Win a drobo 5D3 worth OVER £700

Managing a big storage drive can be tricky, but not with this fantastic, hot-swappable drive!

Whether you need to safely back up your data or just want masses of storage space, the Drobo 5D3 is ideal.

It’s a five-bay storage drive that can intelligently manage multiple hard disks in an array, making the whole process a breeze. When you want to add more space, simply pop off the front panel and swap an old disk for a new one – there’s no complex fiddling with configuration.

What makes the 5D3 really special is the ability to mix and match whatever disks you want to use. Back when we reviewed it in MacFormat #319, it was filled with five disks ranging from 2TB down to 500GB, and it still performed admirably. There’s a special ‘Accelerator Bay’ that can hold an SSD, and you can load up the main bays with SSDs as well.

The 5D3 is equipped with a second Thunderbolt 3 port from which you can daisychain displays or other peripherals, so you can add the drive to your setup without losing expansion options. There’s a backup battery inside, which is used to ensure data yet to be written is not lost in the event of a power outage.

This month’s prize comes without disks inside, meaning you can populate it with whatever suits your needs. Given its flexibility, you could use whatever you have to hand and then grow from there!