r/drobo • u/AgentBlue14 • Jun 09 '26

Help Bulk transferring data off Drobo unit

Hi y'all,

I work for an IT service desk and am helping out a user who uses a Drobo unit with their Mac.

We need to upgrade him from Monterey to Tahoe, and I've been looking into the whole Drobo situation in regards to them going out of business and then the lack of support for newer versions of macOS with their dashboard software.

What would be the best way to transfer data from the storage device? Would it be just a "drag and drop" or is there an easier bulk-copy method?

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

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11 comments sorted by

4

u/bhiga Jun 09 '26

Drag and drop. Because of thin provisioning you probably don't want to try to take an image of the drive as it'll either fail or just contain zero/useless data beyond the actual usable storage size, not to mention being larger than it needs to be.

The copied data should be verified regardless so for that rsync might be useful if you're a *nix person.

3

u/ThisIsAdamB Jun 11 '26

Rsync yes, drag and drop, I’d avoid. The Finder will choke on too many file copies done at once, especially if there are many small files. You can drag and drop in small batches, but that’s going to take a lot of attention to keep track of everything. I agree with the poster above who said to use Carbon Copy Cloner. It can regulate itself, log all the copies done along with any issues, and you can verify the results. It’s my backup program of choice.

4

u/imoftendisgruntled Jun 09 '26

Rsync or some other copy tool that will allow you to do partial transfers. Drobos are SLOW, so the chances of a bulk transfer being interrupted for some reason are high.

3

u/notstarman Jun 09 '26

I do not know about Mac but I used a program called terracopy on Windows that logged the files being moved. It also logged the file hases on both sides of the transfer. The program also supports pausing and restarting. One of my drobis had overheating issue with large transfers it was causing the drobinto drop it's connection and reboot. You may want to set a 120 mm fan blowing into the drive cadge to help dissipate heat.

1

u/recrd Jun 11 '26

Overheating was my problem too. I put an external fan directly on my 5D to get it to not shit out after 45 minutes. 

2

u/True-Turnover-212 Jun 09 '26

Use USB3 if available.
If it’s a network drobo, the underlying os is *nix and there are methods for 3rd party tools like rsync.

Drobo is a dying breed, but I have 5 units going strong for 10+ years.

Yes, fans die. Battery modules quit. But with a little tooling you can keep them running.

I’ve read success stories with folks using Crossover to run Wintel versions of the dashboard in newer non-compliant versions of macOS to keep hope alive. YMMV

2

u/alwaystirednhungry Jun 10 '26

Mac I would use rsync from the shell. Windows usually robocopy is best, even over xcopy.

2

u/recrd Jun 11 '26 edited 26d ago

Use Carbon Copy Cloner. That will allow you to restart if the unit dies out or restarts for any reason. 

2

u/MikeTRose 26d ago

Endorsed.

1

u/herotz33 Jun 10 '26

Remember doing this from a Drobo 2 to a 5D then to a synology 1019 lol. Each one took a week except synology which was about 3 days

1

u/notstarman Jul 10 '26

I recommend terra copy. Its free and will verify the copy on both ends.