You can't always trust Drobo Dashboard

Rats! The USB doesn't work any better than the Firewire 800. Drobo continues to spontaneously eject during Time Machine backup.

Thank you! For about a month my Drobo with Firewire 800 would spontaneously eject, but then come back and Time Machine would work. Then came the unhappy day when a Mac Pro drive failed then, while Drobo Dashboard said everything was OK, Mac's Disk Utility said the Drobo needed First Aid (Disk Repair) before it could be mounted and available to Time Machine. Disk Repair failed, Drobo Support suggested trying Disk Warrior to retrieve my Drobo backups. Since I had another backup, I just reformatted Drobo and Time Machine completed a backup. Then Drobo wouldn't wake up with my Mac Pro in the morning and continues to spontaneously eject in the midst of a Time Machine backup. Again, Disk Utility suggested First Aid, I ran Disk Repair and walked away. Returning, I found a message from Disk Utility saying the Drobo could not be repaired while at the same time Time Machine was doing a backup to the supposedly unrepairable Drobo. Drobo Support now suggested unplugging and rebooting my Drobo and using USB rather than Firewire 800—I had waited to buy a Drobo until it had Firewire 800. Then I found your posting. Since downloading and installing Firmware 1.3.6, I have been able to start and continue a Time Machine backup without any spontaneous ejection of the Drobo. Fingers crossed...

I think it's worth mentioning that the release notes for the firmware update say 'This is a release for the First and Second Generation Drobo Firmware'.

I frankly don't know how many gens of Drobos there are...would be nice if someone here knew... but I just bought one a month back and it's been running great! *touchwood*

TJ - Sorry to hear about your experience. As others have stated here, the reason we release updates to the Website prior to enabling auto-updates is simply to ensure our support team can handle the increase in call volume. With well over 100,000 units in the field and a majority of these being the popular 4-bay Drobo, even a minor firmware update can end up resulting in quite a few calls.

The best way to ensure that you are always running the latest and greatest versions of firmware and dashboard - even prior to auto updates - would be to subscribe to the RSS feed for our software update page: http://www.drobo.com/support/updates.php

Regards,

Jim Sherhart
Data Robotics

Had my first gen drobo for about 2 years. Never had any issues, and device has always functioned as expected. Couldn't be happier!

I'm very glad somebody finally writes about a real-life Drobo experience. There is way too much marketing hype around the company, especially on tech blogs and podcasts.

Convinced by the raving opinions on the podcasts I listen to, I bought a Drobo with a Droboshare. Man, what a bad decision.

I am now through TWO Drobo replacements and no, they would not even upgrade my Drobo to a better unit. The Drobo is extremely LOUD. And I mean LOUD - it's louder than my 8-core Mac Pro!

The DroboShare is a joke. It's unreliable, will not work for superduper backups (by failing mysteriously halfway through your backup). Also, don't believe the hype about being able to move your drobo between a DroboShare and your Mac. When doing this, the DroboShare corrupted my data so badly that I had to reformat and start from scratch. Quoting Drobo Support: "... do you have a backup?".

Don't buy these things. They are not reliable.

@kinto -- your comments and attack are offensive.... did I hear you apologize? I didn't think so. OK, I clicked the link and read your missive to Ihnatko. Big deal. You won a free Drobo. Now there is a problem. You write that for a year you suspected something wasn't right relative to the blue capacity lights. Are you a fucking moron? You admit knowing something wasn't working as claimed. And you did nothing. For a year, as you wrote. It seems that after your inaction that you want to stir up shit. Maybe is good psychological relief.

I hope your problem gets resolved. If not, maybe there is something about youe karma. Is it possible you deserve to lose data for ignoring your instinct that something was wrong? Is posting hate to transfer responsibility from yourself to the company that gave you a Drobo causing your bad luck?

My comments may be unfair. Just as I feel your attack against me was unfair. But you started first, and I am responding in kind.

I also have a Drobo S two months old on a iMac. Currently I'm talking to Data Robotics regarding issues with it not being able to copy/duplicate files from one folder on it to another folder. I'm constantly getting error 36 message, unable to copy.

Since the problem started I have been checking forums and there are a lot of people out there having many different issues. It seems that they have great marketing and design and just can't deliver on what the promise. It is a shame the product sounds so good. I have no trust in the product now and I am looking for another storage/backup solution.

I own, or have owned, a Drobo (USB only), DroboShare (given away with the Drobo to a nephew), Drobo (FireWire 800 model), and a DroboPro. I live near Santa Cruz in the Bay Area, and am amazed that my Drobos didn't crap out and loose my media even after suffering several PG&E storm induced blackouts.

The only product I've had issues with was the DroboPro -- performance dropped after I load a ton of photos to it. I worked through problems with Drobo's support team. Their Tier 1 and 2 are nothing special -- just your typical script reading phone answering reps. This is true of EVERY other company. I pushed to get to get help from their top tier, tier 3. These guys (gals too?) are really good.

From my experience I've learned that try to minimize updating their entire customer base unless a release is "critical" -- whatever that term means, I couldn't get it defined. It seems to me that they are responsive by issuing updates for what would otherwise be minor (i.e. not "critical") bugs.

To TUAM poster TJ, I say: I understand your frustration and rage over the problem you had. But I do think you are SPECULATING in blaming a Drobo firmware release as solving the problems. Others have dumped on you and your actions. I want to make a different point -- by writing for TUAW you have a big soap box and loud voice.

You acted in a reckless manner daming the company. Why? Your story shows you were pissed off and reacted badly at something a Drobo support person told you.

IF you wanted to be RESPONSIBLE, you would have proceeded to understand what changed caused your Drobo to suddenly work. Did you send them a log file from your Drobo? Did you send them the Console log on your Mac? Did you even look at it? Did you try re-booting your Drobo after your Mac's logic board was replaced? Did you _____ ... you see, there are lots of subtle interactions, none of which you described so that we must conclude you didn't do any of them.

To sum up, you had a problem, after action by both Apple and Drobo, your problems are now solved. The glass is half full, you chose to broadcast that it was half empty.

Regarding many of the other posters: I don't deny you had problems (although one early post seems bogus, from a hater who used a disguised name using "Drobo" as its root). I observe that most of you are just pissing on the company, you didn't describe taking any action to solve your problems. You just suffer like losers, and are now exacting frustration-induced revenge.

thank you for bring drobo problems to light. i posted a comment to andy ihnatko's blog about my problems.

http://ihnatko.com/2008/02/18/sun-times-drobo-and-droboshare/#comment-56103

since my write up there the drobo won't even power up with the drives installed. with the drives removed my mac will not recognize it as legit. the drobo dashboard does, but says it needs to be initialized.

i've been working with a nice and responsive rep at drobo for a few days now, but have come to grips with the fact that i'll probably lose all the data i was trusting to the (safe- ha!) drobo except what i fortunately still have backed up to some older drives that have been sitting in a closet.

if you're using a drobo i'd suggest treating it as a normal drive that can indeed fail.