Drobo 5C BeyondRAID data storage

If you’re not familiar with a RAID system, it was developed in the 80s and designed to pool disk drives together for increased capacity and reliability for data storage. This method prevents the loss of data in the event of a failed drive. While reliable, the complexity of RAID is a challenge for small business owners and consumers. RAID has a high learning curve with unfamiliar terminology like striping, mirroring, and parity. Drobo has simplified RAID by creating BeyondRAID technology that solves the fundamental issues that traditional RAID can not. Built on the foundation of traditional RAID, BeyondRAID adds a layer of virtualization that chooses the proper protection algorithm based on data availability needs at any given moment.

Since the technology works at the block level, it can write blocks of data that alternate between RAID protection levels. If you need to add storage capacity to a Drobo, simply insert additional disk drives or replace the smallest disks with larger ones—no need to change RAID levels, purchase a new storage system, or going through complex administration.

Drobo offers several solutions, I opted for the 5C, which is a 5 bay system using up to five (5) 3.5″ SATA II/III hard disk drives (these are sold separately). The 5C is beautifully designed offering the utmost simplicity for desktop storage. I can attest, no storage expertise is required to set up and operate the Drobo 5c. The unit includes the latest USB Type-C connector to attach the Drobo to your PC or Mac (I’m on a Mac). BTW, USB-C is compatible with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.

Setting up the Drobo is so simple, all you do is unpack, plug in the AC and USB cables, then insert the drives one at a time and power up the unit. You may also have to install the latest firmware, as well as the dashboard software, but that’s super simple. It took me maybe 10 minutes to get up and running. I did have to call customer support for a quick question and I hope the following will help you to avoid having to call yourself.

When you bring up the dashboard software, the functional navigation on the left hand size (e.g. status, capacity, etc) is greyed out. I didn’t really notice the text at the bottom of the screen that says to double click the icon to enable the details screen. I’ve taken two screen shots to illustrate below. Once the navigation is available, the unit will ask you if you’d like to format the Drobo. After you’ve done that, the system is all set up to transfer files. For your edification, it took me about 2 hours per terabyte of data to transfer, which I thought was pretty acquitted. Having said that, I have noticed that transferring files to an MS DOS FAT32 formatted drive can take substantially longer.

I’m so excited to finally be able to access all of my files without having to plug and unplug a series of external hard drives. While I absolutely love my Drobo 5c, I must admit that I’m a bit envious of some of the other Drobo units with additional functionality, however those do come with quite an additional price tag. In order for you to make an informed decision, I have outlined some of the key features of the various models:

• Drobo 5C connects directly to the computer with five bays.
• 5D is also a direct connect, but it has 3 connector ports (2 Thunderbolt and 1 USB 3.0). The 5D runs about $650 on Amazon.
• 5DT is similar to the D, but with improved performance using solid-state drive (SSD) acceleration (via mSATA) and 3 years of DroboCare. The 5DT runs about $850 on Amazon.
• 5N – This is a networked unit so you can access all of your files wirelessly. This is the unit I sort of wish I had chosen instead. The 5N sells for about $500 on Amazon.

Now, the Drobo unit is just the first part of your investment, the next are the drives. In the 5C you can put up to (5) 10TB drives. I started off with (3) WD 6TB drives and (2) WD 3TB drives, which ran me about $1000 on Amazon. Overall this is certainly not inexpensive, but it is an investment that I think was necessary for me, and likely you too. To further secure/protect my data, I have signed up for the unlimited Amazon cloud service. For $60/year I can upload everything from the Drobo just to have a mirror of my BeyondRAID system.

Lastly, the BeyondRAID feature can even switch from single to dual disk redundancy with just the click of your mouse through the Drobo Dashboard. This ensures enterprise-level dual parity data protection, when needed. If a drive happens to fail, Drobo will automatically re-layout the data to the remaining drives, returning it to a protected state with no user interaction.

If you have a Drobo Beyond RAID system, please leave a comment below and share your experience. If you have any questions at all, leave a comment and I will do my best to answer.

Click here to see the complete line of Drobo BeyondRAID systems.