End of my tether with Drobo-iscsi kernel panic

Readers of this blog will know of my long running issues with my Drobo Pro

And how Drobo sent a 4th unit from the USA

And how I hoped against hope that all would be well

Picture this, 350 images on my Drobo Pro which I converting to CMYK on deadline for a client

Half way through I get...the Apple grey multi lingual screen of death telling me need to hard reset my Mac Pro

So restart then same again

Yikes!!!!!!!!

So I switched to my iMac, attaching the Drobo Pro

And guess what happened?

I get...the Apple grey multi lingual screen of death telling me need to hard reset my Mac

This time I take the time to read the Apple crash report and behold what do I see.....(I think you know what is coming)

Now I'm a humble photographer and know little of how to interpret-ate crash reports but I saw the fateful words 'Data robotics'

So did a Google search and what did I find? 

A symphony of similarly afflicted users on Apple's own forum

So it would seem a conflict between OSX 10.6.4 and the Drobo iscsi controller

Causing a Kernel panic

I have just finished from a phone call with Drobo and they say they can offer 'no solution' as the issue is 'complex'

So that leaves a Drobo Pro rammed with Terabytes of my data which I no longer dare plug into any of my Mac's

I have enabled my Mac Pro as a firewire target disc so I can try to fix it from my iMac

When I did this Apple's disc utility said the damage could not be fixed and I need to reformat my Hard Disk and reinstall everything, I thought I perhaps was being harsh when I called my Drobo Pro a 'time vampire' but right now it is living up to its name

Yes, I understand such things can happen when a new OS can upset drivers for devices like the Drobo but I was talking to some VERY knowledgeable industry experts at my workshop in Belgium and they were urging caution with my reliance on the Drobo for my storage as it uses a propriety software not used by other backup solutions which use industry recognised software

I'm no expert but I feel this lies at the root of the matter

If you have lots of time and feel like taking a chance do buy a Drobo but be sure what you are letting yourself in for 

In Drobo's own words

They can offer 'no solution' and the issue is 'complex'

That leaves me with 20 years images stuck on a Drobo Pro

And a day's reinstallation on my Mac Pro after reformatting the drive

Happy days are here again