New Toys
Everyday I am completely amazed by computers. I am reminded of that quote that goes like this, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Yes, computers are magic people. And taking computer organization in college (where you learn how the magic happens) didn't change that belief one bit.
They are magic!
That is unless they don't work. And then they are pieces of shit that you want to fling across the room.
(Now, in defence of computers, the story I am about to relate to you is entirely my own fault (as you shall see), and computers really are magic)
For my birthday I received some funds, so, I decided to buy a Drobo.
What is a Drobo? Well, it is a little hard to describe. This article does a pretty good job capturing how amazing they are but doesn't do a great job of explaining them. Basically, a Drobo holds other hard drives and makes it so they act like one hard drive. Now, I currently have four external hard drives, which makes plugging them in and what not a pain. So certainly having just 1 cord to plug in would be great. But the Drobo also stores your data on the drives in a way so that if one of the hard drives fails, your data is still safe! But it gets even better: unlike a RAID (don't ask, computer sciency thing) if you ever need more space just take out one of the hard drives and put in a bigger one. The drobo will magically sync all your data to that drive and you are good to go. You have more space! So, basically, I have been very excited about getting a Drobo.
What follows are a series of really moronic assumptions on my part.
Well, on the Drobo website when they offer to sell you one, you have a couple options. The two cheapest are:
- A Drobo
- A Drobo with two 1TB hard drives
I for some reason saw option 2 and assumed that since option two came with two drives that option one would come with one drive. Instead of buying my Drobo through the Drobo website I bought mine on Amazon because they also had a sweet deal on a hard drive. So, I bought a Drobo (which I thought was coming with a hard drive) and a hard drive.
Well, when the Drobo arrived today (after much twiddling of the thumbs and being impatient), I only had one hard drive to put into it. No worries! I have four sitting right here! I'll just put my new hard drive into the Drobo, copy information off one of my old hard drives to it and then put in the old hard drive into the Drobo. And then wash, rinse and repeat until I have filled the Drobo up with hard drives and all my data is on it.
However, the Drobo says it requires two hard drives to run, not one like I assumed it would. It says all over in all the instructions. Put in at least two drives! I tried to use just one anyway, but the software told me I needed two. So, I was in a tough place. I couldn't put in one of my old hard drives to meet the necessary minimum because I needed to copy their data off of it first. I have so much data on my hard drives that I couldn't combine them so that one of them was empty. I either needed to find someone else with a hard drive that I could back up to first or buy another hard drive. I don't know anyone in Boulder except for Keri and her hard drive was practically full as well, so that wasn't an option.
I called every computery store I could find in Boulder and finally found a Best Buy that had 1TB hard drives in stock (if I was going to buy a hard drive I was going to upgrade) and dashed off and got another drive. Phew! We're finally ready to do some business!
Well, on the way home from the Best Buy I picked Keri up from work and she said that I could erase her hard drive, giving me the necessary space, so that I could return the hard drive I just bought and save me some money. This seemed like a great deal!
So, we deleted most of her files (mostly redundant or replaceable data), moved the files off of one of my hard drives on to hers and then proceeded to take apart one of my old hard drives. Which was a little tricky, but mostly just terrifying. Finally, I freed my drive and slide it into the front of the Drobo.
And nothing happened. It was supposed to turn the light next to that hard drive green or orange or blink red. But no, it just stayed there, red. Which meant it didn't think there was a drive there. So, I load up the software, I check the cords, I turn it on and off, I take my hard drive out and put it back in and all the while a terrible fear is growing in the back of my heart. Finally, I turn off the Drobo completely and take out the new hard drive I had bought, that the Drobo recognized and compared the connectors.
Shit. Fuck. My plan to put all my old drives into the Drobo and have an awesome redundant massive storage were ruined.
My old hard drives use a different port technology thingy and aren't compatible with the Drobo at all. I has assumed that my hard drives were SATA drives when they actually aren't. I have no idea whatsoever why I made this assumption.
So, I stuck in the new hard drive from Best Buy and I have a working Drobo. But it isn't quite as awesome as I thought it was going to be. :(
To add insult to injury I some how damaged the drive or the enclosure of the hard drive that I took apart, so now it doesn't work anymore. At least it was backed up!
Needless to say I have had a bit of a bummer of an evening.
In other news, I am selling two external 500GB hard drives (that are totally cute) for 50-75$. Anyone interested?
11 December 2008 07:20am UTC • 397 views • 2 comments
Tagged with bummer, computers, harddrives, drobo, failure, assumptions
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2 comments
Peon Peetie
11 December 2008 10:04am UTC
at least you have a new super awesome robo-buddy!
Robert
13 December 2008 12:17am UTC
These Drobos look interesting, I could see buying one if I end up filling up my current 640GB drive in the near future.