Drobo 5C
USB-C storage that can grow to suit your needs and budget.
The major appeal of Drobo’s storage devices is the ability to start with two disks installed and add more later to boost capacity whenever suits you. The distinguishing feature of this model is its USB-C port; a USB-A-to-C cable is included, but if your computer has the newer port, you’ll need to get an adaptor or replace the cable. Disappointingly, there’s just one USB port onboard, whereas some RAID drives we’ve tested before have included extras and worked as a hub.
Access to the disk bays requires no tools; the front panel is magnetically sealed and easy to detach. The downside is there’s no way to lock the panel in place. A sticker on its back tells you about the statuses the lights on the front-right of the drive may take — credit to Drobo for putting it in a sensible place.
Drobo’s online guide walks you through inserting 3.5-inch SATA disks into the bays, installing the Drobo Dashboard on your device, and using the app to configure the drive. Some prebuilt RAID drives only accept disks from their own manufacturer; Drobo doesn’t make disks, and it shows no favouritism.
Getting set up took us about 10 minutes, and then a good while longer for the two disks we inserted to be initialised. After that, you can add more disks at will; detection takes roughly 10 seconds.
Some of the total capacity of your disks is set aside as an overhead to protect against a disk going bad. With the default settings, one can fail without enduring any data loss. Protection against two disk failures is an option, if you’re willing to sacrifice additional space for files. Replace a failed disk with one of the same or a greater capacity and the array is rebuilt automatically for you.
The dynamic nature of Drobo’s BeyondRAID tech enables you to expand on the capacity of whatever disks you choose to install in the first place; you can remove one disk and install a new one of a larger capacity without problem. Again, the drive deals with this automatically, saving you some worry.
Drobo’s capacity calculator ( bit.ly/2lWT9eE) is helpful for checking how your particular combination of disks and choice of singleor dual-disk redundancy will affect the space that’s actually available for your files, ahead of you buying new disks.
Dashboard shows array and disk status info clearly, and is complemented by a menu bar icon that informs you of problems — a nice touch if you’ll put the drive somewhere that results in the status lights on its front being out of sight. As for Time Machine support for Macs, Dashboard provides an option to limit the space it can use by setting aside capacity on a separate volume to your other files.
The Drobo 5C is a great way to consolidate and grow your computer’s storage over time. Its port is limited to USB 3.0 speeds, though; the more costly 5D has two Thunderbolt ports, enabling daisychaining and providing more bandwidth, plus it has an mSATA bay to further boost performance with an SSD. However, the 5C’s price, setup process, and supporting software make it an affordable and flexible pick for protecting files at home.