I plugged in my first-ever Drobo unit a few weeks ago. I realized my computer was out of hard drive space yet again and it just made sense to store my photography working files on the Drobo 5D. The transition to the Drobo was seamless. Now that I have been up and running for a while I keep asking myself, “Why did I wait this long” to get a Drobo?”
I do not like to change equipment or software. My experience is that something always goes haywire and I spend way too much time talking to Technical Support from whatever company I bought my troublesome product from. So, for me to wonder why I didn’t get a Drobo sooner is a big deal.
Why Did I Wait This Long To Get A Drobo?
I had several misconceptions. None of my worries have materialized:
- It would take too long to set up. Wrong. I followed the instructions contained on the quick start card that came with the Drobo, reviewed the online Getting Started Guide and was up and running in minutes. I downloaded software, put hard drives into the Drobo casing, connected the cables, turned on the switch and formatted the drives. It was pretty close to plug and play. Two thumbs up for ease in setting up the unit!
- Access to my working files stored in the Drobo would be slow. Wrong. My file access is very quick. I don’t even realize I am working off a Drobo. I am using a thunderbolt connection to my iMac and a mSATA SSD card. The Drobo 5D includes an accelerator bay on the underside to hold the card. The use of a card in the bay accelerates access to the most frequently used data, improving performance of the unit. Two thumbs up for speed!
- It would present a whole new set of problems that I didn’t have the time to solve. As of yet, no problems.
- mSATA Upgrade. I decided to add the mSATA SSD card after I had inserted three hard drives into my unit and transferred my files. The Getting Started Guide states that it is best to insert the card before loading in the drives. I contacted Technical Support and asked if there were any issues to be concerned about if I inserted the card after loading in the drives. I sent an email at night and received the answer before I woke up the next morning. There were no issues. I inserted the card. All is well. Support also followed up to see if everything was running okay a couple weeks after I had sent the email. So, two thumbs up for support!
- It was one more thing to learn about, and it sounded complicated. Wrong again. Getting up to speed on the unit was very easy with the Online User Guide and related information on Drobo’s website. Photofocus also has excellent posts on using the Drobo, if you check the archives. Two thumbs up for simplicity, even though the technology is probably anything but simple.
- I already had external hard drives—why bother switching to a Drobo? For security and flexibility. A Drobo is nothing like an external hard drive. It is a much better solution if you have lots of files that take up lots of memory. I have three drives in my unit at the moment, but I can easily expand the number of drives or increase the size of a drive, if I am low on space.
Drobo provides redundant backup. I currently use Dual Disk Redundancy. My data is protected if two drives fail. I also backup offsite to cloud storage with Backblaze. My computer hard drive is backed up to two external drives using Time Machine, one drive using Carbon Copy Cloner and the cloud storage with Backblaze. Eventually I plan to transition my Time Machine backups to a Drobo.
There is also the Drobo dashboard. It provides status and capacity information, as well as providing easy access to settings and tools. It will tell me if a drive is failing, so I will know to replace it. I have never had an external drive talk to me before it fails. It just fails. Two thumbs up for the added safety net of redundancy and prior notice of drive failure.
My Drobo fears appear to be unfounded. My computer storage problems have been resolved plus my data is more secure with Dual Disk Redundancy. Why did I wait this long?
Susan Kanfer
Latest posts by Susan Kanfer (see all)
- The Traveling Photographer: Planning for a Laptop Ban - July 18, 2017
- Photographer of the Day: Prabhu Shankar - July 17, 2017
- Focusing on Birds - July 14, 2017
I have two Drobo units. One is 18 months old and the other is 8 years old. I also have a RAID drive that’s no where near as useful. When I first got the Drobo I filled it with old HDDs I had lying around then over time upgraded the drives to 1TB and 2TB disks. It’s never complained once. Great product. Does exactly what it say it will.
Thanks for your insight, Robin. You have a lot more experience than me, and I happy to hear it has been a good 8 years for you with Drobo.
I will never recommend another drobo. I bought my first drobo in 2011. It failed on me a few days ago. There is no way to retrieve the data except buying another drobo.
I contacted their customer support to for local support. The customer service at drobo kept telling me the drobo unit I had stopped production in 2012 and they can’t repair it, even before directing me to a local support for a look. Could have been a simple spoilt external power supply.
I would suggest that you have another backup in place, not a drobo so that you still have choices when the current unit breaks down. I had no choice. I had to purchase another drobo to access my files
The drobo may be a decent product, but their customer support is terrible and long term support non-existent
Hi Victor…
I’ve got 25+ Drobo’s in use in our office and my house… so let me reply to your concerns.
Well… I’ve had plenty of tech and gear (and even an iPhone) come dead on arrival or die with the first week. Sometimes its a shipping problem where things get really banged up on the truck or in transit. That’s why Drobo’s come with a one year warranty (two year’s in Europe too). In fact most retailers take products back or for exchange in the first 30 days no questions asked… The transit problem happens… gear gets dropped, and banged. Plus every once in a while, bad units sneak through testing. This happens with every piece of electronics (and even cheese).
If you’re Drobo is under warranty, or you carry the extended warranty they’ll ship you a new one. In my case, I can just move the drives into a spare unit. We’ve got 20 people working at the office… we keep spare parts for our computers and key hardware around for emergency. But as an individual you can get something overnighted and be up quickly.
Compare that to MOST other RAIDs. If one drive fails… you lose everything.
Of course.. 1 Drobo, 1 g-tech, 1 anything isn’t a backup. WE have a free webinar coming up on 3-2-1 Backup that you should attend. 3 copies. 2 formats… 1 offset.
Put the critical stuff on a Drobo… its fast and easy. Set it so 1 or even 2 drives can fail with no downtime. Plugin a cheap USB drive that’s not very fast and keep the data cloned (I use a free tool called Carbon Copy Cloner). You can also push the real important stuff into the Cloud.
A drobo isn’t a backup… its just several drives working together for capacity and safety. Its much less likely to fail than other drives. Think of it as a car with 5 wheels and you only need 3 to keep from tipping over.
But you still need two more backups if this stuff is critical.
The new CEO moved all support back in house. They’ve really done a great job. I believe you got a bad answer… But I think that problem is solved. I also know that you could have bought a power supply off Amazon since your product was out of warranty. Your unit was at least 4 if not 6 to 7 years old.
See above… 3 copies off data, 2 media units, 1 offsite. This is a must no matter WHICH company you go with. It’s like going in an airplane without a parachute. Don’t complain when the engine stops spinning/
If your unit was out of warranty… yes you would. Just like I’d have to buy a new Mac if my machine out of warranty stopped working… Or buy a new TV if the old one doesn’t turn on. Technology wears out. Simple fact of life.
When I met with their CEO I told them the same thing about customer support. So did HUNDREDS of other people.
And he’s a smart man who listened. Try their support now… its pretty awesome.
And as far as long term… I’ve been using Drobo units since 2006. In 10 years… we have never lost data except due to human error. Have hard drives failed… yes all the time. They’re like spinning tires on a racetrack which blow out. But the Drobo has warned me and we’ve recovered easily.
Have I had a Drobo go bad or a power supply fail… yep on rare occasion. And swapping out the piece or unit has solved the problem EVERY time. The Drobo is the easiest solution to recover from and the most flexible RAID on the market. All RAIDs are proprietary…. but only Drobo lets you mix and match drive sizes and swap a bad drive out in seconds without tools. Even my 10 year old did it for me when I was overseas in Japan.
Trust me on this.. customer service solved… product amazing.
My drobo just failed mid way while I was using it. It just shut down and would not light up again. I looked at the drobo website for a local support in Singapore, the telephone number listed was not in use when I tried to call.
So I emailed their support on 6 August, 2016 and their support just gave me the curt answer that my drobo unit is out of production in 2012 and no repairs.
I know no tech gadget lasts forever, my drobo was probably due for a replacement, but I think some basic customer service would be to direct me to the local service support to have a look. I am more than willing to fork out for a replacement ( which I did).
My main concern is product support after purchase. I purchased in 2011 and they stopped manufacturing it in 2012 and they don’t keep some parts? As the manufacturer, they should have stock instead of me trying to source for it on Amazon or ebay.
Secondly, a simple request for Tech support doesn’t deserve a curt answer of “Out of Production, No Repairs”. This happened in AUGUST 2016, so it is their in-house customer service NOW.
The CEO of the company tells me he’s personally reached out to you. Please respond to him. His name is Mihir Shah
Damn My Drobo 5D just died last week! And my extended 1+3 years warranty ended August 2016. Also, no support. No repair. No choice. Get a new one. That’s their way of telling me “Your data is gone unless you buy a new one because you live in APAC”. Oh and I got more news. They won’t extend warranty anymore than 5 years. So if you are living in APAC, with your drobo for 4 years 11months, you better dump drobo and head somewhere else or get a new one. Or get ready to lose all your data.
I have a Drobo 5S and thus i can’t move my 5D data to 5S. Guess what, I’m going to migrate all data out of Drobo now. The pissy thing is I need to buy a 5D just to dig my 20TB+ of data out.
So much for the selling how stable and safe it is to stick with their product. Not safe if you are an APAC Drobo customer it seems.