Over a year ago Data Robotics burst onto the scene with an external hard drive storage solution that address the big issues that users of external storage have—capacity and data security. The Drobo wasn’t the cheapest solution out there, but the storage capacity could be continually increased by swapping SATA drives as needed without risking data on the RAID array.

The second generation Drobo storage system has all of the features that the original had like four hot swappable drive bays that will work with any brand and capacity SATA hard drive. The new Drobo also has the RAID data protection capability and shares the original Drobo’s tolerance for drive failure without damaging the data on the RAID array.

What the second generation Drobo adds that the original Drobo didn’t have is dual FireWire 800 ports and more USB performance. Enhancements also include a new core processor and optimized firmware. The new Drobo supports up to 16TB of storage and only needs one USB port to connect to your computer. The second generation Drobo retails for $499 without drives, with 2TB of storage it retails for $899 and for 4TB of storage it retails for $1299.

Data Robotics