Drobo 5N is a professional data storage solution at a personal price.
I’ve been a loyal Data Robotics customer since the original USB Drobo. I’ve seen way to many hard drive failures from my time repairing computers to not have a back-up. In fact, I remember losing 500 GB of data on an external Seagate drive I was using as my main source of storage. I learned about the Drobo not too much longer after deciding that my external should be used as paperweight. I bought my first Drobo in 2009 and have been an extreme fan ever since.
I’ve been using my USB Drobo along side the second generation Firewire Drobo for quite some time. A couple of weeks ago, I decided that using the Firewire Drobo was not quite what I needed. I switch between three Mac’s in my house and office. Having my two Drobos hooked to my iMac and having to connect through them to get to my files started to put a strain on my work. This is when I sold the Firewire Drobo and upgraded to the Drobo 5N. It’s Data Robotics NAS. I ordered my 5N from Amazon for $567 and because I’m a prime member, it was here the following day. I opened up the box pulled my new Drobo 5N out and stared at it with love. I can’t tell you how excited I was to get it set-up. I took off to my local BestBuy to buy five 2TB 7200 RPM drives so that I had a total of 10TB loaded into the Drobo 5N.
Setting up the Drobo 5N was quick and simple. I plugged the power in and hooked the ethernet cable into the back of my iMac. I then updated to the Drobo dashboard and waited for it to find my new 5N. Now that my Drobo was found, I inserted all five drives. The Drobo dashboard then told me that the disk needed to be formatted to work. One thing that’s very nice with the Drobo 5N is that you don’t need to set-up space for disks. The 5N does it all for you. I started the formatting of my drives which finished very quickly.
The Drobo was now ready for use. I had about 2TB worth of data to transfer over. Keeping the 5N plugged into my iMac via ethernet allowed me to move the files over quicker then doing it over the network. Once I moved all files over, I boxed up the USB Drobo and put it away for safe keeping.
I’ve wanted to have a good working NAS for so long and the excitement was killing me. I wanted to see how well this would work while plugged into my Apple Time Capsule over the network. I unplugged the ethernet cable from my iMac and hooked it up to my router.
I hate to say that I was surprised how fast the Drobo connected. My first test was to transfer a 2GB file to my MacBook Pro, my iMac and MacBook Air. The transfer speed was great and I was in love.
The next step in my testing was to set-up accounts. This is something you could not do using the USB or Firewire Drobo. I’m able to have a public folder for people to use while on my network. I can also make my folder username and password protected. Again, this was all done with ease.
I keep most every file I have on my Drobo 5N. Switching from computer to computer and being able to pick-up right where I left off without worrying about a hard drive failure or having to have a computer on that has the file I need is great. Now that my Drobo is fully set-up I wanted to make sure I was doing everything correctly. So, I started looking for articles on the 5N. I have two solid state drives – one in my MacBook Pro and one in my MacBook Air. Using either of those machines is so much faster then when working using my iMac. I was thinking that using the 5N over a network using 7200 RPM drives and not solid state drives that it would be slow and worse then using my iMac to send a file over the network. I was definitely wrong. So, in my research I learned about the mSATA card that could be used in my Drobo 5N. There is a slot on the bottom of the 5N that you can insert at anytime – no need to reformat or change anything.
I have used my new Drobo 5N for a week now and think it’s one of the best investments I’ve made. Yesterday, I ordered a 128 mSATA SSD.
Drobo 5N uses Data-Aware Tiering technology. Usually reserved for business-class storage solutions, it is also available in this networked Drobo. It intelligently uses the high-performance SSDs to accelerate performance of the storage array, allowing applications such as Adobe Lightroom, Apple iPhoto or iTunes fast access to data. If getting the fastest performance possible is your thing, you can also load up every drive bay with SSDs. Drobo gives you the flexibility to choose.
Drobo 5N uses Gigabit ethernet and is faster than using Firewire.
Drobo doesn’t just protect you from a drive failure, but also from potential data loss after a power outage. Often found only in arrays that cost tens of thousands of dollars, Drobo 5N includes a battery that protects all data in memory, or cache, that is, data on its way to the drives.
When power spontaneously goes away, the battery keeps the Drobo alive long enough for the data to be written to non-volatile storage, ensuring your important information is safe. This battery recharges itself and is designed to last for the life of the product.
Now that my mSATA card is here I can tell that it’s such an improvement.
Is the Drobo 5N a product I would recommend to you? YES!
No matter if you are a professional or just a casual computer user, everyone has data that is important. Everyone has photos they would hate to lose. Everyone has documents. You can always use online services, but trying to work with big files from the cloud, can be pretty hard and time consuming. Drobo is the best bet when it comes to storage. I hope my little story will help you make up your mind if you were thinking about getting a Drobo.
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Nice review but with some errors.
”I took off to my local BestBuy to buy four 2TB 7200 RPM drives so that I had a total of 10TB loaded into the Drobo 5N.”
I think you meant five drives?
“Drobo 5N uses Gigabit ethernet and is faster then using Firewire.”
. . . faster than.
Thank you
Cal, So many reasons to go for the 5N, but can the Drobo 5N play my Itunes movies and music to my apple TV ? This may be my deciding factor.
Tony,
You can use the Drobo 5N to play your iTunes movies and music. I have been fighting with this my self for some time now. This is how I had to set it up to work. You will need to first go to where your iTunes directory is and copy the entire library over to the Drobo 5N. Once its been copied over you will need to open up iTunes if your on a Mac by Pressing the Option key then selecting the option to choose iTunes library you will then tell iTunes that the library is on the Drobo. iTunes will then look for your library on the Drobo from here on out. Just make sure before you open iTunes your connected to your Drobo. To answer a question that was not asked I do this all the time and it works great it allows the video files to stream faster than they did from my iMac to my Apple TV. This is because its wired from the Drobo to the router. It’s worth it I think you will be very happy.
Good luck
Cal
When I say you will need to open iTunes I mean hold down the option key then click on the iTunes icon to open. It will then allow you to choose your iTunes library.
Can I have my mac off and stream direct from the Drobo? That’s what I’m
Aiming for?
Tony,
Unfortunately you cannot stream to the Apple TV using your iTunes library with your Mac off. The reason behind this is that Apple requires iTunes to be running and you would need a Mac on for that. You can use the Plex media server on your Drobo to stream to all sorts of devices with your Mac turned off. I also do this. The downside to this is that you can’t use Plex on the AppleTV unless it’s jailbroken.
WWDC is coming up Monday, One thing I’m hoping to see if the Apple TV to be opened up by Apple to allow developers to make apps for the Apple TV. If this was to happen then using Plex from your Drobo would happen pretty quick.
The reason I use both Plex and iTunes is that I have my iTunes library on my Drobo so as long as I have a Mac on I can stream to my Apple TV’s. But when I’m away from home I can use plex to stream my media to any device. It sucks that it’s not a one way option to do it all. Keep me updated.
Cal,
Great review. One question on using “Plex when you are away”
So I have my TV shows purchased from iTunes on my Drobo and is switched on when I am away. Can I use Plex to access these on my ipad using the Plex app? Does the Plex app overcome iTunes DRM?
What is the recommended size of mSata drive for use with the Drobo 5N? I read somewhere that any drive above 64Gb has no discernible benefit. Is that true? Are there any brands/models that you particularly recommend?
Olly,
The recommended drive size for the Drobo 5N mSata bay is a 64 GB SSD. I was told when looking for a drive by a technical support representative at Drobo that I could use a 128GB mSata drive. It will not get the full use of the 128 drive but it will not hurt the Drobo. I’m currently using it in mine and approved by a rep at Drobo the Crucial m4 128GB mSATA Internal Solid State Drive CT128M4SSD3
I found it on Amazon via this link. http://slykiwi.com/mSata
I’ve found that the 128GB seems to be working very well. I believe it’s using more then just 64. It shows up in my dashboard on the Drobo as the 128. I’ve been using Drobo devices from the beginning and store my life on mine. Let me know if you ave anymore questions.
Cal,
Great article. I just bought a 5N. I’ve copied all my files from my iMasc and my MacBook Pro to the public folder on the Drobo. But I’m a novice so not sure what to do now. I use to back up using Time Machine from one external hard drive to the other, but with the drobo, it’s automatically backing up from one hard drive to the other right??? In fact, I set up dual redundancy so it should be backing up twice right? I don’t have to set up any sort of timed back up beyond just saving the files to the Drobo public folder?
I plan on taking the external hard drives and using them to attach to the drobo one at a time. I’ll swap them out off site once a month so I have an offsite back up. Do I just “copy and paste” all the files or do I set up the external drives using time machine? Sorry for all the questions.
Ben
Ben,
I hope I’m able to answer your questions. First the Drobo will be backing your data up on it’s own. For example if you have a four bay Drobo have the space on the Drobo will be detected to backing up your files the other half to storing a copy of the backed up files. The Drobo does this on the incase that one of the drives goes bad all your data will survive. As for as backing up the files on the Drobo to external drives you don’t need to setup a time machine type deal, just drag the files over to the external drives. You should also consider a service like CrashPlan. I use my Drobo here at home and have a CrashPlan account that backs up all my data off site. Its secure and only costs me around $13 per month for unlimited backup space. I hope this answers your questions but if not feel free to message me I will do my best to help answer any questions.
Hello Cal,
I read your review of the Drobo 5N. I wanted to ask you how many computers are you backing up to this Drobo ?
Neil,
I was backing up four. I have sold two of the Macs so now I’m just using it for two. I keep everything I care about on the Drobo because I feel that I will have the best chance of never losing it.
Cal, can i move my iPhoto library and iMovie library to the drobo and then edit those files successfully. i spoke with drobo and they recommended not doing this due to speed issues.
Joel,
I’m going to answer this a bit weird. Yes and no. There are three main factors that determine whether you can or not – type of drives in your Drobo, model of Drobo and Internet speed. In my case, I have a Drobo 5N connecting to a 30Mbps connection. I have an SSD in my Drobo 5N and the 4 mechanical drives are all 7200 RPM speed Seagate drives. So, the best thing to do is make sure you have a strong Internet connection and that your drives are the right speed. I do edit some video from my Drobo 5N and I also store my iPhoto library on it. Of course, it’s not going to be super fast because you are dealing with big files, but it’s not horrible. Seems to be working for me ok.
This is an excellent explanation for beginners. Thanks. I am setting up my 5N now. I took all your advice on specs for drives, and the 128 mSata… this is what I’ve understood so far…
1 – set up 5N as per your specs, connect to imac, create shares, move data
2 – connect 5N to router, install services
3 – I am installing Plex to access my content at home or away as “raw” data without an iMac on
4 – I will use the iMac to connect to my content at home to edit / modify it through mac apps like iPhoto or iMovie
5 – connect to data through appropriate service (Plex or Apple TV)
if you have any additional pointers, please let me know, otherwise, I will post anything I learn from here. the idea is to create 10 experiences, all of which will integrate everything to a single push of a Logitech Ultimate MyHarmony button. So for example, I will hit a button called “watch home movies” and lights, devices, connections will all come together for me for this experience. thanks.
That is awesome I’m glad we have been able to help. Plex has just been added to the Xbox one and ps4 so you can use your Drobo to share content to them as well.
I now have both the 5N and 5D. For anyone wanting to know the 5D is an awesome Drobo as well. Much faster data transfer due to Thunderbolt and USB 3.
I don’t like the drobos that much. slow start up. the company will charge $50 for tech support outside of 90 days if they fail.
these aren’t the best hard drives by any means….
hard to uninstall drobo dashboard software too.
you have to be very procedural when starting them up and shutting them down. it’s not a quick process.
Sounds like you had a bad experience. My Drobo’s have been amazing. I do agree start up times are a bit sluggish. The hard drives you place in them could also be a part of that. Have you been using SSD’s or Hard Disks running 7200 or 5400 RMP? Any drives running 5400 are going to be much slower. Apple charges for support as well after so long.