Answers...

to commonly asked questions.

Drobo

Drobo flashing red and green

Why are all the lights on my Drobo flashing red and green all together?
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Just checked Drobo’s website. 4 Bay Drobos that blink red/green all simultaneously means its rebuilding the data and can take several days until it is complete. This makes sense since we added the new healthy 4th drive. So give it some time and the lights should stop blinking after a while. This will not effect your planned data transfer.

Drobo's for everyone!

Scotty- my biz partner has HP/micosoft and a contractor has same. We have big presentation next week and plan to take my mac as back up. The PPT presentations format is not coming thru  correctly to my PC- anything we can do so formatting is same? Getting to where we are concerned to send anything to clients (mainly corporate Micosoft) from my Mac as we don't know if they will get the attachments in format sent...
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A few things to consider:

1. You should be using the latest version of Office for Mac. Office 2011.
2. You may want to try sending attachments as standard .doc .xls or .ppt instead of the xml format that Office wants you to use like .docx .xlsx and so on. The recipient may not have a newer vesion of Office and may not be able to open docs created in a newer version.
3. Try sending the powerpoint file to a known good windows machine in your office or family to see if others are having trouble with the same file. This will tell you if it’s the file or the computer.
4. Unfortunately PowerPoint on the Mac and PowerPoint in Windows are NOT exactly alike. For the most part yes, but there are some very small things that may not port over exactly the same. So avoid really fancy transitions. That’s the first thing to break down. I’ve also had many clients complain about the lack of embedded audio support between versions.

How many drives do I need to backup?


Scotty-
I am going to get a new imac desktop tomorrow (tax free no less).  My though was to get the 21.5” but wanted your insight again on the benefits/tradeoff of the more powerful vs less powerful system.  For roughly $300 more, I can get the 3.2GHz vs 3.06 and 1TB drive vs 500GB.  You know the differences and how we use our computer.  My plan would be to have this computer for 5 years but allow for the need to upgrade sooner given technology changes (we’ve had the current system for 6 yrs).


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congrats on the new purchase.  This is the perfect time to buy.  If for some reason they don't have what you want in stock then you can still order it online and get the same tax credit but they'll do that at the store with you as a last resort.  The only reason I mention this because if you don't get the computer we would need to postpone our session.  I'll confirm it in a separate email coming up in a few minutes.  
 I think the larger question here is screen size.  The 27" may be overkill for you but it sure is sweet.  But given your normal use and needs I think the $1199 base model is super.  I don't see a compelling need for you to move to the next tier up unless you are lusting for 27" vs. 21".  I do wish they still offered the 24" which is what I use currently.  So to answer your question, I don't think you need to move up.  Stick with the $1199 and you'll be happy.  

Backing up the Drobo Backup

Scotty

I have had sucess running AutoCad on my macbook pro in bootcamp and am going to purchase an iMac. 
Is the iMac as strong in performance as the macboook pro (most comprehensive options) if I want to put autocad/windows
on it as well? Do I need all of these features:

  • 3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
  • 2TB Serial ATA Drive
  • ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB
  • Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) and User's Guide
  • 8x double-layer SuperDrive

I am having a hard time accessing your calendar like last time- it shows more time available then I know you are.
I would like to buy the iMac and then have you come over and help me set it up, set up windows/autocad, transfer
documents and clean up the macbook pro, and file share. It will take a few hours.

thanks,

L

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Hi L,

The iMac should be plenty of horsepower for what you are doing. As far as needing "all those features", many of these listed are standard features and can't be downgraded. So it's more a question of which model of the 3 or so that Apple offers is going to be the right fit for you?

The first thing to consider is size. I have both the new 27" and the 21" and I have to say the 27" is easily the winner here hands down. With that in mind, you have a few options there as well. The most important in your case is the power of the graphics card depending on how you will run windows. You'll either be running via VMware or Parallels virtulization, or you'll be using BootCamp. Either way, it would be to AutoCad's advantage to have a strong graphics card at hand. But this increases the price point a bit.

The second thing to consider is not so much, internal Hard Drive space, but rather, how much ram you will want. I would suggest not having Apple increase it but instead, buying it later yourself and installing it yourself. You will save a bit more that way. www.crucial.com is where I recommend for ram purchase.

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