Drobo Sale

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hey Guys - Drobos are on sale with and without disk!

 

http://www.drobo.com/offer/

 

 

[RHA]

The new Drobo arrived today. I bit the bullet and got 4 TB. Setting it up was a snap. The Drobo user guide says that USB limits any single "pool" of data to 2 TB. I have 2 Drobo icons showing on the desktop. I named them 1 & 2. Should I just leave them both named Drobo? As they get filled up is this different name going to cause a confusion within iTunes? I have delayed moving my iTunes library from the Firewire HD where they are now to the Drobo because I don't want to screw things up... Peter principle. Advice? Thanks again for the Drobo lead. I think I'm going to like it! Cheers, Rod

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hey Rod - There is so much information on this topic and I honestly don't think I have seen a straight forward answer. Since this is a USB limitation I would connect it to a network router when possible. This make the full 4 TB available as one volume.

 

You can leave them names 1 & 2 and have iTunes span the volumes when one gets full if you want. The only thing you lose there is the ability to use the consolidate library function which is not used often anyway. Your choice. It will work either way (1 network volume or 2 USB volumes).

 

[Innertuber]

Aww c'mon give em names. I named mine iTunaFish. How bout Drobolator, DroboTheHobo, ObDrob and HobNob ... Didn't I read somewhere that DRobotix updated a firmware fix that solved the 2tb issue? Maybe it was a fantasy ... or was that me stranded on an island with Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson?

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Nice to have a sense of humor back on the site George!

 

I read it in a few different places last night. Some threads on the Drobospace forums do say the 2 TB limit is fixed with a firmware update but nobody seems to have the 100% definitive answer.

 

[Innertuber]

Thanks - we took a break and escaped.

 

That's kinda the Drobo story, but I like mine. It can be a little persnickedy once in a while, but it sure is easy.

 

[RHA]

Yes, I should have been more creative... maybe Drobodacious and Drobolicious?

 

Six and a half hours later my 335 Gb library is finally on the Drobo (51.5 Gb/hr). Is that about average? Everything went smoothly but definitely took some time.

 

Chris, I reread your post on One iTunes Library Multiple Hard Drives and finally understand what you're saying. I think that will work as well as connecting to the AEBS. Anyway I contacted Drobo support and share their response when I get an answer. It would be nice if they get a firmware workaround.

 

Cheers, Rod

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Cool, let us know what they say.

 

[Innertuber]

Much better names. It's easy to rename, I think you just right click and rename it on the little icon. I always wonder if people around my hood wonder who in the heck names their wireless network TuneAFish? Much better than 4TJf9Z!

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

There are some good ones in my neighborhood as well.

 

Default

Lynksys

Netgear

Apple_network_70_b

 

[RHA]

I finally heard back from Drobo support. Funny thing though... I heard back from their Support Satisfaction Survey reporting my question had been resolved about 1/2 hour before their actual answer arrived. Anyway this is what Drobo Support said:

 

I see your trying to get your Itunes library setup on your Drobo. Now the reason the Drobo formats its drives into 2 volumes is because most commonplace OS have a 2TB limit per volume. And you have more then 2TB of space available for writing in your Drobo. If you are running one of the fallowing OS you can go into dashboard and reformat make that setting higher as long as the Drobo is directly attached; Windows Vista (all versions) Mac OSX (v10.5.0+) and Windows server (2003+). If not then I suggest you leave it alone and put your Itunes directory on the main drive (2TB) and use the other for other storage it will be only (700GB).

 

I wrote back to clarify how to change the space allowance setting. I didn't see any option like that when I originally formatted the disk. I haven't heard back. Also I'm sure reformatting will wipe out the 6 1/2 hours of transferring my iTunes to Drobo. So be it if that's what it takes. Chris, are you aware how to change that setting? Cheers, Rod

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Ah yes, more information about this interesting topic and this new info is different from what is on the Drobo or Drobospace websites!

 

I agree that it's worth it to reformat so you can get everything right from the start. When you format the Drobo what file system are you selecting? HFS+ should allow you to go over 2 TB if you have OS X Leopard. If the Drobo dashboard lets you go over 2 TB but OSX does not then we'll have to look in Disk Utility to see if we can format everything into one drive.

 

Let me know where you are at with this. I have some strange feeling that I'll be calling Drobo to get a 100% solid answer.

 

[RHA]

After 6 days of waiting for a response from Drobo I decided to bite the bullet and try the reformat suggestion even if it would wipe out all previous transfers. Sure enough a screen came up showing the size of my HD and stating that it would be formatted as 2 TB drives and then asking if I wanted to format at a different size. I increased the slider to 4 TB and sure enough everything worked as planned. I don't think this will work though if you are incrementally adding drives as space is needed. Hope this helps. Cheers,

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Very cool! Thanks for the update.

 

[Innertuber]

I assume it wiped the data?

 

[RHA]

Yup! But it gave me an incentive to remove some old recordings of AAC and reinstall as AIFF, and to redo some vinyl recordings that had been previously downloaded at 16/44.1 and redo at 24/96. Takes more time but my library is getting better organized. I think it's a better solution. Cheers,