DROBO WARNING re: 2TB DRIVE SUPPORT

If you plan to use 2TB drives with a 4-bay Drobo, *BE SURE TO UPDATE TO LATEST FIRMWARE*. You'll probably want a full backup before updating firmware, as some people have reported data loss during firmware update. To minimize risk: shut down safely, unplug power and data cables, remove your drive set, update firmware on empty drobo, shutdown again and reinsert drive set.

[actually, the problem is probably triggered by total storage space, not by 2TB drives in particular; however in practice this will only impact 4-bay Drobo users, as 5- and 8-bay units come preinstalled with new firmware... and 4x1TB drives will not hit the limit which triggers the bug]

Apparently earlier firmwares are known to be *NOT SAFE* for use with 2TB drives. In particular, they have an insufficient amount of space allocated for keeping track of the block layout... the drives will work for a while, but once you fill up data to a certain point, it will start overwriting the data and/or block layout info at the beginning of the drive set, block zero is overwritten and YOUR DRIVE SET IS LOST. You will get 4 solid red drive status lights and the message "Drobo does not detect any hard drives. Please insert a hard drive immediately". This is due to low-level corruption of drive set, and there is currently no fix for it.

In addition, the power supply which came with your Drobo may not be powerful enough to handle 2TB drives; you need at least 7.5 amps. Check you power supply and if in doubt call data robotics, they will ship you a new power supply.

Sadly, for a company which promises to protect your data, there is no mention of either issue on their website. The 2TB drive support knowledge base entry simply says "Drobo and DroboPro support 2TB drives" with no mention of firmware or power supply requirements. Both should be indicated in screaming red text on the 2TB support page. Firmware fixes re: data safety should be prominently mentioned on the front page, support page, and anywhere that firmware is mentioned... the Updates page says users should update firmware to "take advantage of the latest features". The latest firmware release notes [PDF] mention mundane issues like OSX compatibility and miscalculation of free space when almost full, but don't mention that firmware updates provide vital data safety fixes for large drives. Nor does it include a cumulative changelog, and earlier firmware release notes are not readily available online. Given that earlier firmwares will function with 2TB drives but act as a time bomb waiting to brick your drive set, a press release / email blast would perhaps be appropriate. I'm sure I'm not the only person who avoids apparently needless firmware updates on the "if it ain't broke, don't mess with it" practice.

To their credit, the engineers are working to find a way to recover some/all data from drive sets that have been corrupted. Like many others, I have been impressed by the customer support and they are taking my issue seriously.

However there does seem to be a left hand / right hand disconnect of sorts... the engineers were aware of the data corruption problem and implemented a fix, tech support is aware of the power supply problem... and yet the web site is just a sales pitch about the greatness of drobo and how many invisible safety checks it has to protect your data. This is particularly obnoxious because their forums went private, then were shut down. Even if you are a model customer and do your research, there is no way to know about either of these two known issues, either one of which could cause total data loss.

...

Of course, you should always have a full backup. An offsite backup for that matter. Without best practices your data will always be at greater risk. That said, a redundant multi-disk device is supposed to protect your data from a single drive failure, not act as a way to lose N drives of data in one fell swoop. Drobo may have a solid tech dept and excellent customer service, but with no warnings about this data loss, there is a disaster waiting to happen for anyone who takes them at their word that 2TB drives are supported.

I don't want to badmouth Data Robotics, particularly as they are attempting a data recovery solution for me (and particularly as I haven't gotten that solution yet, and want to stay on their good side ;) However the possibility of widespread data loss is too severe, particularly for early adopters who had loaded up their Drobos with data before firmware with 2TB fixes had been released. Therefore I feel it is my duty to warn current Drobo customers of this danger.