DROBO - A Year Long Chronicle of Drobo Failure.

I purchased 3 Drobos a few years ago, and had 10 years of photographs stored on two Drobo 5Ds.  Drobo uses a proprietary software that failed when the 5D required a new drive with larger memory.  This happened the first week of December last year.  I had just copied 8TB of files from the first Drobo to the second Drobo.  Within minutes both drives failed.  The files were locked, and I had to contact Drobo and pay them to open a case.  Over the course of the year Drobo had me run test after test on the drives, and responded with multiple software updates to try to access the information.  I made phone call after phone call to the company to gain access to my files.  The last software update they wrote for my Drobo 5D brought the drives back, but didn't get my Drobo to mount, which meant I could not access the information.  I pleaded with them to send in my drive pack so they could retrieve the information.  They refused.  I made calls to several of their recommended companies for data retrieval, but they average cost to do this was $7000.00.  Yes  $7000.00.  Drobo offered $300 off a new Drobo to rectify the situation.  That is not only a joke, but an insult.  So here I am, stuck with 3 locked Drobos.  I recommend looking elsewhere for storage solutions as Drobo has been an inferior product in my opinion.

Read about other Drobo experiences:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=507208

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=38936

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz-jfAvtKAI

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/47900/thinking-of-buying-a-drobo

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1441726

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ted617wFAM

Rodiney Santiago - Shoot Number Two

I had the pleasure of shooting Rodiney Santiago again last week.  We had a great time shooting his yearly Calendar for Charity last year.  I was happy to be involved in every aspect of the calendar.   This time the shoot was more relaxed and impromptu. We didn't have to hit the target dates we had the last time.  We shot clothes by local designer Maor Luz, with sheer shirts and bold black and white prints on long sleeve jackets.   We used Paul Smith gingham shirts and gingham swimsuits by C-IN2.  I wanted Rodiney to have some fun with it, and make it light and easy.  Rodiney normally has a more serious and analytical tone, especially when its about work, at least in our conversations.  This time I told him to bring his selfie game.  He has a great selfie game, and it worked for us.  See some quick highlights  below.