Paul, Yes, The NetGear drives are hot swap as well…
I would explain here; The DroBo units simply slide the drives in and out, there are no drive trays involved, no screws, no, well anything. You just pull the magnetic cover off the front of the unit and slide a new drive in, or push the lever down per drive to manually push the drive out of the DroBo slots. I have owned 3 different DroBo's before I found the NetGear ReadyNAS solutions… All the DroBo's had to be managed for me as I could not do this for myself. They are pretty much plug and play, and once configured you just leave them alone, but, still there's the thing of not being able to manage it yourself. The droBo bay drive doors are plastic and spring mounted, I have broken the spring mountings four times, three times on one unit and once on another. They, in my view, are terribly designed for the money involved and far to easily brake when sliding the drive(s) out. The NetGear ReadyNAS units have metal trays which you have to screw the hard drive to, as with standard computer installations, the screws are small, but, as long as you handle with care and do the work over a large tray incase you drop one of those tiny screws you're good to go. I've heard folk saying forget the screws, just slide the drives in whilst resting in the metal bays, bad idea. Anyway, on the ReadyNAS units you manually pull a lever which releases the hot swap metal drive tray, install the drive into the tray and simply slide back into the unit. Done… Although its not quite as slick as the DroBo loading experience, i.e. a simple push in, or pull out, there's the tray to consider, in my view, the DroBo falls short in this area anyhow. The ReadyNAS is certainly hot swap and I have effected 5 drive switches on my unit since owning it. Four drives in one switch cycle, when I upgraded my 4 x 2Tb drives to 4 x 3Tb drives. Done in phases, one drive at a time. Allow the unit the time to rebuild the data once you have made the switch, and then move to drive two etc. For me, owning an internet firm we have lots of high grade drives in stock, so I use WD industry enterprise standard drives, so very powerful and reliable. Despite me having an almost full setup, each drive swap took about 3 hours to achieve. The only other time I had to make a change was when I needed to borrow a 3Tb drive for something. I whipped it out, used for a day or two on something else, then slipped it back into the ReadyNAS. Where it was wiped automatically, then reintegrated into the RAID setup. Beautifully simple and effective. I think most folk tend to look on NetGear as a cheap hardware manufacturer, and fare enough when you look at some of their low end routers etc. But, they also make some pretty good high end switches and other network equipment etc. Regards, Neil Barnfather Talks List Administrator Twitter @neilbarnfather TalkNav is a Nuance, Code Factory and Sendero dealer, as well as an Apple iOS, Macintosh and Android accessibility specialist. For all your accessible phone, PDA and GPS related enquiries visit www.talknav.com URL: - www.talknav.com e-mail: - [email protected] Phone: - +44 844 999 4199 On 27 Dec 2012, at 18:42, Paul Erkens <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Neil, > > That clears it up. Thanks a lot for your info. Beautiful. So are the drives > inside your Ready nas ultra unit hot swapable as well? That would just seem > to good to be true. How come other folks sell similar functionality for twice > the price? > Best, > Paul. > > On Dec 26, 2012, at 9:10 PM, Neil Barnfather - TalkNav <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Paul, >> >> Sorry, you are correct… during my rite up I mentioned several times the >> Ultra NAS, but only once ReadyNAS…. The unit is indeed the Ultra NAS which >> Ultra is part of NetGear's ReadyNAS line up. >> >> I have the top end 4 bay Ultra NAS. >> >> Duel ether net sockets, iScsi, File Server, USB 3 x 3 and more. >> >> Like I say, in my view its half the price of the DroBo, accessible, quieter >> to operate, just as well made, has multiple plug-ins already installed and >> ready to go, e.g. Time Machine and iTunes Server et al… >> >> I think you get way more bang for your buck with the NetGear ReadyNAS line >> up… noting there's no DroBo exclusive on their Beyond RAID technology, >> NetGear have the same thing just labelled X-RAID. Which can use multiple >> disks of differing size and spin speed. >> >> Need more space, just remove the smallest drive, insert a new larger one, >> wait for the unit to sync up, and repeat where needs be. >> >> >> >> Regards, >> >> Neil Barnfather >> >> Talks List Administrator >> Twitter @neilbarnfather >> >> TalkNav is a Nuance, Code Factory and Sendero dealer, as well as an Apple >> iOS, Macintosh and Android accessibility specialist. For all your >> accessible phone, PDA and GPS related enquiries visit www.talknav.com >> >> URL: - www.talknav.com >> e-mail: - [email protected] >> Phone: - +44 844 999 4199 >> >> On 25 Dec 2012, at 11:52, Paul Erkens <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi Neil, >>> >>> Very good to know there are alternatives for an inaccessible drobo dash >>> board. I was looking to buy a drobo, but I won't for now. Thank you for >>> pointing out its lack of accessibility. Otherwise I too would have run into >>> serious problems with its operation. >>> >>> You say you have the Netgear ultra nas. I could only find something called >>> ready nas. Is that what you're talking about? There are a number of models, >>> some with 512 MB of internal memory, some have 1 GB, some have a slower >>> processor than others, some with USB 3, some with 2, etc etc. Did I look at >>> the right stuff, or is it a different product line that you mentioned? I'm >>> asking because ultra nas, I couldn't find. >>> >>> Regards, >>> Paul. >>> On Dec 24, 2012, at 3:42 PM, Neil Barnfather - TalkNav <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> It is, or was not, accessible last time I tried it mid this year. >>>> >>>> I bought a NetGear Ultra NAS four bay model, very well made device, takes >>>> anything from 1 to 4 drives and is in my view as good as the DroBo. >>>> >>>> It has the same beyond RAID technology although NetGear call their version >>>> X-RAID. >>>> >>>> You can enable double or duel disk redundancy provided you have enough >>>> disks installed and the units within the range are all very well made. >>>> >>>> The important bit, the interface is HTML through Safari and as such, >>>> accessible. >>>> >>>> You can also configure Time Machine to backup to a NetGear ReadyNAS as I >>>> do, this works perfectly without third party software, which you have to >>>> do with a droBo. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Regards, >>>> >>>> Neil Barnfather >>>> >>>> Talks List Administrator >>>> Twitter @neilbarnfather >>>> >>>> TalkNav is a Nuance, Code Factory and Sendero dealer, as well as an Apple >>>> iOS, Macintosh and Android accessibility specialist. For all your >>>> accessible phone, PDA and GPS related enquiries visit www.talknav.com >>>> >>>> URL: - www.talknav.com >>>> e-mail: - [email protected] >>>> Phone: - +44 844 999 4199 >>>> >>>> On 22 Dec 2012, at 06:08, Emilio Hernandez <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hello everyone, >>>>> >>>>> I am considering purchasing a drobo for backup purposes that will give me >>>>> the option of dual redundancy. >>>>> Has anyone on this list had any experience with the drobo software in >>>>> terms of its voiceover compatibility? >>>>> Welcome andy feedback or thoughts on the topic. >>>>> >>>>> Thanks. >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>>> [email protected]. >>>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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