, but don't remember how I determined this). The third drive came separately in an entirely new order after the first drive failed. I was worried Newegg would send me a replacement drive that was RMA'd by someone else, so made it a point to ask for a refund rather than an exchange, and that the order was made independent of the RMA. Same goes for the fourth drive coming in the mail. I suppose it could be an issue with Newegg, but it just doesn't seem likely.

[SteveNC]

booo to drobo... what file system is the drobo using? can you take out the drives and move it onto something else?

PS. didn't see this question, I'm using Vista Ultimate, 32-bit.

[DeaconG]

I've heard there have been issues with the 1.5 drives.
Stick with 1T for now.

Dave

Not just Western Digital either-checking on the Newegg site for some SATA drives I noticed that ALL the 1.5 TB drives they had for sale (WD, Seagate and Hitachi) are no longer being sold at this time. I knew the Seagates had issues from the moment they came out and that's why they got pulled, not too sure about the Hitachi drive, but this looks to me like either the controllers or the actual disk media isn't ready for prime time just yet.

I guess now wouldn't be a good time to talk about SCSI Ultra640 availability either:lol::p

[SteveNC]

Not just Western Digital either-checking on the Newegg site for some SATA drives I noticed that ALL the 1.5 TB drives they had for sale (WD, Seagate and Hitachi) are no longer being sold at this time. I knew the Seagates had issues from the moment they came out and that's why they got pulled, not too sure about the Hitachi drive, but this looks to me like either the controllers or the actual disk media isn't ready for prime time just yet.

I guess now wouldn't be a good time to talk about SCSI Ultra640 availability either:lol::p

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136351 ?

[DeaconG]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136351 ?

Hey, they weren't there last week when I updated one of my wish lists...neither was the Seagate. Guess they figured out why the drive controllers were biting it:eek:

And I see WD has a 2 TB drive out...hmm...

[SteveNC]

Hey, they weren't there last week when I updated one of my wish lists...neither was the Seagate. Guess they figured out why the drive controllers were biting it:eek:

And I see WD has a 2 TB drive out...hmm...

I totally agree with you that the 1TB is the most stable and that the 1.5TB drives are questionable :). If the 2TB weren't so expensive....

[-g-]

Sorry to hear that both of your drives failed, but at least you've gotten the data off of it one way or another. What data recovery service did you use, if you don't mind my asking?

I used a local company called Zebra Logic. Picked up the drive last night, now I'm just housecleaning and keeping my fingers crossed!

[shaggymatt]

...and a raid array is *not* a backup...

You hit the nail on the head here. RAID is a storage solution. I'm in Enterprise IT for state government. We have SNAP servers scattered around the state for regional office file servers. They are a glorified DROBO, which have a Linux OS on them, Active Directory permissions can be imported, etc. I had one in a few months ago that had two hard drive failures in the array at the same time. Thankfully, the data was backed up to tape.

Drives can and do fail at the same time. Worst case, you have everything "backed up" to a DROBO. You take a direct lightning strike frying all of your electronics. Your backup is now reliant upon data recovery services to the tune of a couple thousand dollars.

[CyberDyneSystems]

nadtz and shaggy..

Though I understand your point, you need to be more specific.. a RAID array like anything else Can be a back up solution if it is used as one.

The point is redundancy,... if the RAID array is used as part of a back up solution it is just as viable as any current affordable media..
It should not be used as the sole source for data storage, that removes redundancy, and leaves us without actual back up.

Then of course there is "off site" backup, which is the next level and something else we should all consider.

[Wilt]

nadtz and shaggy..

Though I understand your point, you need to be more specific.. a RAID array like anything else Can be a back up solution if it is used as one.

The point is redundancy,... if the RAID array is used as part of a back up solution it is just as viable as any current affordable media..
It should not be used as the sole source for data storage, that removes redundancy, and leaves us without actual back up.

Then of course there is "off site" backup, which is the next level and something else we should all consider.

To this point, RAID is simply 'storage' which can be defined in its usage in several manners...some (but not all) RAIDS have data redundancy built into the RAID, others simply permit random swap in/swap out of certain storage units, others have only the benefit of faster data access due to the manner in which data is written across multiple harddrives.

So you might have a RAID with no data redundancy for data safety from loss. And one person on POTN reported losing all the drives in his RAID because the enclosure fan failed and permitted all the units inside to overheat and destroy themselves!

[SteveNC]

I have an mp3 recording of my DROBO fan blowing air, but that is a valid point of failure.

[joove]

I have never used a drobo before. I have and I think will continue to use readynas products (now netgear).

The things to consider:

The NAS unit itself should be well built, will enough ventilation/cooling and possibly the ability to spin down the drives. It should also be able to shutdown on SMART errors, hardware failure, power failure (must be on UPS) etc.

The drives used should also be so called "Enterprise Quality" drives. Those are rated for higher mechanical and temperature ratings with better tolerances. Are also meant for continuous 24x7 use. Using other drives with looser tolerances might be ok but risky.

Seagate 1TB drives of late have been terrible. The WD enterprise level drives (1TB) are probably a good bet currently. I have two of those in my NAS in XRAID2 (which with two drives is RAID 1).

And yes, in a RAID5 setup, anecdotes/tales/murphy suggest that when on drive fails, the act of rebuilding the array onto a replacement drive is the point where a second drive can fail. Taking a fullbackup of your NAS onto a second NAS or a external harddrive is always a great idea.

You have Synology, Buffalo, Linksys and Readynas/netgear in the mix. Windows Home Server/WHS is also there in the mix but I wouldn't trust them to get things right yet (They tool a whole to fix a data corruption issue when using more than one drive). Some more research is probably called for. On the readynas forums I frequent, the drobo is not talked about much, so I know very little about it.

Whatever you do, always backup your NAS to an offsite location without moisture/dust etc. Any NAS can fail and whether you get support or not, it is ultimately your data on the line. It is highly probable that even the heavy duty corporate NASs also have backups, even if the vendor monitors SMART health remotely and replaces disks at the first sign of trouble. I can certainly envision scenarios where the NAS vendor pushes a firmware upgrade that destroys your data. Extra backup saves the day!! One day!

[nadtz]

nadtz and shaggy..

Though I understand your point, you need to be more specific.. a RAID array like anything else Can be a back up solution if it is used as one.

The point is redundancy,... if the RAID array is used as part of a back up solution it is just as viable as any current affordable media..
It should not be used as the sole source for data storage, that removes redundancy, and leaves us without actual back up.

Then of course there is "off site" backup, which is the next level and something else we should all consider.

The op stated he had data that was inaccessible while the drobo was rebuilding its array, therefore it was being used as a live data. He also stated he had the original media so he had an offline archive, which is better than a lot of people do. I just see this all the time, people rely on a single device (raid or no) for a home or small office environment, and in the worst case of disastrous failure they get upset (which is understandable). In a less than worst case they may still get upset because raid arrays can take substantial time to rebuild depending on the device and the size of the array.

Unfortunately raid for soho has become so popular that best practice has never become the norm for most, as it can raise costs by as much as double, but with the cost of drives now a days it really should be what people do with any critical data.

I'm not saying the op did anything wrong mind you. Many people get by with the same setup, but the information in the first couple of posts could be somewhat misleading to others as 1.5 drives (specifically from Seagate and WD in my experience) have been known to have issues. While the Drobo support people might not acknowledge that, its still (in my recent experience) more likely he has gotten pretty unlucky with the drives than the drobo unit is eating his drives, but without direct access to the hardware it could realistically be either. I just hate to see someones bad luck turn into trashing a product without cause.

The other side of that coin is if I were in the same boat Id be pretty pissed myself, so I do hope the problem gets resolved soonest.

[SteveNC]

So I called them because I feel the need to be a little more proactive about getting customer supported.

I referenced my case with them and they had nothing to add. They had not yet "decoded" the log file that I had sent them 7 minutes after it was requested yesterday. In the 20 hours since it's been sent it has not been decoded and I'm told that they could not do anything else until this is done. The customer support person told me that once tier 1 support decodes and evaluates the log, that "an engineer" (ie. tier 3 support) would ultimately have to take a look at that data. I'm not sure what they hope to find that is different than the log files I sent them after the first and the second drives had failed in the first three days I had the device.

One troubling thing that was mentioned is that they did not think this was conclusive evidence the DROBO was malfunctioning, and that they would have to find such evidence before an RMA could be sent under warranty. The tech said "I have seen multiple drive failures before," but when I asked him if he's ever seen three western digital green drives fail in a row like this he said he's never seen this happen, and reiterated it was not evidence enough for an RMA. I can see how they would call this "inconclusive evidence" of the DROBO being at fault, but to me as a customer with 1.2TB of photos I really don't think they need "conclusive evidence" but rather should consider this evidence enough to show that, the most probable explanation is that the DROBO is at fault. As a customer with this product I would certainly prefer to be given the benefit of the doubt (especially when I think the doubt is so high) to get the process of finding what they need in order to grant an RMA in less than the 5 days it's taken just to get started with the case. From Data Robotics perspective, I was told this is a normal time for a support case such as mine.

What kind of bugs me is that it had not yet been elevated to a tier 2 or a tier 3 level of tech support despite the fact that he's never seen this type of repeated failure. He did say that he would see if his supervisor could get to it today rather than putting me in the queue of cases. I'm glad I called, or else I may have been waiting even longer.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Just to continue with the discussion of the philosophy of backing up, redundancy, and where RAID fits in.....

I think we agree nadtz,

Again, even though some/most RAID solutions offer some form of redundancy within the array, we need to look at that duplication as only a means to maintain one instance of data storage, not as a back up of it self.

ie< A mirrored RAID 1 array,.. consider it ONE volume only, not a pair..
The Mirroring is not a "back up" .. for many reasons, most already stated in posts in this thread. The benefit of RAID 1 as a single volume is that if a drive fails, a single drive, you can still keep working on the other drive immediately, and rebuild goes quickly. The only added level of safety RAID 1 on it's own can offer is that when one HD fails you can keep working, but that second HD can not be considered a back up, as it can be taken out in the same instance that the first could .. electrical surge, controller failure, or you simply making a mistake and deleting something you shouldn't

If you can not afford to consider a RAID array as only one step in your back up regiment, than the chances are that RAID is likely not the best option for you.

My preferred use of RAID on a data sensitive system is to have the internal drives, ie: primary storage be a RAID 1 array.
Again, so that if you get the inevitable hard drive failure at a bad time, you can keep working or finish your back up without stopping.

But this internal RAID 1 array should not be considered any differently than a single internal hard drive as far as you back up regiment is concerned.

[SteveNC]

I just hate to see someones bad luck turn into trashing a product without cause. The other side of that coin is if I were in the same boat Id be pretty pissed myself, so I do hope the problem gets resolved soonest.

I appreciate you having considered my perspective in this issue and I'm trying to see the company's perspective myself. However, I really think I've been more objective than subjective in my posts, posting factual information where possible, and clearly pointing out where my opinion comes into the equation. If I'm out of line with my statements I would hope people would point it out. I think people should be aware of my experience when considering this product. I had the impression of this being the "ultimate" photographer's storage solution, and I did not anticipate this experience.

[5Dmaniac]

You should send them a link to this discussion - this type of (non) customer service is just not acceptable. One thing is for sure, I will NEVER buy a Drobo system - not because it failed on you but because the incompetence of the people you are dealing with at Drobo. I had issues with an EPSON 2400 printer 2 years ago. I called Epson, talked to a customer rep and two days later I had a new unit sitting at my door.

[SteveNC]

You should send them a link to this discussion - this type of (non) customer service is just not acceptable. One thing is for sure, I will NEVER buy a Drobo system - not because it failed on you but because the incompetence of the people you are dealing with at Drobo. I had issues with an EPSON 2400 printer 2 years ago. I called Epson, talked to a customer rep and two days later I had a new unit sitting at my door.

I just did. I also asked them to look this thread over for any faulty information that I may have inadvertently provided in my OP or otherwise, so this information should be correct if they took the time to do so.

[CyberDyneSystems]

....

What kind of bugs me is that it had not yet been elevated to a tier 2 or a tier 3 level of tech support despite the fact that he's never seen this type of repeated failure. He did say that he would see if his supervisor could get to it today rather than putting me in the queue of cases. I'm glad I called, or else I may have been waiting even longer.

glad to see some motion, though I agree at this point they should be ready to step up to the plate completely.

Customer service has to include knowing when to step out of engineer mode and start looking at reasonable probabilities.. and more, when to stop worrying about even that, and focus on keeping a customer happy.

I've been down this road myself, with Canon in fact,. and sometimes they need a little (or large) nudge to get them to stop thinking about "tech support" and start thinking about "Customer support".

Good luck!

[SteveNC]

After making the mistake of thinking this to be the ultimate *backup* solution--I took out an account with Mozy for unlimited online storage backup. About $87 for 27 months ($3/month).
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=704003

Another note as to why I think this is just unacceptable -- I thought I heard my Seagate 1.5TB drive click a few times (unrelated to the DROBO, though I was admittedly a little more paranoid). I wasn't sure so I logged onto seagate's website to see what I should do. Then I read the no questions asked warranty return policy and RMA process. I submitted a form without even a space for me to describe the reason for my return. I got an RMA number sent immediately with detailed return instructions, I sent the drive back and I got a new one shipped out to me (with tracking number) in the time it took Data Robotics to simply send a first response to my request for support. Granted, this is SEAGATE and they have known issues with their drives (so this is a skewed experience), but having gone through such a simple process to what happened in this thread, I was that much more disappointed.

Update: Another person called and looked at the log file in the first 30 seconds of the phone call. She indicated the three hard drives were at fault, though I'm not sure how one can tell from a log file created by the DROBO. She agreed to RMA the unit despite this. Initially wanted to give a refurb'ed model (as is standard practice with warranties) but agreed to give a brand new unit. This person was IMO quite unfriendly in tone about the whole situation from the start of the conversation, and I was given the distinct impression that I "forced" them to warrantee the unit. I really feel uncomfortable about it. After this giant ordeal, I hope I do not experience the same failures with the replacement unit.

[Balliolman]

Why are Drobo being such prawns over your faulty unit? :confused:

[MDJAK]

I say boycott Drobo. That plain sucks.

CDS, your method lacks on one important aspect, something you even say we should consider. You can have all the drives in the world mirroring your storage, but if they are all at home, what's the good in the event of a fire, etc?

Off site is imperative if your photos are that important, not something merely to be considered.

me

[SteveNC]

I say boycott Drobo. That plain sucks.

CDS, your method lacks on one important aspect, something you even say we should consider. You can have all the drives in the world mirroring your storage, but if they are all at home, what's the good in the event of a fire, etc?

Off site is imperative if your photos are that important, not something merely to be considered.

me

For me this is actually the most difficult part. As I mentioned I'm uploading files to Mozy's online service. I considered storing drives or DVDs in safety deposit boxes, but can you really count on a drive that's been sitting in a box for 10 years to start back up on-demand? For example, I don't think I could trust a drive I stored in a safety deposit box back in 1999 if I were to have a client ask me for some photos I took 10 years ago. Old CDs from '99 might not be readable by today's CD-ROM drives, or they may have grown fungus. Lots of things to consider depending on your philosophy, needs, and priorities. Online was the way to go for me. There's other solutions and each will satisfy different folks, my comment here is just the tip of the iceberg.

[-g-]

Then of course there is "off site" backup, which is the next level and something else we should all consider.

After making the mistake of thinking this to be the ultimate *backup* solution--I took out an account with Mozy for unlimited online storage backup. About $87 for 27 months ($3/month).
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=704003


I tried this route and gave up after 4 days with about 2 gigs of 47 gigs uploaded. That was before I got the 750 gigs of my data back from the data resore yesterday.

Is Mozy any faster?

[morpheus6d9]

have you tried testing the failed drives in another computer using dft ?

[dan j]

I tried this route and gave up after 4 days with about 2 gigs of 47 gigs uploaded. That was before I got the 750 gigs of my data back from the data resore yesterday.

Is Mozy any faster?
I don't think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Mozy has anything to do with it. Upload/download speed is based on the package you went with for your ISP. If there was a solution I wish they'd incorporate it into my FTP ;)

dan

[Jon]

I don't think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Mozy has anything to do with it. Upload/download speed is based on the package you went with for your ISP. If there was a solution I wish they'd incorporate it into my FTP ;)

dan
Well that would be averaging 47Kb/sec, which is pretty slow for anything other than dial-up even if there was other normal web activity going on during some of the day.

[-g-]

Well that would be averaging 47Kb/sec, which is pretty slow for anything other than dial-up even if there was other normal web activity going on during some of the day.

Just ran the speedtest at Speakeasy.net using their closest server.

Download Speed: 16655 kbps (2081.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 977 kbps (122.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

[Jon]

I tried this route and gave up after 4 days with about 2 gigs of 47 gigs uploaded. That was before I got the 750 gigs of my data back from the data resore yesterday.

Is Mozy any faster?

I don't think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Mozy has anything to do with it. Upload/download speed is based on the package you went with for your ISP. If there was a solution I wish they'd incorporate it into my FTP ;)

dan

Well that would be averaging 47Kb/sec, which is pretty slow for anything other than dial-up even if there was other normal web activity going on during some of the day.

Just ran the speedtest at Speakeasy.net using their closest server.

Download Speed: 16655 kbps (2081.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 977 kbps (122.1 KB/sec transfer rate)Sure sounds like the storage site can't handle the load then . . .

[zerovision]

I have had a 500GB WD external HD fail. I have been buying WD for years and I currently have two portable WD drives I use for my Macbook Pro. I have been thinking about getting an HP MediaSmart Server EX485 or EX487 as these servers allow you to put third party drives in. I would also like to find one that is hot swap, but not outrageous in price.

Good luck, I now know not to buy a DROBO.

[dan j]

Well that would be averaging 47Kb/sec, which is pretty slow for anything other than dial-up even if there was other normal web activity going on during some of the day.
Yes, his connection was very slow for some reason.

I spoke to an IT friend today who said upload speed is limited by ISP so they can sell high-speed connections. Everyone wants the fastest DL speed possible, but how many folks upload large amounts of data from their home?

Does Mozy allow you to send them a DVD they could download into your account? Sending a box of DVD's via snail mail would still be faster than uploading them ;)

dan

[SteveNC]

I tried this route and gave up after 4 days with about 2 gigs of 47 gigs uploaded. That was before I got the 750 gigs of my data back from the data resore yesterday.

Is Mozy any faster?

I clocked my ISP upload speed and it is using all available bandwidth (about 200-300kbs). It's going to take quite some time to back everything up. However, this is my third (tertiary) backup method, and as such it is relatively unlikely to be used. It is the last resort to protect against the dreaded catastrophic failure (hurricane, lightning strike, fire). So, I don't mind waiting for the backup to complete, and since I can schedule it to do nightly "differential" backups; that is, only portions of your files that have changed since the last time they were backed up are uploaded once the initial backup is complete.

Having said that, last night there was a lightning strike about two houses down from me. Yeah, when I heard the thunder-smack BOOM!! :shock::shock::shock::shock::shock: I was worried. Computer was all good, but both my cable TV and internet went out. The amplifier on the street was fried; could have easily been a problem that I would not have been protected against. Last summer we had a hurricane blow through here and I was kayaking in my front yard. Things happen...

have you tried testing the failed drives in another computer using dft ?

I haven't but I should have. (I sent them back to Newegg as RMAs to get refunds already, which was not a hassle at all).

[SteveNC]

PS. here is a Tom's Hardware review of Mozy (Tom's is widely considered a benchmark for quality computer reviews): http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/storage-online,1706-9.html

[Jon]

Yes, his connection was very slow for some reason.

I spoke to an IT friend today who said upload speed is limited by ISP so they can sell high-speed connections. Everyone wants the fastest DL speed possible, but how many folks upload large amounts of data from their home?

Does Mozy allow you to send them a DVD they could download into your account? Sending a box of DVD's via snail mail would still be faster than uploading them ;)

danBandwidth constraints may occur anywhere along the path between client and server. It's entirely possible that his on-line data service has saturated their bandwidth due to multiple new sign-ups.

[nadtz]

Yes, his connection was very slow for some reason.

I spoke to an IT friend today who said upload speed is limited by ISP so they can sell high-speed connections.
dan<snip>

Your IT friend didn't explain it well, ISP's charge more for connections with faster upload speed because it directly costs them money. Yes the end result is a higher cost to the consumer, but that is because it costs the ISP in outbound traffic.

[5Dmaniac]

I tried online storgae as well by uploading image files, but I quickly gave up because of the very slooooooow upload speeds. I have 1TB of image files and it would take forever to get them uploaded. I just use additional external harddrives now and back them up every evening when the computer shuts down.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I say boycott Drobo. That plain sucks.

CDS, your method lacks on one important aspect, something you even say we should consider. You can have all the drives in the world mirroring your storage, but if they are all at home, what's the good in the event of a fire, etc?

Off site is imperative if your photos are that important, not something merely to be considered.

me

What makes you think I don't have one of the many external drives I listed "off site" ?

I'm typing this from Work, where from my desk I can see the cabinet in which one of the Seagate Freagent's resides..

[minhi]

I tried online storgae as well by uploading image files, but I quickly gave up because of the very slooooooow upload speeds. I have 1TB of image files and it would take forever to get them uploaded. I just use additional external harddrives now and back them up every evening when the computer shuts down.

to get over this i know that amazon s3 will allow you to ship them a USB drive to build your first copy. but i think their prices are quite a bit higher then mozy for example. i don't know if mozy supports this.

[shaggymatt]

I tried this route and gave up after 4 days with about 2 gigs of 47 gigs uploaded. That was before I got the 750 gigs of my data back from the data resore yesterday.

Is Mozy any faster?

I researched Mozy quite heavily, and had an online conversation with Steve in the Marketplace forum about this.

This isn't something that they openly advertise, or state anywhere, but the Home package is limited to a connection speed of 1mb/s inbound. If you get the business package, you are limited by your ISP speed. Unless you're on dialup or slower DSL you will surpass their upload speed limitation pretty easily.

[ocabj]

I've been trying to go through this thread and didn't see a description of what the individual drive failure entailed. What exactly happened to the 'failed' drive when it the failure was detected? Does it no power up anymore? Doesn't spin? After you pulled the 'failed' drive from the DROBO, did you try checking the disk in a standalone computer using the manufacturer disk utilities to run SMART checks on it?

It's a lot easier to troubleshoot where the problem is occurring if you can isolate what the resulting failure is. If the drive 'fails' in the DROBO and you yank it, run checks on it, low level it, and there are no bad blocks or SMART errors thrown, and put it back in the DROBO and it fails again then you know it's not the drive.

Then you can begin determining if it's the DROBO itself, or cabling.

As far as RAID, RAID is an excellent method for insuring data retention. It's not fool proof, but if you plan for contingencies, RAID is useful. The people who remark that you can't access data on the disks in a RAID5 (or similar design such as the DROBO), yes that's true. But you're getting N-1 disk utilization vs N/2 in a mirrored RAID system. You have to balance cost-benefit ratio to see if RAID5 will work for you.

For pure redundancy, RAID1 is the way to go. It's simple and it works. You lose a bit of I/O performance in writes, and you gain nothing in reads, but it works.

But in *ANY* RAID setup, you *NEED* to have a hot-spare hard drive laying around. If a drive in a RAID failure setup goes down, just because it's a mirrored stripe and the other one is working, doesn't mean you should wait a day for a new drive to come in. You should replace the failed drive immediately.

[-g-]

I'm typing this from Work, where from my desk I can see the cabinet in which one of the Seagate Freagent's resides..

Have you checked IN the cabinet today? :lol:

[SteveNC]

I forgot to send one of the three drives that failed back to Newegg, so before I sent it off I placed it along with the other functional drive, into a new DROBO. The failed drive still registered as a failed drive. I didn't try to do any disk checks before ejecting it and sending it back to Newegg.

One thing that is interesting to note, the power supply is different on this unit. In addition, the springs don't work, so I can't eject the drives without having to stick a metal rod through the rear of the device, through the fan, to push the drive out manually. Also, the fan on this unit sounds quite different than the fan on the previous unit which was loud and would make strange noises. This very well could have been the source of the problem; however, the irony is that after after the second drive failed, I made mp3 recordings of the fan and sent them to Data Robotics and specifically asked them if it could be a problem. I assumed it was normal since they reassured me that since my third replacement drive was working, everything is fine, and closed the case.

Since I sold the replacement DROBO and re-bought a new one from J&R, now I'm dealing with J&R, who issued an RMA# in about 38 seconds when I mentioned the spring issue.

[Dan-o]

I've always judged a company by how they solve a problem not that there was one. With a product with that kind of price tag they should have handled it a lot better. How many sales did they loose from this thread? Not because one of there units did or did not have a problem, but because of poor customer service.

[Village_Idiot]

I have a HP Media Smart Server with a 750gb drive and a 1tb drive running Windows Home Server. It's very user friendly and can be accessed from anywhere. It holds up to 4 drives and can attach another with an E-SATA port.

It's probably the easiest and most convenient storage solution I've ever used. If you're still having problems with the DROBO, you should look at maybe returning it and checking out this option.

[morpheus6d9]

since you havent tested the hdds i cant agree that drobo gets full blame you got ppl scared to buy a drobo now

[SteveNC]

since you havent tested the hdds i cant agree that drobo gets full blame you got ppl scared to buy a drobo now

I think folks can judge for themselves after reading this thread. I for one am scared not because I think the DROBO failed (though that is part of it), but more importantly because I know that I may be in limbo for 5-7 days by the time I get help with an expensive device that was designed to reassure. The concept that there is a 5% * 5% * 5% = 0.0125% chance that three WD drives failed independently of the DROBO is really an aside to that main point.

I have a HP Media Smart Server with a 750gb drive and a 1tb drive running Windows Home Server. It's very user friendly and can be accessed from anywhere. It holds up to 4 drives and can attach another with an E-SATA port.

It's probably the easiest and most convenient storage solution I've ever used. If you're still having problems with the DROBO, you should look at maybe returning it and checking out this option.

Is the HP Media Smart Server a RAID # device?

[SteveNC]

Update: The array took 25 hours to rebuild, and I'm happy to report that there were no errors during this time. A big relief since the data was unprotected during this process. Now I'm offloading everything onto another drive so I can RMA the unit (faulty spring issue) and retain access to my data while the DROBO is shipped back.

[narlus]

WD 1.5tb green drives have some known issues with failure and a raid array is *not* a backup.

if RAID is not a backup, then what is? isn't that whole point, redundant data?

[morpheus6d9]

if RAID is not a backup, then what is? isn't that whole point, redundant data?

thats the misconception most people think raid is a back up when its really not

[narlus]

well i just read CDS' posts on page 1 and have a clearer idea. but damn, what a problem, esp now that my 5D2 pumps out 25MB RAW files. i need to be *way* more judicious in culling keepers.

[Halliday]

I love the IDEA of the Drobo, but it's stories like this that reassure me that I will never buy one.

[Balliolman]

DROBO need settle this issue pronto.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Both of you seem to be missing the point about customer service..

You also both seem to have missed the part about what a DROBO does with data in it's array.
One can NOT take an HD out of a DROBO and plug it into a PC to retrieve the data.. the bits and bytes on any HD will be unreadable nonsense..

So your on;y would be to low lever format and see if the drives work then,,
And what would this prove?

If the drives function after wiping the DROBO partitions and format, then this = DROBO at fault 100%
If the drives don't function at all, or if they contain irrecoverable sector errors? How do we know that with three drives out of 3 that it wasn't the DROBO that caused these failures?

We can't until the DROBO unit itself is checked out.. which only DROBO can do.
DROBO needed to step up to investigate this from the get go as nothing the user did to waster his own time could solve the source of the issue.

More importantly, none of your trouble shooting suggestions are what the customer should have to go through when asking for customer support from the manufacturer.

The company that keeps it's customers is the one that will take the onus on themselves to solve the problem. People that think otherwise are part of why customer service keeps getting worse and worse, the companies are aware of the relaxing attitudes and take advantage.

Again, the issue is not whether or not the DROBO has failed,. ( every product will have failures. period. ) but rather what the company was willing to do, and how willing they were, to solve the problem.


since you havent tested the hdds i cant agree that drobo gets full blame you got ppl scared to buy a drobo now

I've been trying to go through this thread and didn't see a description of what the individual drive failure entailed. ....


Lastly, to those that keep saying "RAID is not a back up solution... "

Have you looked at DROBO's marketing?
Have you read what they say about the product?

Lines like;

"Consolidate Your Storage
Avoid the danger, mess, and hassle of multiple external storage "solutions" and upgrade to Drobo, with the world's only safe, expandable storage technology."

"As long as you have more than a single disk in Drobo, all data on Drobo is safe no matter which hard disk fails."

" There’s no need to worry about anything else."

...certainly seem to indicate that DROBO is positioning itself as the only form of data storage you need.

[Balliolman]

Which, as you point out, CDS, is why the non-technical find the assurances of Drobo and its product appealing. As a DROBO owner I will be highly unimpressed if the company does not do the right thing for Steve!

[Village_Idiot]

I think folks can judge for themselves after reading this thread. I for one am scared not because I think the DROBO failed (though that is part of it), but more importantly because I know that I may be in limbo for 5-7 days by the time I get help with an expensive device that was designed to reassure. The concept that there is a 5% * 5% * 5% = 0.0125% chance that three WD drives failed independently of the DROBO is really an aside to that main point.



Is the HP Media Smart Server a RAID # device?

Essentially, but not in the traditional way. You stick a drive in, right click on it, and select add drive to storage pool. Then you can right click on folders and select duplication, that way if one drive fails, you lose nothing. WHS take care of everything for you so you do not have to set anything up or maintain anything. It's a "dumbed down" version of Windows Server. You can still get to some of the more advanced functions, but basic setup is very quick and easy and then it runs and that's it.

[Swaffs]

Some interetsing threads in here, not meaniung to drift to far OT, I have decided to go for the foloowing device:

http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/SQA-5H.html
http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/SQA_main.jpg


PC Pro gave it an excellent review:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/241623/tranquil-pc-sqa5h-home-server.html

I'll stick to Windows, as It's what I know and have lots of desktop/laptops in the house!

[Wilt]

Some interetsing threads in here, not meaniung to drift to far OT, I have decided to go for the foloowing device:

http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/SQA-5H.html
http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/SQA_main.jpg


PC Pro gave it an excellent review:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/241623/tranquil-pc-sqa5h-home-server.html

I'll stick to Windows, as It's what I know and have lots of desktop/laptops in the house!

Above is simply a 'remote storage device' ('server'), not a 'ability to operate in spite of defective drive' (RAID 1 or 5)

[SteveNC]

Looks like a sound equalizer! :)

[Swaffs]

Above is simply a 'remote storage device' ('server'), not a 'ability to operate in spite of defective drive' (RAID 1 or 5)

Of course it's not.

It's a Windows server, so can be configured as required, with Windows readable HDD's, not some unknown bespoke file system.

It will support anything from Raid 0 to 10.

And the coloured removable tabs are to identify multiple configurations (mirrored pairs etc.).

a colleague of mine takes delivery of one this week, so I will see how he gets on (we were both contemplating ordering Drobo's)

[SteveNC]

Thank you CDS for your articulate post; expresses my thoughts throughout this ordeal precisely.

[SteveNC]

I will give it to Data Robotics, they are trying to improve. I filled out a survey, and honestly never thought anyone would respond to it, but I received a call from DroboCare by telephone. Sounded like they really wanted to figure out what was going on. Interesting to note that the power supply on this second DROBO is rated for 80 watts whereas the previous supply was rated 90watts (ie. I got an older power supply with my unit from J&R). Data Robotics is sending me the newer 90watt power supply. Also, they fixed my spring issue over the telephone, so I won't be RMAing to J&R after all.

I copied this thread to this person at Data Robotics to give him a better idea of what happened in this long saga. It was hard to recount all of this saga on the phone...

Something that I did think was weird was that he wasn't sure if WD 1.5TB Green drives were "approved" by Data Robotics to use in their DROBO units. This is wierd because he's a DroboCare support person and he's also listed as a product engineer. Data Robotics also bundles other WD Greens with their DROBO units. Perhaps it's just the 1.5TB size that's not approved, but either way he should know these things.

[SteveNC]

From Data Robotics Engineer / DroboCare email:
Hello Steve,



Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me earlier today regarding your experience with Drobo Customer Support. As I promised on the phone, I went back and reviewed your diagnostic files and as far as I can tell the Drobo was actually performing as designed. As it hit the established error thresholds on each drive, it kicked out (i.e. expunged) these disk drives from the array and refused to allow them to be re-added back in.

WD-WCAVY0081533 WDCWD15EADS-00R6B0 01.00A01 (Added 6/4)

=> slot : 1



WD-WCAUP0013525 WDCWD15EADS-00H7B0 05.00K05 (Added 5/22)

=> slot : 3



WD-WCAUP0020619 WDCWD15EADS-00R6B0 01.00A01 (Added 5/19) – (Expunged 5/20)

=> slot : [NOT PHYSICALLY PRESENT]



WD-WCAUP0001577 WDCWD15EADS-00R6B0 01.00A01 (Added 5/19) – (Expunged 5/24)

=> slot : [NOT PHYSICALLY PRESENT]



WD-WCAVY0206655 WDCWD15EADS-00R6B0 01.00A01 (Added 5/29) – (Expunged 6/4)

=> slot : [NOT PHYSICALLY PRESENT]



9VS0QFHH ST31500341AS CC1J (Added 5/24) – (Removed 6/1)

=> slot : [NOT PHYSICALLY PRESENT]


The feedback from other posters to your thread seems to echo the fact that there others out there who have also experienced problems with WD 1.5TB hard drives, so there appears to be a trend.



As for the fan noise, it is hard to say what was causing that, but there were not OVER TEMP conditions reported. From the recordings you sent in though, it sounds like it could be a bad bearing. In either case a noisy fan is not a good thing, so it is good that the unit was replaced. none of them showed any problems in relation to the Drobo hitting any sort of OVER TEMP condition, but it does look like you Drobo is pretty full at the moment, so adding another drive soon would be advised.



Finally, as stated on the phone, I will send you a 90W power supply. Is the address listed below still a good daytime shipping address?


Of all the WD 1.5TB drives that reported errors in the Drobo, the one that is currently in third slot from the top has had the fewest errors reported against it (1 so far). The other three WD 1.5 TB drives all had enough errors recorded to be expunged. Coincidentally, these three drives were all running the same level of firmware (01.00A01) and this firmware is different than the what is being used on the one of the other remaining WD 1.5TB hard drives (05.00K05), so there may be a correlation to the errors and the level of firmware being used. Though the drive in the top slot hasn’t had any errors reported against it yet, I would keep an eye on it since it is also running the 01.00A01 firmware.



Please feel free to call me if you have any question and/or run any problems in the future!



Best regards,

<name removed>
Product Support Engineer

Available: Monday – Friday

9:00am - 6:00pm Pacific Time

[tim]

"Product support engineer" can be a fancy title for tech support. "Product engineer" would suggest they were one of the people that created it, which is probably who would look at the really difficult problems.

I'd suggest you try another brand of hard drive, Seagate work well for me, or at least another model of WD drive if you're set on them.

[SteveNC]

Are you using the 1.5T Seagates?

[tim]

I have two 1TB Seagates, one 1.5TB Seagate in an enclosure, all SATA, all less than a year old. They all just work.

[Village_Idiot]

I had people reccomend that I not buy 1.5TB drives as they seem to have a higher failure rate. I have no evidence to back up the claim though.

[SteveNC]

^^ that seems to be what the Data Robotics rep was implying on the phone, in not so many words.

[Nemesismachine]

Yeah, it's those drives. I had 3 DOA from newegg. The caviar green 1.5TB wouldn't format past 73% on the full 1.3TB (usable), and wouldn't make seperate partitions. GARBAGE.

I went with 2 caviar black 1TB drives and they work like gangbusters.

[tim]

^^ that seems to be what the Data Robotics rep was implying on the phone, in not so many words.

That the 1.5T Seagate drives produced lots of errors? I've used Seagate exclusively for about 8 years, I haven't had one fail yet, but I tend to retire them after 3-5 years as my capacity needs increase.

[Village_Idiot]

That the 1.5T Seagate drives produced lots of errors? I've used Seagate exclusively for about 8 years, I haven't had one fail yet, but I tend to retire them after 3-5 years as my capacity needs increase.

The 1.5's in general?

[tim]

I was talking about all Seagate drives - the ones i've had have just worked. All drives fail eventually though.

[Village_Idiot]

I was talking about all Seagate drives - the ones i've had have just worked. All drives fail eventually though.

I was talking about all 1.5TB drives. If you go to newegg or tiger direct, it seems they have a higher rate of complaints than the 1TB drives.

[SteveNC]

The problem now is that 1.5T are the most economical, 2TB are very expensive. I may have to just use 1TB drives until the 2TB size comes down.

[-g-]

NCIX.com has just put WD 1TB Caviar Green drives on sale for $80 Canadian.

[tim]

I was talking about all 1.5TB drives. If you go to newegg or tiger direct, it seems they have a higher rate of complaints than the 1TB drives.

People love to complain.

[clicktor]

thats the misconception most people think raid is a back up when its really not

Well i wouldn't put it in such a harsh context as that.
RAID is a backup solution. It's just that it's more an "uptime" backup solution. i.e. One that maintains uptime of an array and is convenient in keeping data available.
One shouldn't rely on just RAID and it is always recommended to keep a full offline backup to external media outside of an array/system.

[clicktor]

So is the conclusion that the DROBO was at fault? I'd put quite a lot of money on it not being 3 drives that all failed independently at the same time. That is extremely unlikely.

[morpheus6d9]

So is the conclusion that the DROBO was at fault? I'd put quite a lot of money on it not being 3 drives that all failed independently at the same time. That is extremely unlikely.

ive seen alot worse from bigger companies but their customer service is top notch