[geeks] Impressive...

[nate at portents.com]

> So, how do you think that Drobo is pulling off that trick?  They appear
> (if their file system space estimator is to be trusted) to go from a
> mirror to a raid5 transparently, and claim to be able to grow or shrink
> the raid5 seemlessly.
>
> I've been trying to figure out how they do it.

I haven't read anything technical about Drobo, but I've always assumed
since they don't require you to use the same type or even *size* drives
that the thing is not any type of traditional RAID at all, but something
proprietary - which is *exactly* why I've steered clear of it (because if
the Drobo hardware goes south, you'd have to buy another Drobo to get your
data back!)

- Nate