
Review Summary
2019-08-05T13:28:00
We've had this Drobo for just a couple of weeks, and so far it's worked flawlessly. We use it as our main storage in a video editing bay equipped with an new Apple Mac Pro, Setup was quick and easy, everything you need (except the five drives) came with the Drobo. We installed five Seagate 2TB Barracuda drives using a RAID 5 configuration..
Kent P.
2018-03-07T02:01:06
I purchased the Drobo 5c enclosure and loaded it with four 2TB Seagate BarraCuda drives for a total 5.4 TB of storage. I am a photography enthusiast and have 15 years of digital photos collected. I store my photos on a single external HD and backup to the Drobo. Therefore, I do not use the Drobo as my primary drive, however, the initial backup (3TB) was fast and when I do attempt to access files from the Drobo, that seems equally fast. So far (3 weeks) the unit has performed as promised. It was very easy to set up and the Drobo Dashboard software is easy to use. It sits on my desktop and is quiet!
Ned H.
2017-03-15T15:38:32
Love the DROBO, and your customer support is first rate. Two business days and the DROBO was delivered to my door
Coy M.
1 x USB 3.0 Type-C Port
Up to five 3.5" SATA II/III hard disk drives or solid state drives (sold separately)
Drives of any manufacturer, capacity, spindle speed, and/or cache can be used. No carriers or tools required
Expandable by adding Drives or hot-swapping Drives with larger ones
Thin Provisioning
Instant Expansion
Mixed Drive Size Utilization
Automatic Protection Levels
Single or Dual-Disk Redundancy
Virtual Hot Spare
Data Aware
Drive Re-ordering
Drive bay indicator lights, capacity gauge, status lights
Drobo Dashboard version 2.8.3 or later
Apple Macintosh macOS 10.10 and higher
Microsoft Windows 10, 8, and 7
Apple macOS: HFS+
Microsoft Windows: NTFS
Carrier-less Drive bays
Power fail protection with internal battery
Metal chassis and cover
Kensington Lock Port for security (Lock not included)
Drive Spin Down
Dim Lights
macOS Time Machine Support
External Power Supply:
AC Input: 100-240 VAC, 2 A, 50-60 Hz
DC Output: 12 V, 10 A, 120 W max
Fixed, 120 mm variable speed cooling fan
Desktop
10.3 x 5.9 x 7.3" (26.2 x 15.0 x 18.5cm)
8.5lbs (3.9kg) (without hard drives, power supply, or packaging)
816604020005
Love my DROBO
By Coy M.
Love the DROBO, and your customer support is first rate. Two business days and the DROBO was delivered to my door
Lovin' it so far
By Kent P.
We've had this Drobo for just a couple of weeks, and so far it's worked flawlessly. We use it as our main storage in a video editing bay equipped with an new Apple Mac Pro, Setup was quick and easy, everything you need (except the five drives) came with the Drobo. We installed five Seagate 2TB Barracuda drives using a RAID 5 configuration..
Simple. Safe. Smart
The Drobo 5C is the latest generation of the award-winning platform that started it all. It holds true to the unique design and simplicity that has made Drobo the best desktop storage solution for storing and protecting all your data. Whether you are at home or in the office storage expertise is not required to ensure your data is always safe and protected. It includes the state-of-the-art USB Type-C connector for a simple way to attach the Drobo to your PC or Mac. USB-C is compatible with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.
Inside every Drobo is the revolutionary BeyondRAID storage technology that protects data against a hard disk crash, yet is simple enough for anyone to use. As long as you have more than a single disk in Drobo, all data on Drobo is safe no matter which hard disk fails. There's no need to worry about anything else.
Leave Your Limitations Behind Go BeyondRAID
Built on their award-winning BeyondRAID technology, the Drobo 5C protects your data without any intervention - even in the event of multiple drive failures. You can even switch from single to dual disk redundancy with a single click, ensuring enterprise-level dual parity data protection when required. Drobo's with BeyondRAID are also self-healing and have virtual hot-spares. If a drive happens to fail, Drobo will automatically re-layout the data to return to a protected state without disruption.
Drobo takes the up front guess work out of determining the amount of capacity you require. Buy the capacity you need today and when you need more storage, simply replace your smallest drive with a larger one and immediately use that capacity in seconds. You can even mix and match drive brands, capacities and speeds. To further enhance your experience, every Drobo comes with Smart Volume technology.
Smart Volumes are thinly provisioned volumes that automatically utilize capacity as needed from a common pool of storage. Additionally, as data is deleted, free capacity is returned to that common pool, immediately increasing the available capacity. BeyondRAID along with Smart Volumes deliver next-generation storage technology by bringing together enhanced data protection, reliability, expandability and ease-of-use.
Enhanced Backup for Time Machine
Time Machine and Drobo: A Perfect Pairing
Apple's Time Machine was designed to make backing up your files simple and painless. Pairing Time Machine with Drobo improves your data protection by ensuring your data is safe in the event of hard drive failure.
Control How Much Storage Time Machine Uses
Apple's guidelines are to set the storage space for Time Machine at twice the size of the Mac's hard drive that is to be protected. Time Machine users know that it will gradually use all available disk space without an easy way to stop this from happening. With Drobo you can easily control the maximum storage space available for Time Machine backups through Drobo Dashboard. When you install a Drobo, Drobo Dashboard prompts to see if you want to create a dedicated storage volume for Time Machine's use, allowing you to set the size of this volume.
Upgrading With the Remarkable Drobo 5C
Once you experience how easy it is to use a Drobo you'll know there is nothing that compares - but that isn't the only remarkable thing about it. Drobo takes upgradability to the next level. Not only can you upgrade capacity with no downtime by adding new drives or replacing smaller drives with larger ones, you can seamlessly upgrade to a new Drobo 5C by simply removing the disk pack from your current system and moving it to a new Drobo 5C. Upgrading not only gives you an instant performance or capacity boost, but also delivers all the other benefits of the new Drobo.
Power Protecting Your Critical Data
The Drobo 5C doesn't just protect you from a drive failure, but also from potential data loss after a power outage. In every Drobo they include battery backup technology that protects all data in memory or cache. When power spontaneously goes away, Drobo moves any in flight data to onboard flash in your Drobo so it will be protected and moved to your disk drives once power is restored. This ensures your important information is safe and sound. Even better, your battery recharges itself and is designed to last for the life of your Drobo 5C.