Drobo storage robot is "self-aware"
Drobo is a storage robot with four hard disk slots, which it manages as one enormous drive. If you insert an 80 gig SATA, a 250 gig SATA, and a 110 gig EIDE, it will handle them all as one continuous (counts on fingers) 440 gig external drive accessible via USB 2.0. Drives are hot-swappable and no tools are involved: open the case and pop in the new storage. It also detects if a drive is failing and does what it can about it. It states the entire storage pool is “protected” and in general that Drobo is “self-aware”. It’s not clear precisely how Drobo “protects” your data or is “self-aware”, but considering some of the data I have that I’d like “protected”, my storage being “self-aware” might be a fate worse than electron death. $699. [GT]
Drobo [via Engadget]
