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Drobo FAQ

Welcome to the Drobo FAQ! This FAQ is intended to answer many of the common questions about Drobo and the Drobo OS software. Please check here, and in other articles and threads on the site to see if your question has been answered before posting in the DroboSpace Forums.

General Questions

Storage and Data

General Questions

What is Drobo and what does it do?

Drobo was designed to take the pain out of making your data forever accessible. Drobo does the heavy lifting of drive monitoring and data protection so you don’t have to.

Drobo acts as a large, single pool of storage. One of its biggest benefits is the ability to provide massive storage that is always available and not spread across multiple disks. That makes it best for use as “primary” storage, not merely a high capacity location for periodic backups or archived data.

Now you can keep all your data close at hand because in addition to being always available, it’s also inherently “backed-up” on the Drobo and protected against drive failure or disk corruption.

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How do I download the latest version of Drobo OS?

Install and open Drobo Dashboard, click “Advanced Options” and go to the “Tools” tab. Click “Check for updates…”

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How can I shut down Drobo safely for a prolonged period?

To ensure Drobo stops any background processes prior to long periods of storage, dismount it in the manner recommended by your computer’s OS and then disconnect the USB cable. When the Power Mode indicator light glows orange, you can safely disconnect power and store Drobo for a prolonged period.

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How can I reset Drobo back to factory defaults?

Approximately 1.5” to the left of Drobo’s USB 2.0 port is a small hole over Drobo’s reset switch. To erase all data and reset Drobo to its default settings push a straightened paper clip through the hole, depress and hold the inner reset switch gently while power-cycling Drobo through its start-up cycle.

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Can I switch my Drobo between a Macintosh and PC?

That depends on how you formatted Drobo in the beginning. Generally, Window’s-based PCs use “NTFS” formatting. Macs use “HFS+”. Macs can “read-only” from NTFS formatted drives. PCs can’t read HFS+ drives without special software installed (You can experiment using “FAT32” (MS-DOS) formatting for use between Macs & PCs but this format is not officially supported – see drobo.com for more information).

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Does Drobo use RAID?

No, the patent-pending technology within Drobo is not RAID and was developed specifically to perform data management and configuration tasks automatically so that you don’t have to. Drobo does utilize advanced storage concepts such as virtualization, but it is not a derivative of RAID.

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What happens to my data if there is a power outage?

Drobo manages interruptions to power automatically and has an internal rechargeable battery that preserves data being written during an outage.

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How do I get support for Drobo?

Visit our support page.

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Where can I learn more about Drobo?

We strongly suggest you visit http://www.drobospace.com which is the independent online community of Drobo owners like you.

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Storage and Data

How do I add capacity to Drobo?

Either add a standard 3.5” SATA hard drive to an empty Data Bay, or remove the smallest capacity drive and replace with a larger capacity one. It’s okay to do this while Drobo is running.

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How can I tell how much capacity Drobo has left?

Check the blue capacity meter on the front of Drobo to see % space used/remaining. You can also calculate how much usable protected space you have remaining (see pg. 4 & 12).

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Why does my computer show I have 2 Terabytes of space?

Drobo “tricks” your computer’s operating system by formatting itself as a 2TB drive so that you can add storage in the future without needing to format it and so the added storage is immediately available.

Why is there data on Drobo before I copy data to it?

Your operating system and the Drobo OS both place a small amount of formatting information on Drobo’s drives prior to any data transfer.

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Will my computer tell me how much space is used on Drobo?

Yes, actual space used is represented accurately by your OS.

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Do I need to format new drives I add to Drobo?

You only need to format Drobo when you first install drives. Adding or upgrading drives in the future requires no formatting.

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Will the magnets that hold the face plate on endanger my data?

No, the magnets inside your hard drives are much stronger, and closer to the hard drive media than Drobo’s face plate.

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How do I back-up data on Drobo?

Data on Drobo is intrinsically “backed-up” but of course, that doesn’t protect against fire, theft or accidentally deleted files. You can duplicate data from Drobo onto any other media through your computer, or attach a second Drobo to your computer, duplicate the data, and move to a second secure location (such as office or home).

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Why don’t I see more capacity after I delete a large number of files?

You will, just be patient. Drobo takes this opportunity to optimize data layout while reclaiming newly “empty” space. However, some anti-virus utilities (such as Norton® Utilities) have an option to protect your data from accidental deletion. Be sure to disable that feature in order to delete data from Drobo.

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Why does Drobo seem extremely slow when it’s almost full?

Instead of refusing to copy files when it’s capacity is almost full (over 95%), Drobo instead enters “slow down” mode to alert you to check the blue capacity meter. If all ten blue lights are lit, it’s time to add capacity.

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Should I periodically defragment the drives inside of Drobo?

No, this type of optimization is performed by Drobo automatically.

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What should I do if I try to remove a hard drive and it does not self-eject?

In some cases your half-height drive might not self-eject when you push the Drive Lock to the side. Should this occur you can lift up the front of the drive, while pushing the drive lock all the way over to the left. The hard drive should then release or it can then be pulled out.

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