Drobo storage system User Manual page 5

Adding Hard Drives to Your Drobo
When you add hard drives to your Drobo, each individual hard drive becomes part of a large pool of storage where data is
spread out across all of the hard drives in Drobo. As you add or replace hard drives to increase capacity, each new hard
drive becomes identified as part of the storage pool. Drobo will keep track of which hard drive is part of this pool of
storage.
Drobo has four data bays. Each one holds a single, 3.5" SATA hard drive. IDE, SCSI, and PATA hard drives are not
compatible and should not be used.
Before connecting Drobo to your PC, simply insert your hard drives into the empty data bays. You may use any capacity
3.5" SATA hard drive, from any manufacturer, having any rotation speed (5400 RPM, 7200 RPM, etc).
Tip: Start with at least two hard drives to provide data redundancy and protect against a single hard drive failure.
Tip: In the event that Drobo is almost full and all drives in Drobo are the same capacity, you will need to replace two
drives (one at a time) in order to increase the overall amount of protected capacity. Replacing just one drive will not
increase your overall protected capacity. Remember to replace one drive at a time and allow the data protection process
(blinking green and yellow) to complete before removing another drive.
Warning: When adding hard drives to Drobo, ALL pre-existing data on those drives will be erased.
To Add a Hard Drive:
1. While holding the hard drive flat (horizontal), orient it so its connector is at the bottom.
2. Point the connector-end away from you.
3. Slide the hard drive into the desired data bay, with the connector-end entering first, until the drive latch locks the
hard drive in place.
You are now ready to either connect Drobo to your PC or DroboShare.
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