Drobo Mini

I finaly received the Drobo Mini a few of months ago after pre-ordering it back in April, 2012. It was released six months later after two prior delays in October 2012.

The Drobo Mini has USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt output ports on the rear of the unit. It also has a locking power supply jack in back. This is to prevent accidental power disconnection during data transfer to or from the drives.

All the required cables are included inside the box. You'll find a USB 3.0 cable, a Thunderbolt cable, and AC plug and power supply. Another neat surprise is that the Drobo unit itself comes wrapped in a silk type clothe with the "Drobo" logo on top.

The Drobo unit has a rubberized enclosure with two internal fans to keep the hard drives (not included), up to four (4) running cool. The fans are surprisingly quiet. I've yet to hear them.

My weekly backup workflow consist of backing up the 2-Teribyte, WD My Passport Ultra to the Drobo Mini. Then I backup the Drobo Mini to the D-Link NAS, and finally the D-Link NAS is backed up to the Drobo 5N (I know is seems like overkill, but it gives me piece of mind).

 I also purchased the custom carrying case to keep everything nice and tidy and prevent dust from entering the unit when traveling.

Inside the case there are partitioned compartments for the Drobo unit, power supply, AC cable, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt cables.

 Favoring the Western Digital brand I purchased 4 - 1.0 TB 2.5" hard drives to install in the Drobo Mini. It can accommodate 4 - 4.0 TB  2.5" hard drives (when they become available) for a total of 16 TB of storage. Pretty impressive for something so small.

My backup software of choice is Backup4all Professional. I have been using it for a couple of years and have had no problems. On my desktop it backs up my photos to two different NAS (read about Network Accessed Storage and protecting your photos here.) systems. Once set-up, it becomes a one click process to backup, verify and store your files to any internal or external hard drive, Network, FTP or online backup site. It's available as an online download here.

Posted from my iPad