I was browsing ebay and came across a listing for around £100 for a drobo B800fs with 7 disks included, the rack mount, a spare power supply and disk enclosure. 2 of the drives were from 2009-2010 and one died when I powered the unit on, I already had good disks to put in so I swapped them out. After enabling SMB V1 on my pc it was picked up by the drobo dashboard instantly and it all just worked. I was considering using it for a media cache for my jellyfin collection however it's speed isn't good enough IMO (~30MB/s, 40MB/s peak)

I'm now wondering if I could maybe update the SMB on it to a newer version, I also have a few 5N's that i'm still due to mess around with. I plan on making a drobo repo and documenting my findings but I've been slow to do this as when I first posted about my own Drobo I was migrating off them.

This FS800 is really nice looking and suprisingly quiet however due to the speed limitations (A literal 10X slower than my 5D, 30MB/s vs 300MB/s) I find it will be highly impractical, instead I want to see what is different to the formatted disks done by the 5N vs 5D vs B800fs and start to tinker with it.

Obviously I will not be storing any critical data on it. DO NOT STORE ANY CRITICAL DATA ON ANY DROBOS. However consider using a drobo for a cache / temp storage device, as I self-host my own jellyfin collection it is on my main Asustor's, I can then get them to r-sync to the drobo and copy the media. This allows me almost full bandwidth on my asustor when jellyfin is streaming as it will use the drobo first, and if the drobo does die I still have all the files on my asustor.

Well, it finally happened. Windows 11 (or at least my install) is no longer compatible with Drobo Dashboard. Event logs showed errors from DDservices that caused random shutdowns on my system. The problem went away after uninstalling Drobo.

Just wanted to share if anyone cares or maybe has a solution. I guess I don’t need the app per se, but still. It feels like the last gasp to me. With storage prices the way they are right now, I’m going to have to wait to migrate everything to a new system.

Hi all. My old 5N is still working but….
My needs:
5-10TB net storage
Simple to use
Support 2 drives failing
Supports Time Machine
Doesn’t cost a fortune
Media server like Plex or at least easy to access files from Macs and iPhones at home - extra points if remote access.

Every few months, I look at what Synology and others are selling but they all seem much more expensive and complicated.
Suggestions?

Thanks!

so im starting to get really frustrated because i dont understand why its doing this.

i have 2 qnap Nas systems and a Drobo fs system. all three worked beautifully, then i moved to a new house and have a new ISP and router so it changed the IP range forcing me to re-manually set each systems static IP. im still using the same switch and everything else is the same. i can map the Qnap systems just fine but the Drobo shows up in the dashboard, i can change various things about it in the settings but trying to map the drive or the "shares" as they call it in the dashboard always fails to map. ive tried a lot of different things trying to get it to work (make a whole new share, try to map it from the windows side, try to map it from the windows side using the ip address, etc) but it always fails.

if anyone has a fix or suggestion or really anything that might work i would really appreciate it. it has nearly 6 years of curated digital copies of my favorite old tv shows on it for my plex server and i really dont want to start all over.

I was wondering if anybody else was having issues with their Drobo not mounting with the macOS 27 Dev Beta?

P.S. Yes, I'm working on finally migrating away from my Drobo (about 2 years too late).

P.P.S. Yes, it's a Dev Beta and issues should be expected.

Does anybody have a good suggestion for replacing a Drobo 5D3......? I use Backblaze so would prefer a DAS, not a NAS.

I am looking at:

OWC - https://www.owc.com/solutions/thunderbay-4-thunderbolt-3

QNAP - https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/product/tr-004

Terramaster - https://www.terra-master.com/en-gb/products/d8-hybrid-2?variant=45374562402338

Hi y'all,

I work for an IT service desk and am helping out a user who uses a Drobo unit with their Mac.

We need to upgrade him from Monterey to Tahoe, and I've been looking into the whole Drobo situation in regards to them going out of business and then the lack of support for newer versions of macOS with their dashboard software.

What would be the best way to transfer data from the storage device? Would it be just a "drag and drop" or is there an easier bulk-copy method?

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

I need to replace a damaged drive on my Drobo 5D Gen1

How can I tell which drives are compatible? for example - can I use WD Ultrastar DC HC550 - 16TB? right now I have 2 kind of drives installed

Hi all,

My Drobo 5N2 has all five drive bays populated. On every cold boot, it randomly reports a different drive bay as dropped or missing. The affected bay is not consistent, so I suspect the original power adapter may be aging or failing to provide stable current during startup.

I am planning to replace the power adapter with a compatible 12V unit for the Drobo 5N2, but I am unsure about the correct DC barrel plug size. Some sources say the correct plug is 6.5×3.0mm, but my current adapter appears to look closer to 5.5×2.5mm.

Can anyone confirm the correct DC plug size for the Drobo 5N2? Also, if 5.5×2.5mm is not the correct size, how could my current adapter have worked reliably for around three years?

Any confirmed measurements or experience with replacement adapters would be appreciated.

It was functional last I used it years ago but I don't have the patience to tinker with the retired OS of Drobo to get it working on my current gear. It comes without drives or original box but I figure someone who needs a working one to replace one that died could be able to use it.

Shipping and any insurance is the responsibility of the new owner. DM if interested.

Edit: Location is US/Texas

So, my Drobo 5N died few weeks ago. It looks like one of its SATA Controllers (Marvell 88SE9120) died. It still boots, but because it can't initialize the SATA controller, it will never spin up any drives and sits there with the top LED red.

I my debug which one of the three failed (I can only see two on the board though and I didn't spot one below the heatsink during scanlimes first stream 🤔 (while watching this to find the timestamp it dawned on me that the CPU has two internal SATA channels 😊)), but in the meantime I aquired a 2nd Drobo5N and I also started some reverse-engineering.

I did dump the 1GB FAT16 USB Flash module of both Drobos (one with Firmware 4.2.1, one with 3.5.14) and I also captured some signal traces from both uarts (VxWorks and Linux console) and the I2C communication with the drive backplane of my faulty drobo using PulseView.

The I2C controls the drive bay LEDs as well as the power to the drives. Having this along the boot console log in one trace view is handy, because then you can correlate the different LEDs with the traces. This is also how I found my drobo never enables the drives.

I've published the files and all information to https://github.com/xsrf/Drobo5N

The repo is not well organized (yet... may never be) but I wanted to share my findings. I also took lots of pictures showing how to disassemble the Drobo and showing the PCBs. I'll add them later.

I don't know if this is helpful to anyone - but I hope it is.

Also many thanks to https://www.youtube.com/@scanlimeinprogress - the streams in early 2019 reverse engineering another Drobo 5N were incredibly helpful!

Let me know if I can support someone somehow.

Also let me know if you find a Datasheet for the 88SE9120 specific - I can't find any.

I had to reboot my iMac and I just got the dreaded notification regarding Apple not supporting Intel apps in a future release:

"Support Ending for Intel-Based Apps

This version of "Drobo Dashboard" includes a component that will not work with a future release of macOS. Learn how to update to an Apple silicon version."

What's people's thoughts on this? Will I still be able to use my Drobo without being able to use Drobo Dashboard, in the short term?

Of course, in the mid/long-term, this is going to lead me into having to transfer to another product i.e. OWC, or Synology etc.

This has been a couple of months now so I’ll keep this short and might miss some relevant information.

I went with the UFS raid recovery software and a HD enclosure I bought on Amazon. It took a couple of days and was able to recover some of my files to my satisfactory. Some of the files are corrupted.

Out of curiosity, I put the drives back into the Drobo connected to my laptop running Windows 11. The drives show up in explorer and I am able to view everything, I looked at the files that were corrupted and they are not. I attempted to copy them but I only have a short window before the Drobo crashes. From start to crash, the Drobo is flashing orange and green and at crash its solid orange lights for all 4 bays. That’s when the computer can no longer see the drives.

I am trying to find a solution that I can recover all files successfully and move away from the dreaded Drobo.

Here are some key points
- The drives look intact as the Drobo itself shows about 50% blue lights.
- if the drives are in Drobo I can see all of the files but can only recover before the Drobo crashes.
- Drobo dashboard does not see Drobo while the laptop sees the drives
- data recovery from UFS is about 80% with some files being corrupted
- trying to copy files from Drobo, files are intact but short window. (I don’t want to keep unplugging and plugging Drobo in afraid that drives may fail)
- the error in device manager “A request for the USB device descriptor failed.”

Currently, I am creating virtual images of each drive with UFS. I am planning on opening the Drobo to replace the battery concurrently.

Need some suggestions. Thanks

Does anyone reading this have real-world experience SAVING and recovering the filing system of a photography archive in a My Drobo 5D3?

Mine just became unresponsive - with 78tb of data within - and wont turn on properly.

The fans will spin but NO signs of life from the LEDs...

Reading the AI chatbot's suggestions... perhaps the internal battery has become deceased.

Should I try to surgically replace that battery?

Should I try to purchase a new 5-bay device and migrate my 5 hard drives into a new body?

PLeasE AdVise if you have any experience

🙏 Thank You 🙏

Hello all, I tried to access my Drobo 5N2 after many years inactive in storage. It starts up fine and Drobo Dashboard sees the Drobo and it's drives, however, I'm not able to access my files because it now requires a password which I had never set up. Is there any way to bypass this? Or are there any other solutions?

Thank you!

So I ended up with a few drobo 800i and 800fs. From what I could find online the drobos are limited to 32tb total storage with each share being 16tb? Is this still correct?

The 800fs is running firmware 2.1.8(7.38.12635)

I was originally thinking of putting 8 8tb drives into the 800fs but with these limitations it may not be the best idea.

My drobo has all yellow lights. We had a storm and it was plugged into a power strip, but it doesn't seem to boot up. I have turned it off. Is it dead? Any suggestions welcome.

I have had a drobo 5C with 6TB drives in it for a long time now. I don’t use it that often these days but went to access it the other day and noticed that the power button LED was flashing, and there were no lights on at the front. The power supply is solid green. Does this mean it’s fried? The drobo dashboard can’t seem to find it either

About a month ago, I backed up my PC on to the drobo because I was doing a full restore back to a fresh copy of windows, and it worked fine. I haven’t touched it since, although our power has gone out a few times since then. Other than that I have no idea what could have happened

Can anyone point me to safe place to download the drobo dashboard software?

My Drobo 5N housing died. I need to purchase, rent or borrow a housing to recover data on three drives. Can anyone help me?

Hi folks, my dad is a professional photographer and has stored his images on two Drobo's for recent history. He now has dementia and is having a hard time accessing files and trouble shooting things that come up. On top of that, one disk on his (I think 5N) drobo is flashing red and we are not able to access anything on the drive. It still powers on. I am at a loss and don't know the first step in getting support/recovering his files. He has orders coming in for work that we are not able to access to print. We are based in Vermont but would travel to any east cost cities for professional support.

Any tips for this not very tech savvy daughter?

title says it all. Office IT switched over a while back when drobo dropped support and left the old one unused with all the hard drives will in it. Worth using for personal use considering its free, or outdated?

I've had my DDR3-A for about a decade and it's finally conked out. I've had the issue where the fans run loudly but the unit doesn't light up or connect to my PC. Today I tried the recommended fix which was getting a new PSU and that unfortunately did not fix my issue.

Looking to see if I can potentially buy an old unit from a member here before I go on ebay and pay $200 for a unit that will hopefully allow me to access my HDDs and migrate my media to a new NAS.

Figured it was worth asking here first in case a miracle occurs. Or if anyone has any other suggestions before I buy another unit and hope that fixes my issue.

Hi All! I have a Drobo S. It has 5 bays of which I am using 3. I downloaded the software and installed it. The dashboard opens but cannot find the Drobo.

• Drobo Dashboard 3.6.1
• MacOS Tahoe 26.2

The dashboard is not seeing the Drobo is connected. I am connected via a USB 3.0 to eSATA (7 pin; Data) plug.
The funny thing is that when the Drobo Dashboard timed out looking for connections I unplugged the USB from the Satechi Base that is connected to my Mac Mini. The "Disk Not Ejected Properly" "Eject "Drobo" before disconnecting it or turning it off" warning popped up. I was hoping connecting directly to the Mac Mini would prove successful but no dice.This only occurred once.

Refreshing the search is also not working in the Dashboard. Something not working seems to be expected.

My goal is to get this Drobo up and running and transfer all the data to a new drive and then retire the Drobo S.

Any help is greatly greatly GREATLY appreciated!