Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives

Thorin · June 19, 2019, 10:29:19 PM

We had a thunderstorm right over the house this morning, and now my Drobo FS won't start.

Does anyone here have a 5 bay or 8 bay Drobo I could borrow for a while so I can copy my data onto some other storage?

Does anyone have any 5+TB drives? I need three plus two more 1+TB drives to make copies of my disks before trying them in another Drobo.

Please ask friends, too, and I'm willing to pay a rental fee if needed.

I'm going to go price out buying everything new, as well. I'm really not looking forward to seeing the cost, though

Thorin · June 20, 2019, 12:20:55 AM

Mel, you used to have a Drobo and had it fail, right? Did you clone the disks in your disk pack before putting them in the new Drobo? I have 5TB drives, that size can't be found anymore, can I clone them to larger drives?

If anyone has any expertise please feel free to jump in. Right now I think I need to:
1. Buy drives to clone to (3x6TB, about $900)
2. Clone 3x5TB and 2x1TB in case I accidentally wipe them (probably takes a week)
3. Buy a new 5-bay Drobo (about $700)
4. Install my five-drive disk pack into the new Drobo and start it (five minutes)
5. Pray to the old gods
6. Set up a proper backup system (maybe Acronis?)

Melbosa · June 20, 2019, 09:07:06 AM

Quote from: Thorin on June 20, 2019, 12:20:55 AM
Mel, you used to have a Drobo and had it fail, right? Did you clone the disks in your disk pack before putting them in the new Drobo? I have 5TB drives, that size can't be found anymore, can I clone them to larger drives?

If anyone has any expertise please feel free to jump in. Right now I think I need to:
1. Buy drives to clone to (3x6TB, about $900)
2. Clone 3x5TB and 2x1TB in case I accidentally wipe them (probably takes a week)
3. Buy a new 5-bay Drobo (about $700)
4. Install my five-drive disk pack into the new Drobo and start it (five minutes)
5. Pray to the old gods
6. Set up a proper backup system (maybe Acronis?)

Yes I did. I had to make copies and send originals to drobo for rebuild. I'm not sure what tools they used to fix the corruption. Was the last time though I used Drobo, switched to Synology and have never looked back.

I don't use a backup software myself, I use cloudsync to sync the important stuff to cloud providers (DropBox, Box.com, etc). They usually have some type of file system backup to help with things like crypto ransom or file corruption, so I don't bother with the traditional full->incremental/differential backups.

Unfortunately I do not have any TB drives over 4TB spares

Mr. Analog · June 20, 2019, 09:33:11 AM

I have a really old 4 bay Drobo I can lend you. It's painfully slow though

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

Thorin · June 20, 2019, 08:36:19 PM

Thanks, that won't work though. I need a five-bay network attached (not direct attached). I'll have to bite the bullet and buy a 5N2. I was hoping someone would have one, two, or three 5+TB drives I could borrow but looks like no. I'll have to bite the bullet and buy some. The 5TB are impossible to buy, so I'll have to buy 6TB ones.

So, do you guys know if I can clone an entire 5TB drive to a 6TB drive, or if I have to have a matching size?

Melbosa · June 20, 2019, 09:58:30 PM

Using Linux Tools you can clone the partition as is. Don't expand the partition as the raid set may not work.

Thorin · June 20, 2019, 10:29:04 PM

And then the Drobo will see the 6TB drive as if it's the original 5TB drive? I'm hoping to put the cloned dives into the new unit and having it see them as already having the data.

Melbosa · June 20, 2019, 10:47:12 PM

Quote from: Thorin on June 20, 2019, 10:29:04 PM
And then the Drobo will see the 6TB drive as if it's the original 5TB drive? I'm hoping to put the cloned dives into the new unit and having it see them as already having the data.

IT should see them as 6TB drives but with your old RAID on it, which should allow you to expand after you successfully repair the raid back online.

Thorin · June 20, 2019, 11:09:50 PM

Is that based on experience with Drobo and its weird BeyondRAID or with other gear? I can't find a straight answer anywhere online.

5TB drives are more expensive and harder to find than 6TB drives, but if the cloning doesn't work right with the 6TB drives then that's all a moot point.

Would you use ddrescue for the cloning?

Thanks for sharing your expertise, I only need to think about this every six to eight years so I'm not an expert.

I should've set up a proper backup for my shared docs folder, that's the only thing I absolutely need to recover.

Thorin · June 20, 2019, 11:42:18 PM

Just ordered a Drobo 5N2 from Amazon.ca. I have a (non-working) Drobo FS, the next version is the 5N, and the next one after that is the 5N2. Drobo says on their site I can migrate my disk pack from FS to 5N2 by just moving them over when everything is turned off. I'm nervous to do that, though, which is why I want to clone them first in case it doesn't work and they get wiped.

Melbosa · June 21, 2019, 12:36:52 AM

When I sent in my disks to drobo, they were clones of the originals. They were different sized disks than the originals, but yes I believe I used ddrescue to clone them, I just did not alter the partition sizes at all to take advantage of the extra space. Drobo recommended this prior to me sending it in, so I did. Then when I got it back recovered (mine had data corruption that drobo covered under warranty), I used my original ones to build my Synology. Then I transferred the data back to the Synology, and then expanded using the drives from the clones. Synology is an 8 Bay vs the drobo that was a 5 bay, so while it took a few weeks of releveling, eventually I had all the new drives and some old ones in the 8 bay.

When it was all said and done, and knowing I did not want to go through that again, is when I hooked up cloudsync for my photos/home vids, and for my personal documents. If there is a next time, at least I'll not be so stressed over trying to make it work.

Tom · June 21, 2019, 09:20:33 AM

If you can't get the thing RMAed or anything I might be able to take a look to see if its repairable if you care at all. Often these things die from power supply problems. compact chassis that stay on all the time heating up the little capacitors till they fail.

Fun story, the electrolytic caps they use on most power supplies, even the good ones, are only rated for like 2000-5000 hours at their rated temperature. so if they run at that temperature 24/7, the good ones would last like 208 days. So you'd hope they'd design it so they never reach their rated temperature.

Thorin · June 21, 2019, 10:20:34 AM

It's eight years old so it's way way out of warranty. I think they end-of-lifed it four years ago. I did take it all apart to check every part of the board for burst caps or anything and couldn't find anything. I did not take the power brick apart to check that, although the power brick has a light in it that still comes on. I mean, yeah, if it's repairable for real cheap, then maybe. But I won't be able to sell it to anyone for anything. I'll probably just junk it like we do with so much of our electronics.

Thorin · June 28, 2019, 10:55:21 AM

Adventures in Amazon Land

I found Amazon.ca to be the cheapest for a new Drobo 5N2 (that's the latest version), so I ordered it; that was on Thursday June 20. The standard free shipping option said it would be here by Thursday June 27. I didn't want to wait that long, so opted for the most expensive Priority Shipping option, which says 1-2 business days so would've been Monday June 24. I was watching my order, but the "estimated delivery date" was never set. What the devil?

So I contacted Amazon.ca support on Wednesday June 26 (two days after I should've had my Drobo), and asked what was going on. I was told "there was a glitch due to a price change" and that I should cancel my order and order again. So I did, and I wanted it as soon as possible, so I selected the same Priority Shipping. It didn't set an estimated delivery date again, so I asked about that, and was told that it was because there hadn't been anything at my nearest fulfillment center. Keep in mind, I specifically ordered from Amazon.ca because they said they had 8+ in stock and that it was coming from Amazon directly, not a reseller. So okay, fine, how much longer? "2-3 business days, sir". So that's Friday June 28 or Tuesday July 2 (Monday's a stat holiday).

So I check on the order the following day, Thursday June 27, and lo and behold it still doesn't have a delivery date set. So I get back in touch with Amazon support, ask what's going on, "there was a glitch but I fixed it, sir". So I look at the order, all they did was remove the Priority Shipping and set it back to the standard free shipping option. I chatted a little more with support, apparently Priority Shipping wasn't available for this item and so it just didn't ship, but there was no indication to me that I selected a non-actionable event.

So my order got fixed, and I checked today, and there is indeed a delivery date set! Next Thursday July 4. I should've just gone for the free shipping to start with, I would've had my Drobo by now. But at least it's on the way.

---

I'm going to Memory Express to buy three WD Red 6TB drives (they're only $215 a piece right now) to copy my three 5TB drives to. I also need a couple of 1TB drives. Does anyone happen to have a couple of drives 1TB+ that I can borrow for a month?

Tom · June 28, 2019, 11:37:43 AM

Quote from: Thorin on June 28, 2019, 10:55:21 AM
I'm going to Memory Express to buy three WD Red 6TB drives (they're only $215 a piece right now) to copy my three 5TB drives to. I also need a couple of 1TB drives. Does anyone happen to have a couple of drives 1TB+ that I can borrow for a month?

I should have some 1TB lying around. I'll pull some out and make sure they work first... some may have a few too many reallocated sectors and primed to fail.