BlakeBlog

Drobo Timewaster

This morning I got a pop-up notice from my Drobo's Dashboard software that there is a newer version of the Dashboard software, would I like to install? "Sure," I said without much thought. A quick download, install, and reboot and I was back in business. Click on the Dashboard app's icon in the dock, though, and I'm greeted with a dialog box saying that this software won't run on my architecture.

WTF?

It turns out that the latest versions (v2.x) of the Drobo Dashboard software no longer support the PowerPC-based Macs, and my Drobo is hooked up to my old PowerPC-based Mac mini. It seems that the Dashboard's update service isn't smart enough to check for architecture compatibility, and the Dashboard's installer doesn't check compatibility, either. I had to chase down an installer for v1.8.4, uninstall v2.0.3a, re-install v1.8.4 and reboot again.

What a timewaster! Drobo, you can do better than this.

Solved the iOS 5 Upgrade Problem on my iPhone 4

Earlier today I upgraded my iPad 2 to iOS 5 and it worked without a hitch. However, my iPhone 4 wouldn't upgrade. I kept getting an error message from iTunes that an internal error had occurred. I tried rebooting both the iPhone and my laptop, ensured I was running the latest version of iTunes (and OS X), but the upgrade would still bomb-out when iTunes first tried to restore my iPhone. iTunes would backup my iPhone, then try to restore it (which I really think was the "install iOS 5" step), and then give me that generic error message.

On a hunch, right after the iPhone had rebooted, but before iTunes started restoring, I swiped to unlock the screen and keyed-in my passcode. Et voilà! iTunes was able to proceed with the first restore (a/k/a install iOS5).

I hope that helps anyone else stuck on this problem!