Of course, you're right. I was simplifying even though it was unnecessary I just wanted to make it clear that while it appears that those Qnap devices appear to make expansion (and migration, which is pretty cool) easier than usual for a RAID device, it's still limited by the traditional characteristics of a RAID. They aren't doing what Rob was trying to do with his Drobo.

I've been lusting after the Drobo for a long while, Rob. I'm definitely concerned by your experience.

However, I suppose that the Drobo doesn't replace good backups. It's always good to have two copies of every file that's important to you.