Drobo Storage User Manual
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Drobo Storage User Manual

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Introduction
Drobo, the world's first storage robot, is a fully automatic data storage system that provides the only effortless, safe and
expandable repository for all of your digital assets. Drobo connects easily to your Mac via FireWire 800 or USB 2.0, and
appears like one large external drive to OS X, requiring no configuration for use. Drobo can also be easily shared over a
network using DroboShare. For more information about DroboShare, see
Sharing Drobo Between Computers
.
Many of the key features delivered to enhance your user experience include:
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Summary of Contents for Drobo Storage

  • Page 1 Drobo connects easily to your Mac via FireWire 800 or USB 2.0, and appears like one large external drive to OS X, requiring no configuration for use. Drobo can also be easily shared over a network using DroboShare.
  • Page 2 Sharing Drobo Between Computers Drobo connects directly to one computer at a time via the provided FireWire 800 or USB 2.0 cable. However, you may have a need to share your Drobo across your network. This is easily done using DroboShare, a unique companion to Drobo.
  • Page 3 The Ins and Outs of Drobo While Drobo does much of the work for you, there are still a few items that you will need to understand to take full advantage of its rich feature set. Take some time to familiarize yourself with your Drobo.
  • Page 4 The Ins and Outs of DroboShare DroboShare is a simple, plug and play companion to Drobo. Take some time to familiarize yourself with how Drobo and DroboShare connect. Related Topics Adding Hard Drives to Your Drobo Connecting Drobo to Your Mac or DroboShare...
  • 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.
  • Page 6 USB 2.0: Connect the square end of the supplied USB 2.0 cable to the USB 2.0 port on the back of your Drobo. Next, connect the other end of the USB 2.0 cable to an available USB 2.0 port on your Mac.
  • Page 7 Drobo after the initial formatting, you will get immediate access to any additional capacity. After the initial format, you will not need to format added drives until an additional pool of storage is create and Drobo will walk you through that process when the time comes.
  • Page 8 In order to remain compatible with older versions of Windows, the volume size will be limited. This option is only displayed if you are formatting via DroboShare. If you plan to connect Drobo to a PC running Windows Vista or Server 2003 and DroboShare, select NTFS for Vista and Server 2003.
  • Page 9 By default, Drobo will format itself as a 2TB volume regardless of the capacities of the drives inserted into Drobo. This property allows Drobo to easily expand, without forcing complex Windows management and configuration. The Volume Size Selection tool allows you to modify the volume size based on what is available depending on your operating system.
  • Page 10 Depending on your volume selection and the total raw capacity of the drives in Drobo, you will be presented with the opportunity to select a name for your volume(s). When done, click Continue. You will be asked to confirm your selections. Click Format to begin formatting.
  • Page 11 Drobo. Depending on how you set up your Drobo, Drobo will appear on your desktop as either a direct drive or a network...
  • Page 12 Tip: Once formatted, Drobo will handle formatting any new hard drives you may add. Any new capacity from adding a new hard drive will be available within seconds.
  • Page 13 When this occurs an additional pool of storage is created. When this new pool is created, Drobo will guide you through the process of formatting this new volume.
  • Page 14 Click the Erase button to view the Erase warning message. Click Erase to wipe any data and format the new drives in Drobo. Drobo will complete the formatting job, and a Drobo drive icon will appear on your desktop and be ready for use.
  • Page 15 Tip: Once Drobo has been formatted, you do not need to perform this format procedure again for any other drive you add or upsize in Drobo until you add enough capacity where the actual capacity is larger than the volume size. When that happens, follow the steps above to format the newly created volume.
  • Page 16 Actually Does When you look at the properties for your Drobo using any of your Mac tools such as Finder or Get Info, you will find that your Mac reports that Drobo has more capacity than it actually does. Depending on the volume size you choose to format your Drobo with, what is reported by Mac OS will vary.
  • Page 17 If you have a data bay indicator showing a yellow or red status, Drobo is informing you to insert a hard drive or upsize a smaller capacity hard drive with a larger capacity one into the data bay that is lit.
  • Page 18 If the FireWire or USB cable is connected and Drobo has power, but Drobo Dashboard is not recognizing Drobo, eject Drobo to put it into Standby. You can do this by dragging the Drobo drive icon on your desktop to the Trash, using the Mac OS Eject function in Finder or clicking on the Standby button on the Tools Tab of the Advanced Control Panel.
  • Page 19 Data Bay Indicators Drobo utilizes status indicators found to the right of each Data Bay. These indicators will always let you know the status of your Drobo. When all lights are green "everything is okay." If there is a yellow light, you are running low on protected capacity and you should add or upsize a hard drive with one of greater capacity at your convenience.
  • Page 20 Removing a hard drive during this process could result in data loss. If you remove or replace too many hard drives at once, Drobo will light all 4 data bay indicators with red lights and request that you reinsert the last drive removed.
  • Page 21 Clearing Hard Drives In the event you may want to completely reset your Drobo, clear all data from the hard drives and start anew, you may do so using the following procedure: Warning: This procedure will clear ALL existing data on the hard drives inside of your Drobo.
  • Page 22 Before disconnecting Drobo from your Mac or disconnecting the power from your Drobo, always properly put Drobo into Standby Mode by safely ejecting your Drobo first. You can do this by dragging the Drobo drive icon from your desktop to the Trash, locating the Drobo icon in the Finder and choosing Eject from the file menu, or clicking on the Standby button located on the Tools Tab of the Advanced Controls Panel.
  • Page 23 Failure to properly remove Drobo from DroboShare can cause loss of data. The Standby operation should take only a few seconds. Once Drobo is in Standby, all lights will turn off except for the power indicator, which will turn orange. Only then, can you safely disconnect your Drobo from DroboShare or disconnect the power from your Drobo.
  • Page 24 Drobo uses any 3.5” SATA hard drive, from any manufacturer, of any capacity, and of any rotation speed (5400 RPM, 7200 RPM, etc). You are able to mix and match hard drives in Drobo and it will take full advantage of the capacity on the hard drives you add to the system.
  • Page 25 Robotics devices to the most recent released versions of firmware and software. Drobo Dashboard provides an easy to read Menu Bar icon that shows you the status of your Drobo. So if you keep your Drobo in a location where the data bay indicators are not visible to you, you can use Drobo Dashboard to remotely monitor the status and capacity of Drobo and DroboShare.
  • Page 26 Click on the Drobo Dashboard Menu. Select Quit. Related Topics Basic Drobo Dashboard Advanced Drobo Dashboard E-Mail Alerts...
  • Page 27 Basic Drobo Dashboard Each Drobo attached to your Mac will have a specific drive tab. If the Drobo is connected over the network via a DroboShare, it is specifically identified by the DroboShare logo in the drive tab. Item Description Drive Tab Shows the volume name assigned to Drobo.
  • Page 28 Drobo divides your entire storage space into four types of storage areas. Use the Capacity Breakdown Bar to view information about how much space is allocated to those areas. To view the bar, click on How is my storage being used? in the Basic Drobo Dashboard.

  • Page 29: Advanced Drobo Dashboard

    Drobo Dashboard icon in the Menu Bar and selecting Data. Depending on whether Drobo is directly connected to your Mac or connected through the network via DroboShare, the Data Tab will show a graphical depiction of Drobo or Drobo and DroboShare.
  • Page 30 Each drive bay provides information about status and capacity for each drive in your Drobo. If there is no drive in a bay, it will remain empty in the status window. The upper left corner of this frame will provide a system status, which normally will display "I am Healthy."...

  • Page 31: Tools Tab

    You can access the Tools Tab from the Advanced Controls Panel. You can also access the Tools Tab by clicking on the Drobo Dashboard icon in the Menu Bar and selecting Tools. Depending on whether Drobo is directly connected to your Mac or connected through the network via DroboShare, specific controls on the Tools Tab may or may not be accessible.
  • Page 32 Item Description Standby Puts Drobo in a state which will allow you to disconnect Drobo from your Mac or power. It is safe to remove the USB or FireWire cable after clicking on the Standby button. Note: Wait until all lights on Drobo go dark and the power light turns orange before removing drives or power from Drobo.
  • Page 33 Dashboard, and Drobo and DroboShare firmware and notifies you when a newer version is available. Installed Versions Lists the version numbers of the current Drobo Dashboard and, Drobo and DroboShare Firmware. DroboCare License Provides your serial number as well as the expiration date of your DroboCare License.
  • Page 34 Combined with Drobo, DroboShare enables Drobo to be shared across a local network via Ethernet. Typically DroboShare does not need any configuration, however, for unique network situations, you can access the DroboShare Settings page by clicking on Setup under the DroboShare section of the Tools Tab of the Advanced Drobo Dashboard. Item...
  • Page 35 DroboShare-attached Drobos. If this is enabled, the user will be prompted for the username and password when they access this specific Drobo tab in Drobo Dashboard. The username and password will only have to be supplied once. Related Topics...
  • Page 36 E-mail Alerts Drobo Dashboard can send e-mail alerts based on a selected alert level for all Drobos attached to your Mac. To access this option, launch Drobo Dashboard. Go to the Drobo Dashboard menu and select “E-mail Settings”. Item Description...
  • Page 37 To E-mail Address E-mail address or addresses that the alerts should be sent to. Multiple e-mail addresses should be separated by commas. From E-mail Address E-mail address from which the alert is sent from. Mail Server Server used to send e-mail from. This can be specified as a server name (ex.

  • Page 38: Troubleshooting

    Check to see if a PATA, IDE, or SCSI hard drive was inserted into Drobo. Remove the drive and look at its label to see what type of drive it is. If it is a PATA, IDE, or SCSI drive, it won't work with your Drobo. Drobo can only use 3.5”...
  • Page 39 Visit the Data Robotics™ Incorporated website, at www.drobo.com Or contact Customer Support at support@drobo.com...

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