Data Robotics Hates MAC
Uncategorized June 11th, 2009 by Shai Perednik
After updating to 10.5.7 my Drobo over USB started flaking out and randomly disconnecting. I didn’t think much of it, just maybe the Drobo was dying until I found this thread over at DroboSpace.com that I remembered a similar issue with 10.5.6.
Digging around the forums eventually led to a burried new firmware version that is supposed to resolve this issue.
v131 on Drobo.com
I will try that update, but in the meantime I figured I would vent out on the dobospace thread.
Below is my post @ drobospace.com
Jennifer said:
To forum customers:
- Was Drobo working properly until you updated to 10.5.7
- Are your using the USB or Firewire port? Could you see if the same problems happens on the other port, ie if you are using the USB try firewire port on Drobo
- I noticed a couple of customers in the forums mention they did not encounter these problems in 10.5.6.
- We would like to get some more information from you, could you open a case with Tech Support
Jennifer & Drobo,
You are not properly supporting your MAC customers. You have some very loyal followers that parade your product and yet you make no effort to support us.
This is the perfect example. 10.5.7 was available to developers for some time. Why is it that you wait for customers using the final release of 10.5.7 to tell you that there is an issue?
Data Robotics should be proactive and running beta OS releases to ensure that when they are released to the public there is no conflicts.
It is out of the question to tell a user not to update to a major OS revision just because their external drive doesn’t support it.
Another thing, why is it that I can buy a cheap $20 enclosure that works fine with OSX over USB and yet your $400 device can’t do that.
Your BeyondRaid is great but get your support and engineering department together!
-Shai
http://www.shaiperednik.com
Tags: 10.5.7, Data Robotics, Drobo, Mac, OSX
We at Data Robotics, Inc. LOVE our Macs.
Though our world-class engineering team makes every effort to stay in sync with upcoming OS “dot” releases, it’s not always possible to do so. In any event, we are a very nimble company and react quickly to changes made by vendors of operating systems we support. Further, we have an excellent Customer Support team standing by to answer and assist with any issues that arise.
Jennifer,
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post.
I have to disagree with you for several reasons:
1. When firmware 1.3.0 was released we had to use a PC to update
2. 10.5.6 & 10.5.7 both suffered from dissconnection issues and solved with a firmware update
3. No Growl support till DROBO Dashboard 1.3.1 Beta (Yes, this is minor, but every MAC Fan that buys a DROBO probably swears by Growl)
4. Disclaimer: In my experience. Drobo works flawlessly on Windows Server 2003 with 30 Users, yet at home with 2 users on OS 10.5.x it doesn’t.
Yes, these points are minor, but with the world-class endineering team you have they should be in the Apple Developer program and get their hands on OS “dot” DEV releases to ensure that customers don’t experience problems when APPLE pushes the update on them.
I continue to stand by my DROBO and recommend it to everyone. But I do hope these issues are soon resolved.
I have to agree that the Drobo folks have let us mac users down. No excuse for not supporting mac releases, IMO.
Personally I have cancelled plans to upgrade to the drobopro due to persistant poor performance and support of the current product in the mac environment. I’m sad to say that, because i was a bit of an evangelist for drobo in the early days.
You all better wake up, because a lot of customers are looking elsewhere. Sad.
I’m a mac user and I am also having issues with my Drobo disconnecting randomly. I am currently working with Drobo about the problem and so far they have been very helpful. Looks like it could be the plug connection. Personally I hope it gets resolved quickly because I have loved having access to so many of my images so quickly. My fingers are crossed.