Jim, thank you for replying to each poster’s specific points.
I think the whole “proprietary” epithet could be skirted if Drobo provided a free software recovery tool for disks rescued from busted Drobos. For all I know Drobo actually does this.
I’m thinking something that could be booted from USB stick on commodity PC hardware, that rescues a drive connected via eSATA dock or USB case. I realize that one drive alone does not a RAID make. But USB cases–even 5 of them–are cheaper than a brand new Drobo.
Your argument that an average user isn’t going to bother with that is valid. But are people who pay $500 for an external drive array really “average” users?
As a technical user, I avoid RAID solutions that I cannot independently recover, unless I have enough cash to buy more than one unit, or unless I have automated backups at scale.
Drobo-sanctioned recovery tools would go a long way to calming my nerves about putting all my data on a Drobo.
