The death of my Drobo

This is the story of the death of my Drobo.

My entire digital life lived on a 5-bay Drobo RAID system. I won’t go into how a RAID system works; you can read more about that here. I do know that I have used this system for over 10 years as a professional real estate photographer and have dutifully replaced failed drives with no problems. Then lightning struck — literally.

The perfect storm

It was a rainy night. After a very close lightning strike and power outage, my Drobo was not responding. No lights, no sound … nothing. As panic started to close in, I considered all the data I had stored on it — basically anything I had taken with a digital camera or stored digitally since 2005. This included business images, personal vacations, events, financial documents, taxes, etc. Pretty much anything that was important was thoughtfully organized and put into folders. So, I went to work.

At first I thought the drives inside the Drobo would be fine, believing that all I needed was a new compatible Drobo. Then I remembered how I had been sent an article twice just weeks prior about how Drobo was having trouble with production, so it was nearly impossible to find new units anywhere.

My search for a new unit was fruitless, so I went about trying to find a used one out of the three compatible models. It was very slim pickings. The ones I did find were very overpriced since other people had been dealing with the same problem. I was able to find a seller I was happy with and made the deal.

When the package arrived, I couldn’t wait to be reunited with my digital life and went about connecting everything. Unfortunately, the Drobo had gotten severely damaged during shipping and was not working. At that moment, I decided to delete the need for a Drobo and just pay to have the data professionally recovered. I packed up all five drives and shipped them off to St Louis to a data recovery company. The seller of the damaged Drobo felt awful, so they decided to send me another one at no additional charge. 

Attempting to recover my data

Around that time the data recovery technician called to say they had received the drives and after an initial scan felt very confident they could retrieve the data at a starting cost of $1,000. I asked if they wouldn’t mind sending the drives back so I could try them in this replacement Drobo I had coming to save the money. The replacement Drobo came in and seemed to be working fine. Then the drives came in. Finally, all would be back to normal!

I plugged everything in to find that I could not retrieve the data. The Drobo was acting as if the drives were empty. I frantically tried for days different tactics only to fail every time. So, back to St. Louis all the drives went with an apology to the technician and a surrender to the high price of experts. At least I would get my data back.

Another hit

The technician called and asked if I had dropped the drives, because they were not functioning like they had when they first scanned them. I told them I was very careful, but perhaps they were dropped during shipping. The technician said there was a chance they could get the data back, but it was now going to cost $3,000 and take three weeks. I agreed, knowing that what was stored on those drives was ultimately priceless. Luckily PPA insurance provided me with $1,500, which was a big help to offset these costs.

In the meantime, I had to plan for a completely new system to store my data on as well. So, I went about researching and shopping for the perfect match. I landed on an OWC and installed it. I also found a very simple and low priced cloud backup solution in Backblaze. If I had known it was that easy to backup unlimited data, I would have done it years ago. If only!

I tried to keep myself busy with work while waiting for my data to be recovered. The engineers were furiously working, stating that they were, “trying everything humanly possible” to recover my data as the technician would report. They still had hope, so I kept hope as well.

Moving on from Drobo

Then I saw that phone number. St Louis area code. I prepared myself for the worst and answered. It was the news I dreaded followed by, “So sorry mate” as my technician was Welsh. I put the phone down and sat in silence. I didn’t cry. I didn’t “mourn it like a death” as I had told everyone I would. I looked at my life and everything it still contained … my family and my friends, my wife and our dog and cat, and my business which I am still very capable at and the passion that I still have for it after 25+ years.

The information on those drives is not my legacy. I am my legacy. There may be some sadness without them and even some difficulties in business, but I can create more. And I will.

The lesson here is to insure your work and memories. Take every step and pay the fees. But if they get lost, don’t dwell on it, go out and make some more. KEEP SHOOTING.

Editor’s note: We welcome this article from Patrick Bertolino, an architectural photographer specializing in real estate. His time is divided between photographing real estate, multi-family communities and various other architectural projects. He’s also a certified remote pilot, so taking aerial photographs is one of the great tools in his bag. He’s found a way to pair his passion with the city that has nurtured it — Houston is beautiful, and he intends to showcase that. Follow him on Instagram or visit his website at patrickbertolino.com.