As a longtime Drobo user, this was EXACTLY the video I was looking for. Thank you. I really appreciate the props you gave Drobo for their originality and innovation.
The one thing about Drobo that kept me on the brand was the no-bullshit drive swapping. No need to go into a UI to do it, just remove one drive and put a new one in. You can ignore the size and just buy whatever's most cost effective at the time, and it just works. Amazing stuff. It's good to hear that Synology now lets you mix drive sizes - somehow that info is _really hard to find_ on Synology's own marketing materials. It sounds like adding a drive is still janky on Synology though, requiring me to go into the UI to manually add it after inserting it. That kind of sucks, but it's not like there is any better option anymore.
A lot of that drive swapping stuff is what lead to these things being somewhat unreliable. People would mix and match all sorts of drives of different sizes and specs, the Drobo would try its best to fit it in, but in the end it would just lead to problems when some drives would start to bottleneck or run out of storage. It's a great idea but realistically it's a lot more stable to use drives of the same spec. It becomes really clear how problems started to arise when you see people mixing SMR drives with CMR drives, and of different brands and speeds, it's no wonder things would go wrong.
In the process of moving my files from my aging 5D to a 920+ that I picked up on Prime Day as I watch this. Your videos have been very helpful during the process, so thanks!
Headed here next after my 5D (secondary) finishes uploading to Backblaze. I just lost my 5D3 (primary). How's it working out for you? What made you choose the 1920 over the 1522?
@@danglassphoto It has worked out very well for me, much faster and capable. Basically the Prime Day deal, plus the processor. I wanted to use it for Plex and the 1522 is slightly less capable according to the reviews.
I have to say that I had to go through some growing pains to get where I am today in terms of external storage solutions, and I'd like to share that with you and your audience. I had already made the switch to Mac by the time I felt the need for some sort of external back up. Flash drives at that time only offered about 6 or 8 gig max and I wanted more. My first attempt was the HP home server. It never really seemed to live up to it's claim to be compatable with Mac OS. That's when I moved on to the Drobo 4 bay back up storage. I was content with Drobo until I had to relocate to China (for my Wife). Drobo was just to bulky to take along so I gave it to my brother. Next can the Mac Time capsule, which again was more of external storage than a server. I eventually outgrew that as well as my movie & music library grew. That's when I discovered Synology through a You tube video recommendation. I have to say that it was probably the best decision I ever made in terms of external data storage solutions. I hope this helps any of your subscribers to make their decision on what to buy next.
I am hanging in there hoping DROBO will continue, with over 40 TB and 3 drobos keeping 10 years of data alive, I am not ready to migrate to anything else.
The problem is when your Drobos fill up, it's all too common to have them shit the bed with no hope of recovering your data. I've had this happen on an 8 bay Drobo and a 4 bay Drobo. Here's hoping that you have a better storage solution by now.
I managed to get a great deal on a 1621+ earlier this year from Amazon Warrhouse (Damaged Box - Unit itself was brand new!) but had to wait a few months to find a deal on new hard drives (Eventually picked up 4x 16TB Seagate Exos). I reached the 16TB limit on my Drobo 5N and didn’t see the point of copying my data off to an external drive/drives only to reformat the Drobo disk pack to remove the limit. The network copy performance difference alone has made the upgrade well worth it and I now have a NAS with better redundancy, in SHR2 and data security with Snapshot Replication along with plenty of expansion for additional drives. My Time Machine backups for my Mac are also working much more reliably as well.
Yep! I have a Drobo 5D and was looking to go to a NAS 8 months ago and saw the writing on the wall. It was your videos and help that steered me to Synology. I really, really liked the Drobo platform and it is a shame that this is happening, but I'm very happy with my Synology.
I thought until now that DROBO had closed and was out of business. I tried, unsuccessfully, in contacting them approximately six months ago. First off let me preface with the fact that I’m not a computer literate person and most of the information you give on your videos is over my head. The problem I have is with my 5d Thunderbolt. My Drobo stopped powering up so I replaced the power brick and it lasted for a day working perfectly fine, then the next morning it would no longer power up. A friend of mine looked at it and found some circuitry that was burnt. So while he was trying to repair the circuitry, I purchased an additional D5 used from eBay. My thinking was I could load my drives in it, but before I did that I watched some TH-cam videos. The information that stopped me from loading the drives, was that the video said that if it didn’t have the same firmware, that it would automatically reformat the drives and that I could lose all my data. So I looked into having my data recovered. The prices I was given ranged from $2500.00 to $8000.00, so that wasn’t a sound option. At that time I didn’t have the ability to check what version of software I had, because when I started the process of switching Drobos, I had an IT guy come over to do some maintenance and he updated my Drobo dashboard while getting ready to setup the new one I had bought from eBay. I got the one back my friend fixed that had the burnt circuitry. I never powered it up because he was not convinced it was completely repaired. So, my question to you is, is it true that it will re-format if I plug these drives in to the new one, and once it re-formats the drives, will I lose all of my photos? Do you have any suggestions on how I should proceed? I left out that I have a Synology 1621+ coming in the next day or so, with hope that I’ll be able to load my drives from the original Drobo after I retrieve my data from them. I also have 2 new drives I bought for the newer Drobo that I haven’t used yet. If you or anyone knows what I should do to get my data recovered more affordability, I’d truly appreciate it.
Do you not have backups? If not, *please* use this as a life lesson. Always have at least 1 backup, if not 2. Having said that, if you purchase the same model DROBO, with the same firmware as your dead unit. And load the drives in the same order they are in your current unit. You should be able to recover your data. Having said that, do not take my word for it, do as much research as possible before even attempting this recovery.
Drobo got back to me by way of email they said as long as I have updated the new Drobo I could load the drives in to it in the same order as they were in the old one making sure it was off and I should be fine.
It's funny that I found your video right now -- as earlier today I just put in an order for a Synology DS1821+ to replace my 9+ year old Drobo 5N that has been running 24/7 all these years. The thing is still running like a champ, but it's getting to an age where I'm uncomfortable knowing that it could die at any time & I'd have no options in securing a new unit to pop the drives into. I literally didn't know that they filed Chapter 11 until last night, as I started researching if they had any newer offerings & noted everything was out of stock and started reading. Hoping I can get accustomed to the Synology world. I'm pretty tech-savvy, but definitely appreciated Drobo's simplicity. I'm noting some slimmer drive compatibility for the DS1821+ currently, but am hoping that's just because it's so 'new' out the gate. I had picked up a 16TB Ironwolf Pro, which according to their list...isn't compatible?! Thank you for your video -- and tribute at the end -- to Drobo's line!
Damn, I'm glad I came across this video. I have been running a 5 bay Drobo RAID device on a Mac for about 10 years and they tend to fail every 3 years. As you know, you can't get the data off the drives if the Drobo fails so you have to buy a replacement Drobo. It's only because my Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter started failing that I went to see if Drobo were selling the 5 bay RAID with Thunderbolt 3 connections, that's when I found out they'd folded. So now I'm looking around for a suitable replacement, ideally with hardware RAID.
I had two Drobos in production....an ancient Gen 2 (USB/Fireware 4-bay) and a 5D3 Thunderbolt/USB3 unit purchased 4.5 years ago. But it became apparent in the last year that Drobo was on its way to failure as a company so I invested in a QNAP TVS-h1688x, which is a huge purchase but it was designed to replaced the Drobos and two other servers in my basement. So far the QNAP has worked well although the software (QuTS Hero 5) is a little buggy and we've had to dodge the security issues with QNAP in the past year (I do not have my unit facing the internet in any way). The 5D3 is still a good unit and I may still use it for backups of the QNAP. One thing I did do for backups was invest in a QWC Thunderbay 8. I think when you do a video about Drobo DAS owners, you must talk about the Thunderbay line since it makes a lot of sense for many of Drobos old customers which are largely professional and prosumer Mac users.
Will be selling off my Drobo5N2, which replaced my 5N, as soon as I finish transitioning to my new DS920+. The DS920 is replacing both my drobo AND my Win7 media computer. I still have an old Gen2 which I use for backing up my files offsite. (sneakerware)
I bought a drobo5n about 4 or 5 years ago. After a year I had to replace the stock fan then about a year after that it died. Had to move all the drives to an old pc to recover the data, then turned that old pc into a synology nas and never looked back.
YES!!! I need to get off my Drobo 5D3. I've been looking at the QNAP TVS-672XT and QNAP TS-h973AX...but I believe a newer version(s) might be coming out very soon, so I'm willing to wait a bit, but I do need to get of the Drobo very soon. I do 4K video editing and photography. Looking at only QNAP after looking at others. I saw a lot of QNAP video editing TH-cam videos and I believe QNAP is the system for me, but again, I believe newer systems will be coming very soon and I want to take advantage of that and maybe Thunderbolt 4 on the higher end models, even though they have it for the lower end. What do you think? Am I doing the right thing to wait a bit? My Drobo is running fine, but I need faster and Drobo might or might not have a future.
I’ve had two Drobos over the last decade, as backup to a file server. I replaced the server with a Synology NAS. The second drobo lost its Ethernet capability so I opted for an expansion to the Synology box. So now I have two volumes that are mirrored. Each volume would survive a single disk failure, so I think I am safe.
Early adopter of Drobo when they launched. Was a big fan. Had two of them. One backed up to the other. Loved them until their "auto repair" feature lost YEARS of photos, and my back up drobo did exactly the same. Moved to a Synology 411J and NEVER looked back. I felt guilty selling my 4 bay drobos off as they are CRAP. Absolute rubbish.
May be a dumb question but here goes... I've had a Drobo 5n for more years than I can count. 5x 4TB WD Red drives, but only about 4 TB of stuff on them. I would like to be able to re-use the drives if possible. Would they have to be re-formatted for Synology or other NAS? I seem to remember with Drobo, you can just pull out a bad drive (in fact I've done it) and the data will re-sort itself across the remaining four. If I do that, then could I serially add 2 or 3 drives to the new NAS and re-format them if necessary, then copy all the data across, then add the last drives as extra storage on the new NAS?
Drobo is a set and forget system even when a drive crash just remove and replace. With synology I still don’t know what to do if and when A drive crashes.
Synology will alert you to the drive to remove. Replace with one that is the same size or larger and follow the onscreen instructions. Super easy. You will fined easy to follow instructions on youtube as well.
Thank you for this video. Long time Drobo user. The question I have is, how can you move the data if you have an old laptop or desktop that does not work any longer. Can you move the hard drives to a new NAS or is that data gone for good?
i just bought one today.looks brand new never used in box i got it for $100 it is the drobo-fs model it seems to be plug and play all works very well but i assumed it would come with a usb port :) it dosent. also how do i install drobo apps where do i get them from also i cannot find info regarding cpu and ram?
Nice. Just be wary of allowing remote access...they gave long since abandoned security firmware updates. Additionally, apps were originally still being hosted on their site..but likely gone now. Sorry man
You can try it and it probably will work. Synology does not recommend or support it though. I have my 4 bay Drobo on an older Synology as external drive and it has been working fine so far. Yesterday I copied all Drobo content to my new Synology 920+. Don't think I will use Drobo for any critical storage task anymore.
Video is just what I needed since my 5N is reaching end of life.Loved the just put in a drive and forget about the size and it still works. Look like the Synology is my next NAS. Now the most import question. I have a lot of data on my 5N assuming I can not just plug in drives with data from the 5N to the Synology what is the best way to migrate the data? Or am I wrong. Can I simply take out drives out of the DROBO and put them in the Synology. Anyone have an answer?
No you can't just move the drives. You will need to migrate over network. Best thing to do is do it with the three devices on the same switch in the same subnet for best performance during transfer.
I have a 5N2 that crashed - Now I have drives with data and no 5N2 to read them. Is there a way to read 5N2 data drives on a different device, like a QNAP system?
Question. I’m a photographer and I shoot a lot. Everyday is like 30gb to 120gb. I have a large backup for my 8tb computer. But I’d like to start offloading some content that I don’t want to delete but don’t need to take with me all the time. I might start dabbling in video. What would you or anyone suggest for storage and/or backup? Thank you.
I own 4 Drobos, the 5 bay FS, 8 bay Drobo pro, 5D and S connected to my Mac laptops and Mac Pros. With so much data across 4 devices, it is difficult to choose the right system that has the feature of beyond raid. I am leaning towards Synology DS1821+ but an not sure where to jump in. What ever box is chosen, it will start with all new drives and the old WD reds will find a home someplace on eBay. Anyone have the same issue of backing up and moving from Drobo to something else? Would like to know.
I have a Synology D916+ and a WDPR4100. The WD is just sitting right now. Is this Synology usable in 2022. Right now I just do Time Machine backups. Only issue is my Drobo has 5 bays vs 4 for the others. I only use my USB 3 Drobo strictly for iTunes storage but now I’m leery to keep using it. I have a service contract but what good is that when can’t get parts. If anyone can suggest a rackmount solution that would be great also. Leaning towards Terramaster because of with hybrid raid.
Bought a 920+ on Prime Day to replace my 9 year old Drobo 5N. I’ve already set it up and am migrating data off the Drobo, plus I’ve set up Homebridge and have Time Machine working from my MBP. It’s working well so far!
I tested Drobos back in 2008 and still have one of the 4 bay Thunderbolt 2 Drobos in use. DO NOT GO THERE. Regarding the 4 bay model, a base Drobo's drive speed is the average speed of your drives DIVIDED BY the number of drives you have. It's monumentally slower unless there is an SSD getting data first in the chain as opposed to your 4 mechanical drives. It doesn't matter if it's on a fast connection. A 4 drive Drobo is SLOOOOW since the data write completes after it's been written to all drives it thinks it needs to write to. Yes, I tested this and it is as slow as I say, even if it only duplicates the data over some of the drives. ALSO, I tested an 8 bay Drobo to see how it operates if I fill the drive up and then try to see how it handles that condition. It simply fails miserably. While the hot swapping of drives in a Drobo is nice (and I have taken advantage of this multiple times), if you add more data than 1/2 of the total capacity, at some point, Drobo will shit the bed and so will your data.
Hi Kyle. I'm right at the bottom of an island, the UK to be precise. In Brighton and surrounded by what feels like a million seagulls... Hitchcock would love it...
The latest email from Drobo [9 Sept 2022] suggests its all over. Drobo Technical Support Bulletin: macOS Ventura Compatibility Dear Valued Drobo Customer, Thank you for entrusting Drobo with your critical data. We have found that the upcoming macOS Ventura update is currently incompatible with Drobo. We cannot guarantee compatibility with future OS updates. Therefore, if you are planning on upgrading your macOS we highly recommend backing up data that resides on your Drobo to mitigate any unknown impacts of incompatibility. Furthermore, the Drobo should be shut down prior to performing the OS update. So I have 2 options: Update macOS or update my DROBO!
Brother you want to make a video that will get you one million like? make a video of how to retrieve data from dead Drobo's hard drives. I have 21TB lock in 5 HD I bough 2 5n2 units 1 DOA the other connection issues do you have a solution for this problem?
Nooooooooooooo my drobo is the most reliable back up I have ever had and have still, running strong. 10 years plus and going, With only one drive failed and lightning strike crashing my first drobo but kept my files and drive alive. My synology ds 218+ crash my drive in less then six month. thank god it was back up on my drobo.
Keep watching this channel to expand your knowledge of NAS systems. You will find out just how bad of a choice a DROBO is. I am glad however you didn't experience any data loss.
Drobo is fine, until it's not. My 5D3 crashed 2 days ago. Zero stock anywhere. Zero support. Fortunately I had a 5D mirroring it. But I never backed that up with a cloud system. I've been shocked into action. What if the 5D goes down? So it's uploading now to Backblaze as I write. Fingers crossed. Ordering my Synology920 or similar and will then load the 5D onto that. Time to migrate. The USS Drobo is sinking.
Would never recommend QNAP. They have way too many repeating security issues, quality os OS and Apps. I sold off all my QNAP except for one that was system enough to install TrueNAS and it has been running like a champ. I owned two ASUSTOR units and just worked unlike QNAP. The ASUSTOR has very fast startup and shutdown time (under 3 minutes) If I had to buy a turnkey unit it would be ASUSTOR. QNAP uses great hardware, but their OS and Apps is another story. The last 6 years has been way too much trouble.I will point out that I used them just for storage.
Too bad. Drobo is too expensive for what it does (I mean the non NAS products). There not as fast as SSDs for working, and they’re not as useful as NAS for large storage and utilities. It was only a matter of time and it’s now time.
It's not looking good with Drobo!... I have just discovered that Drobo Dashboard is no longer able to install any DroboApps on my 5N. It appears the site the repositories are stored on has gone away (updates.drobo.com), which was confirmed by the response I got from a support request..."The DroboApps Server 'updates.drobo.com' is currently down. Engineering is aware, no indication as to when the issue will be resolved." To make it worse, the DroboApps SDK was also stored on that server, so I am unable to cross-compile my own binaries from source. So I think all DroboApps are now dead... unless that subdomain miraculously reappears. If anyone is running DroboApps, don't uninstall any of them as you won't be able to re-install! (If anyone knows of a cached binary for the apache2.4.37 webserver for a 5N, I'd really like to know where to find it!). I wish QNAP could support a BeyondRAID-like diskpack of unequal sized drives like Synology do now. I want that hardware, but would loose a significant amount of storage with QNAP as my drives are 2,3 & 4TB! I've been a Drobo user since the original 4-bay unit and DroboShare, but looks like I'll need to move before any hardware fails and I loose all my data.
![ร้อยพ่อพันแม่ - WanMai [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XY2pNYASEbg/mqdefault.jpg)
As a longtime Drobo user, this was EXACTLY the video I was looking for. Thank you. I really appreciate the props you gave Drobo for their originality and innovation.
The one thing about Drobo that kept me on the brand was the no-bullshit drive swapping. No need to go into a UI to do it, just remove one drive and put a new one in. You can ignore the size and just buy whatever's most cost effective at the time, and it just works. Amazing stuff.
It's good to hear that Synology now lets you mix drive sizes - somehow that info is _really hard to find_ on Synology's own marketing materials.
It sounds like adding a drive is still janky on Synology though, requiring me to go into the UI to manually add it after inserting it. That kind of sucks, but it's not like there is any better option anymore.
A lot of that drive swapping stuff is what lead to these things being somewhat unreliable. People would mix and match all sorts of drives of different sizes and specs, the Drobo would try its best to fit it in, but in the end it would just lead to problems when some drives would start to bottleneck or run out of storage. It's a great idea but realistically it's a lot more stable to use drives of the same spec. It becomes really clear how problems started to arise when you see people mixing SMR drives with CMR drives, and of different brands and speeds, it's no wonder things would go wrong.
In the process of moving my files from my aging 5D to a 920+ that I picked up on Prime Day as I watch this. Your videos have been very helpful during the process, so thanks!
Headed here next after my 5D (secondary) finishes uploading to Backblaze. I just lost my 5D3 (primary). How's it working out for you? What made you choose the 1920 over the 1522?
@@danglassphoto It has worked out very well for me, much faster and capable. Basically the Prime Day deal, plus the processor. I wanted to use it for Plex and the 1522 is slightly less capable according to the reviews.
I have to say that I had to go through some growing pains to get where I am today in terms of external storage solutions, and I'd like to share that with you and your audience. I had already made the switch to Mac by the time I felt the need for some sort of external back up. Flash drives at that time only offered about 6 or 8 gig max and I wanted more. My first attempt was the HP home server. It never really seemed to live up to it's claim to be compatable with Mac OS. That's when I moved on to the Drobo 4 bay back up storage. I was content with Drobo until I had to relocate to China (for my Wife). Drobo was just to bulky to take along so I gave it to my brother. Next can the Mac Time capsule, which again was more of external storage than a server.
I eventually outgrew that as well as my movie & music library grew. That's when I discovered Synology through a You tube video recommendation. I have to say that it was probably the best decision I ever made in terms of external data storage solutions. I hope this helps any of your subscribers to make their decision on what to buy next.
I am hanging in there hoping DROBO will continue, with over 40 TB and 3 drobos keeping 10 years of data alive, I am not ready to migrate to anything else.
The problem is when your Drobos fill up, it's all too common to have them shit the bed with no hope of recovering your data. I've had this happen on an 8 bay Drobo and a 4 bay Drobo. Here's hoping that you have a better storage solution by now.
I managed to get a great deal on a 1621+ earlier this year from Amazon Warrhouse (Damaged Box - Unit itself was brand new!) but had to wait a few months to find a deal on new hard drives (Eventually picked up 4x 16TB Seagate Exos). I reached the 16TB limit on my Drobo 5N and didn’t see the point of copying my data off to an external drive/drives only to reformat the Drobo disk pack to remove the limit. The network copy performance difference alone has made the upgrade well worth it and I now have a NAS with better redundancy, in SHR2 and data security with Snapshot Replication along with plenty of expansion for additional drives. My Time Machine backups for my Mac are also working much more reliably as well.
Yep! I have a Drobo 5D and was looking to go to a NAS 8 months ago and saw the writing on the wall. It was your videos and help that steered me to Synology. I really, really liked the Drobo platform and it is a shame that this is happening, but I'm very happy with my Synology.
I thought until now that DROBO had closed and was out of business. I tried, unsuccessfully, in contacting them approximately six months ago.
First off let me preface with the fact that I’m not a computer literate person and most of the information you give on your videos is over my head. The problem I have is with my 5d Thunderbolt. My Drobo stopped powering up so I replaced the power brick and it lasted for a day working perfectly fine, then the next morning it would no longer power up. A friend of mine looked at it and found some circuitry that was burnt. So while he was trying to repair the circuitry, I purchased an additional D5 used from eBay.
My thinking was I could load my drives in it, but before I did that I watched some TH-cam videos. The information that stopped me from loading the drives, was that the video said that if it didn’t have the same firmware, that it would automatically reformat the drives and that I could lose all my data. So I looked into having my data recovered. The prices I was given ranged from $2500.00 to $8000.00, so that wasn’t a sound option. At that time I didn’t have the ability to check what version of software I had, because when I started the process of switching Drobos, I had an IT guy come over to do some maintenance and he updated my Drobo dashboard while getting ready to setup the new one I had bought from eBay.
I got the one back my friend fixed that had the burnt circuitry. I never powered it up because he was not convinced it was completely repaired. So, my question to you is, is it true that it will re-format if I plug these drives in to the new one, and once it re-formats the drives, will I lose all of my photos? Do you have any suggestions on how I should proceed?
I left out that I have a Synology 1621+ coming in the next day or so, with hope that I’ll be able to load my drives from the original Drobo after I retrieve my data from them. I also have 2 new drives I bought for the newer Drobo that I haven’t used yet.
If you or anyone knows what I should do to get my data recovered more affordability, I’d truly appreciate it.
Do you not have backups? If not, *please* use this as a life lesson. Always have at least 1 backup, if not 2. Having said that, if you purchase the same model DROBO, with the same firmware as your dead unit. And load the drives in the same order they are in your current unit. You should be able to recover your data. Having said that, do not take my word for it, do as much research as possible before even attempting this recovery.
Drobo got back to me by way of email they said as long as I have updated the new Drobo I could load the drives in to it in the same order as they were in the old one making sure it was off and I should be fine.
It's funny that I found your video right now -- as earlier today I just put in an order for a Synology DS1821+ to replace my 9+ year old Drobo 5N that has been running 24/7 all these years. The thing is still running like a champ, but it's getting to an age where I'm uncomfortable knowing that it could die at any time & I'd have no options in securing a new unit to pop the drives into. I literally didn't know that they filed Chapter 11 until last night, as I started researching if they had any newer offerings & noted everything was out of stock and started reading.
Hoping I can get accustomed to the Synology world. I'm pretty tech-savvy, but definitely appreciated Drobo's simplicity. I'm noting some slimmer drive compatibility for the DS1821+ currently, but am hoping that's just because it's so 'new' out the gate. I had picked up a 16TB Ironwolf Pro, which according to their list...isn't compatible?!
Thank you for your video -- and tribute at the end -- to Drobo's line!
Damn, I'm glad I came across this video. I have been running a 5 bay Drobo RAID device on a Mac for about 10 years and they tend to fail every 3 years. As you know, you can't get the data off the drives if the Drobo fails so you have to buy a replacement Drobo. It's only because my Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter started failing that I went to see if Drobo were selling the 5 bay RAID with Thunderbolt 3 connections, that's when I found out they'd folded.
So now I'm looking around for a suitable replacement, ideally with hardware RAID.
I had two Drobos in production....an ancient Gen 2 (USB/Fireware 4-bay) and a 5D3 Thunderbolt/USB3 unit purchased 4.5 years ago. But it became apparent in the last year that Drobo was on its way to failure as a company so I invested in a QNAP TVS-h1688x, which is a huge purchase but it was designed to replaced the Drobos and two other servers in my basement. So far the QNAP has worked well although the software (QuTS Hero 5) is a little buggy and we've had to dodge the security issues with QNAP in the past year (I do not have my unit facing the internet in any way). The 5D3 is still a good unit and I may still use it for backups of the QNAP. One thing I did do for backups was invest in a QWC Thunderbay 8. I think when you do a video about Drobo DAS owners, you must talk about the Thunderbay line since it makes a lot of sense for many of Drobos old customers which are largely professional and prosumer Mac users.
Will be selling off my Drobo5N2, which replaced my 5N, as soon as I finish transitioning to my new DS920+. The DS920 is replacing both my drobo AND my Win7 media computer. I still have an old Gen2 which I use for backing up my files offsite. (sneakerware)
I bought a drobo5n about 4 or 5 years ago. After a year I had to replace the stock fan then about a year after that it died. Had to move all the drives to an old pc to recover the data, then turned that old pc into a synology nas and never looked back.
YES!!! I need to get off my Drobo 5D3. I've been looking at the QNAP TVS-672XT and QNAP TS-h973AX...but I believe a newer version(s) might be coming out very soon, so I'm willing to wait a bit, but I do need to get of the Drobo very soon. I do 4K video editing and photography. Looking at only QNAP after looking at others. I saw a lot of QNAP video editing TH-cam videos and I believe QNAP is the system for me, but again, I believe newer systems will be coming very soon and I want to take advantage of that and maybe Thunderbolt 4 on the higher end models, even though they have it for the lower end. What do you think? Am I doing the right thing to wait a bit? My Drobo is running fine, but I need faster and Drobo might or might not have a future.
Hi have c5 any ideas
I’ve had two Drobos over the last decade, as backup to a file server. I replaced the server with a Synology NAS. The second drobo lost its Ethernet capability so I opted for an expansion to the Synology box. So now I have two volumes that are mirrored. Each volume would survive a single disk failure, so I think I am safe.
Good review, I keep hoping the DS1520 or DS1621 will go on sale but evidently they don’t, maybe Black Friday…..Seagulls at 7:10, 8:21, 10:44, 11:03
Does anyone have any tutorials on how to migrate data from a Drobo to a Synology?
I have been looking for this for a very long time. Will my driving drives work on synology without having to format them?
Early adopter of Drobo when they launched. Was a big fan. Had two of them. One backed up to the other. Loved them until their "auto repair" feature lost YEARS of photos, and my back up drobo did exactly the same. Moved to a Synology 411J and NEVER looked back. I felt guilty selling my 4 bay drobos off as they are CRAP. Absolute rubbish.
how did you migrate all your date from drobo to your new NAS? i havent' seen any videos related to this.
May be a dumb question but here goes... I've had a Drobo 5n for more years than I can count. 5x 4TB WD Red drives, but only about 4 TB of stuff on them. I would like to be able to re-use the drives if possible. Would they have to be re-formatted for Synology or other NAS? I seem to remember with Drobo, you can just pull out a bad drive (in fact I've done it) and the data will re-sort itself across the remaining four. If I do that, then could I serially add 2 or 3 drives to the new NAS and re-format them if necessary, then copy all the data across, then add the last drives as extra storage on the new NAS?
Thanks for this video. Is it possible to access and save all my files from my Drobo at this time?
Drobo is a set and forget system even when a drive crash just remove and replace. With synology I still don’t know what to do if and when A drive crashes.
Synology will alert you to the drive to remove. Replace with one that is the same size or larger and follow the onscreen instructions. Super easy. You will fined easy to follow instructions on youtube as well.
You can set dual disk redundancy and assign one or more drives as a hot swap.
Thank you for this video. Long time Drobo user. The question I have is, how can you move the data if you have an old laptop or desktop that does not work any longer. Can you move the hard drives to a new NAS or is that data gone for good?
Planning to purchase new Mac very soon and want to add an expensive but reliable NAS also. My Drobo was FireWire.
I m using Drobo 5c and pls advise how to copy my photos to synology ?
i just bought one today.looks brand new never used in box i got it for $100 it is the drobo-fs model it seems to be plug and play all works very well but i assumed it would come with a usb port :) it dosent. also how do i install drobo apps where do i get them from also i cannot find info regarding cpu and ram?
Nice. Just be wary of allowing remote access...they gave long since abandoned security firmware updates. Additionally, apps were originally still being hosted on their site..but likely gone now. Sorry man
I have Drobo 5N2 if I get Terramaster F4-422 NAS what Raid should I use to act like Drobo?
So, I bought a 4 bay USB3 Drobo but I just bought a DS920+. Can I plug my Drobo into my DS920+ to have it be used as an external drive?
You can try it and it probably will work. Synology does not recommend or support it though.
I have my 4 bay Drobo on an older Synology as external drive and it has been working fine so far.
Yesterday I copied all Drobo content to my new Synology 920+. Don't think I will use Drobo for any critical storage task anymore.
Video is just what I needed since my 5N is reaching end of life.Loved the just put in a drive and forget about the size and it still works. Look like the Synology is my next NAS. Now the most import question. I have a lot of data on my 5N assuming I can not just plug in drives with data from the 5N to the Synology what is the best way to migrate the data? Or am I wrong. Can I simply take out drives out of the DROBO and put them in the Synology. Anyone have an answer?
No you can't just move the drives. You will need to migrate over network. Best thing to do is do it with the three devices on the same switch in the same subnet for best performance during transfer.
I have a 5N2 that crashed - Now I have drives with data and no 5N2 to read them. Is there a way to read 5N2 data drives on a different device, like a QNAP system?
Question. I’m a photographer and I shoot a lot. Everyday is like 30gb to 120gb. I have a large backup for my 8tb computer. But I’d like to start offloading some content that I don’t want to delete but don’t need to take with me all the time. I might start dabbling in video. What would you or anyone suggest for storage and/or backup? Thank you.
Oh and I’m on a Mac. Not that it really matters but. Yeah.
I own 4 Drobos, the 5 bay FS, 8 bay Drobo pro, 5D and S connected to my Mac laptops and Mac Pros. With so much data across 4 devices, it is difficult to choose the right system that has the feature of beyond raid. I am leaning towards Synology DS1821+ but an not sure where to jump in. What ever box is chosen, it will start with all new drives and the old WD reds will find a home someplace on eBay. Anyone have the same issue of backing up and moving from Drobo to something else? Would like to know.
Any migration tools or methods that will assist drobo users to synology.
I have a Synology D916+ and a WDPR4100. The WD is just sitting right now. Is this Synology usable in 2022. Right now I just do Time Machine backups. Only issue is my Drobo has 5 bays vs 4 for the others. I only use my USB 3 Drobo strictly for iTunes storage but now I’m leery to keep using it. I have a service contract but what good is that when can’t get parts. If anyone can suggest a rackmount solution that would be great also. Leaning towards Terramaster because of with hybrid raid.
Bought a 920+ on Prime Day to replace my 9 year old Drobo 5N. I’ve already set it up and am migrating data off the Drobo, plus I’ve set up Homebridge and have Time Machine working from my MBP. It’s working well so far!
I suggest to check out the Synology Drive Client to sync and backup your data. I found it much better then time machine
Congrats Ryan, the 920+ is a gigantic leap forward in terms of hardware and software. You won't regret it.
Anyone moving from Drobo 5n to a Synology doing any specific setups to prepare for migration (sync) of files from Drobo to Synology?
Drobo is the AOL of network attached storage. They intentionally target older, unsophisticated users.
I tested Drobos back in 2008 and still have one of the 4 bay Thunderbolt 2 Drobos in use. DO NOT GO THERE. Regarding the 4 bay model, a base Drobo's drive speed is the average speed of your drives DIVIDED BY the number of drives you have. It's monumentally slower unless there is an SSD getting data first in the chain as opposed to your 4 mechanical drives. It doesn't matter if it's on a fast connection. A 4 drive Drobo is SLOOOOW since the data write completes after it's been written to all drives it thinks it needs to write to. Yes, I tested this and it is as slow as I say, even if it only duplicates the data over some of the drives. ALSO, I tested an 8 bay Drobo to see how it operates if I fill the drive up and then try to see how it handles that condition. It simply fails miserably. While the hot swapping of drives in a Drobo is nice (and I have taken advantage of this multiple times), if you add more data than 1/2 of the total capacity, at some point, Drobo will shit the bed and so will your data.
Great video thanks. Any advice on how to migrate away from Drobo without having to actually copy all the content from Drobo to the new NAS i buy?
Are you on out at sea, perhaps on the coast of an island?
Hi Kyle. I'm right at the bottom of an island, the UK to be precise. In Brighton and surrounded by what feels like a million seagulls... Hitchcock would love it...
The latest email from Drobo [9 Sept 2022] suggests its all over.
Drobo Technical Support Bulletin: macOS Ventura Compatibility
Dear Valued Drobo Customer, Thank you for entrusting Drobo with your critical data. We have found that the upcoming macOS Ventura update is currently incompatible with Drobo. We cannot guarantee compatibility with future OS updates. Therefore, if you are planning on upgrading your macOS we highly recommend backing up data that resides on your Drobo to mitigate any unknown impacts of incompatibility. Furthermore, the Drobo should be shut down prior to performing the OS update.
So I have 2 options: Update macOS or update my DROBO!
Scary for a expensive hardware to become paperweights after going bankrupt.
Brother you want to make a video that will get you one million like? make a video of how to retrieve data from dead Drobo's hard drives. I have 21TB lock in 5 HD I bough 2 5n2 units 1 DOA the other connection issues do you have a solution for this problem?
Nooooooooooooo my drobo is the most reliable back up I have ever had and have still, running strong. 10 years plus and going, With only one drive failed and lightning strike crashing my first drobo but kept my files and drive alive. My synology ds 218+ crash my drive in less then six month. thank god it was back up on my drobo.
Keep watching this channel to expand your knowledge of NAS systems. You will find out just how bad of a choice a DROBO is. I am glad however you didn't experience any data loss.
Drobo is fine, until it's not. My 5D3 crashed 2 days ago. Zero stock anywhere. Zero support. Fortunately I had a 5D mirroring it. But I never backed that up with a cloud system. I've been shocked into action. What if the 5D goes down? So it's uploading now to Backblaze as I write. Fingers crossed. Ordering my Synology920 or similar and will then load the 5D onto that. Time to migrate. The USS Drobo is sinking.
Would never recommend QNAP. They have way too many repeating security issues, quality os OS and Apps. I sold off all my QNAP except for one that was system enough to install TrueNAS and it has been running like a champ. I owned two ASUSTOR units and just worked unlike QNAP. The ASUSTOR has very fast startup and shutdown time (under 3 minutes) If I had to buy a turnkey unit it would be ASUSTOR. QNAP uses great hardware, but their OS and Apps is another story. The last 6 years has been way too much trouble.I will point out that I used them just for storage.
Too bad. Drobo is too expensive for what it does (I mean the non NAS products). There not as fast as SSDs for working, and they’re not as useful as NAS for large storage and utilities. It was only a matter of time and it’s now time.
Just stay clear of the Chinese offerings, i.e TerraMaster, for your own sake, no matter how good a deal it may seem. Don't say I didn't warn you.
It's not looking good with Drobo!...
I have just discovered that Drobo Dashboard is no longer able to install any DroboApps on my 5N. It appears the site the repositories are stored on has gone away (updates.drobo.com), which was confirmed by the response I got from a support request..."The DroboApps Server 'updates.drobo.com' is currently down. Engineering is aware, no indication as to when the issue will be resolved." To make it worse, the DroboApps SDK was also stored on that server, so I am unable to cross-compile my own binaries from source. So I think all DroboApps are now dead... unless that subdomain miraculously reappears. If anyone is running DroboApps, don't uninstall any of them as you won't be able to re-install! (If anyone knows of a cached binary for the apache2.4.37 webserver for a 5N, I'd really like to know where to find it!).
I wish QNAP could support a BeyondRAID-like diskpack of unequal sized drives like Synology do now. I want that hardware, but would loose a significant amount of storage with QNAP as my drives are 2,3 & 4TB! I've been a Drobo user since the original 4-bay unit and DroboShare, but looks like I'll need to move before any hardware fails and I loose all my data.