Drobo cool, but…

I just read about this new storage device… Drobo.  Basically a hard drive enclosure that automatically manages the storage and protection of the data.  To the PC it appears as an external hard drive, however it may actually contain a mixture of different sized hard drives.  Drobo takes care of all the data replication and disk management, so you’ll never have to worry about a hard drive going bad or running out of space.  If a disk starts to – you’re notified by a simple light, then just pop out the old/bad hard drive and push in a new one.  It was good enough to pick up a CNet Editors Choice, fwiw.  You can also view this quick demo on Buy.com TV.

I’d love to get my hands on one of these… they sound sweet.  Unfortunately they don’t run very well with Linux (officially) so it may be a while before I pick one up… not to mention that they’re a mere $500 bucks (without any hard drives).