Drobo protects your data, porn

I love LaCie and Hammer storage solutions, but Drobo is perhaps the coolest external RAID array/NAS. Touted as the world’s first data robot, Drobo requires virtually no setup and is extraordinarily flexible; it allows the user to not only mix and match drives, but swap them on-the-fly as well. If you ever run out of space, just pop out the smallest hard drive and replace it with a larger one, you can even do this during an active file transfer. Drobo will then automatically strip the data throughout the rest of the drives and insure that every last bit stays intact. It’s a little on the expensive side at $500 for the shell alone, and for that price you can’t even use it as an NAS. To do that, you need to fork out another $200 for the DroboShare; an add-on device which essentially throws in a couple USB ports and an Ethernet jack. [via Data Robotics]