Q: What is a “volume”?

A: The term volume is used to refer to a pool of storage that Drobo makes available to the operating system. With firmware release 1.1.1 Drobo allows users the ability to choose different volume sizes.

Q: What is the “large volume” feature?

A: With firmware 1.1.1 Drobo can support various volume sizes based on the file system format you use and the operating system it is connected to as shown below:

HFS+	NTFS	EXT3 (in beta)	FAT32
1,2,4,8,or 16 TB	XP: 2 TB Vista: 1,2,4,8,or 16  TB	1, 2 TB	1, 2 TB

 

Q: What happens if my total storage is larger than the volume size?

A: If the protected storage from the drives put into Drobo is larger than the volume size, then Drobo automatically creates a second volume of the same size. If more than 2 TB of protected space were available, say for the case where it has four 1TB hard drives, then Drobo would present itself as two, 2TB disks to the operating system.

Q: What does it take to increase Drobo to a 16TB volume from an existing volume of a different size?

A: Increasing your current volume to a larger one requires a reformat where all data will be erased (hence you must migrate it to a different location beforehand). This is a limitation of existing file systems. Unfortunately, they do not allow on-the-fly upsizing. It’s analogous to increasing the size of your house by a factor of eight (8). You have to demolish the house, rebuild the foundation, and then rebuild the house. Of course, you will have to move your possessions in and out if you want to keep them.

In this example, increasing Drobo’s volume size corresponds to increasing the square footage of the foundation eightfold. Next you have to rebuild the file system – or the house in this analogy. Your possessions correspond to the data stored on Drobo.

Q: Should I increase my Drobo to be a 16TB volume?

A: There is no technical reason to do so. You may like the convenience of having one, very large volume where your data is stored. This can eliminate the mental overhead of finding where you put something. “In which drive (D:\, E:\, F:\,…) or disk volume (Drobo1, Drobo2, ….) did I store that important document?” Increasing the volume size will take time (procedure described below) and you will have to weigh the benefits for yourself.

Q: Will making Drobo 4, 8 , or 16 TB affect boot time?

A: The larger volume size you choose for Drobo, the longer Drobo will take to boot. This is because at boot up your computer scans disks to ensure they ready for use. A 16 TB Drobo is significantly larger than, for example, a 125GB drive in a notebooks, or even a 1 TB drive in a desk-side PC.

Q: Will making Drobo 4, 8, or 16 TB affect anything else?

A: Your computer will write its “file system meta data” onto Drobo. This is information it uses to store and access data on Drobo. Larger volume sizes require larger amounts of meta data. Hence, there will be more space that is reserved for a 16TB volume before it is actually used than a 2TB volume.

Q: Are there any risks with making Drobo 4, 8, or 16 TB?

A: No. Please note though that if you are migrating data off of Drobo onto other disk drives or using file sharing on other computers then your data could be at risk–depending on the reliability of those other devices. The safest thing to do is to copy your data onto another Drobo, then reformat your original Drobo, and then copy the data back.

Q: What happens if I don’t format Drobo to be larger than TB?

A: As you add larger disk drives, Drobo will present additional 2 TB volumes to your computer. You will see another drive letter (Windows) or volume name (OS X) on your computer.

Q: I really want to make my Drobo 4, 8, or 16 TBs. How do I do it?

A: Please be aware this can take several days from start to finish depending on how much data is on your Drobo. The steps are as follows:

1. Make sure you update your Drobo and Drobo Dashboard to the 1.1.1 firmware release.
2. Copy data off of Drobo onto other disk drives and/or computers to hold it.
3. Double check to ensure you’ve copied all data off of your Drobo successfully!
4. Use Drobo Dashboard to reformat your Drobo to the volume size you want.
5. Copy data from those other disk drives and/or computers back on to Drobo.