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General => Tech Chat => Topic started by: Thorin on June 19, 2019, 10:29:19 PM

Title: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on 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 :(
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: 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?)
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Melbosa on 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 :(
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Mr. Analog on 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

Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on 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?
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Melbosa on 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.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: 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.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Melbosa on 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.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on 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. :(
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on 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.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Melbosa on 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.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on 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.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on 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.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on 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?
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on 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.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on June 28, 2019, 12:10:27 PM
Yeah, I have one or two old ones that I pulled because they were failing, I definitely don't want to use those, so thanks for checking your drives for me.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on June 28, 2019, 07:53:24 PM
Went out and bought three 6TB WD Red drives today, $214.99 each from MemEx, so $677.22 with tax.  Also, Amazon now shows a delivery date for the Drobo 5N2 that I ordered for $649.99, $682.49 after tax, and it has a Fedex tracking number and that number actually shows them receiving the package in Brampton.  This time next week, I hope to have a functioning Drobo with all files back!  Only cost $1,359.71...
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on June 29, 2019, 03:53:11 AM
Quote from: Thorin on June 28, 2019, 07:53:24 PM
Went out and bought three 6TB WD Red drives today, $214.99 each from MemEx, so $677.22 with tax.  Also, Amazon now shows a delivery date for the Drobo 5N2 that I ordered for $649.99, $682.49 after tax, and it has a Fedex tracking number and that number actually shows them receiving the package in Brampton.  This time next week, I hope to have a functioning Drobo with all files back!  Only cost $1,359.71...
:(

Not cheap. Reminds me of how much I spent on the 5TB drives I have. Though it was a good sale and they are wd black's. Great drives though.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on June 29, 2019, 03:55:01 PM
Yup, I remember when we all bought the WD Black 5TB, it's what was in my Drobo. They were an excellent price at the time, now you can't find them anymore - it's either 4TB or 6TB.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Lazybones on June 29, 2019, 04:11:43 PM
I have 3x Seagate IronWolf 8TB (ST8000VN0022) purchased in 2017 in my Synology still, paid $319.99 (currently $308.99 $38.6/TB) each from newegg.ca that was $ 40/TB

6 TB REDs at $214.99 is $35.8 TB that is a good deal

Interestingly the Seagate IronWolf 16TB  (ST16000VN001) is currently $768 each on newegg.ca $48/TB. I only mention this as I could today do a RAID 1 mirror with just two of these drives and have the same capacity as my 3 drive RAID 5 (yes I know RAID 5 is a bad idea at that size).

Its constantly amazing how much storage keeps growing in density.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Mr. Analog on June 29, 2019, 04:15:02 PM


Quote from: Lazybones on June 29, 2019, 04:11:43 PM
Its constantly amazing how much storage keeps growing in density.

Quoted for truth!


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 04, 2019, 03:04:25 PM
The new Drobo 5N2 arrived today, and of course I've been dragging my feet on starting the disk copying, so I need to start that tonight and hopefully in a few days I'll have a full cloned set to put into the new Drobo.  And I'm going to double and triple and quadruple check that I'm copying _from_ the source disk not _to_ it.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Mr. Analog on July 04, 2019, 03:33:57 PM
Good luck my friend

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Melbosa on July 04, 2019, 04:13:56 PM
Yes Good Luck!
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Darren Dirt on July 05, 2019, 01:04:56 PM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on June 29, 2019, 04:15:02 PM


Quote from: Lazybones on June 29, 2019, 04:11:43 PM
Its constantly amazing how much storage keeps growing in density.

Quoted for truth!


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Also amazing: size/usage changes in just 7 years...

Quote from: Melbosa on May 14, 2012, 11:38:35 AM
Going from a 500GB to a 300GB, with only 35GBs of data *including the HP Image stuff at 13GB.

Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on July 05, 2019, 01:14:57 PM
Quote from: Darren Dirt on July 05, 2019, 01:04:56 PM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on June 29, 2019, 04:15:02 PM


Quote from: Lazybones on June 29, 2019, 04:11:43 PM
Its constantly amazing how much storage keeps growing in density.

Quoted for truth!


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Also amazing: size/usage changes in just 7 years...

Quote from: Melbosa on May 14, 2012, 11:38:35 AM
Going from a 500GB to a 300GB, with only 35GBs of data *including the HP Image stuff at 13GB.


Considering you can get 512GB miro sd cards now and micron has released a 1TB micro sd card, yeah. things sure change.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on July 05, 2019, 01:34:54 PM
Just did a brief check of one 3TB, it seems to have low start-stop count and no reallocated sectors. so it should be pretty good. would you need more than one?
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 05, 2019, 01:47:22 PM
I need two drives, I may have good drives still sitting here, and I'll need them for a couple of weeks and can then bring them back.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on July 05, 2019, 01:51:09 PM
Quote from: Thorin on July 05, 2019, 01:47:22 PM
I need two drives, I may have good drives still sitting here, and I'll need them for a couple of weeks and can then bring them back.
Ok, no probs. Just was wondering if I had to test another drive. I was going to run a long smart check on the one drive but it wants to take 5 hours and I don't have a spare port. so no long test.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 07, 2019, 12:10:44 AM
This is not going well.

I cloned three 5TB WD Blacks to three 6TB WD Reds, and two 1TB WD Blacks to two 3TB Seagates.  I connected the new Drobo 5N2 to the network, plugged it in, and started it up (empty at this point).  Drobo Dashboard found it and I installed the latest firmware.  I shut down the 5N2 and installed the five cloned drives, then started it up.

It was stuck on red lights and saying that it was starting up for 15 to 20 minutes, so I shut it down, as the sparse documentation and videos out there show that it shouldn't be more than a few minutes before green lights.  I connected the 5N2's power supply to the old Drobo FS after checking outputs and polarity, and it started up.

So I shut it back down and put my five clones into the old FS, which should work, right?  Nope, I get told too many disks have been removed!  I think but cannot prove that the 5N2 for whatever reason started formatting the clones.

I'm kinda thinking of putting the originals into the FS, but I'm absolutely scared to do anything with the originals for fear of losing the data.

This sucks.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 07, 2019, 02:20:04 AM
I'm cloning the drives again, and once done I'm going to try putting the clones in the old FS to see if it recognizes it as the disk pack that came out of there. It should, it's all cloned.

If that doesn't work (it'll take three days), then I'll has ever to get a hold of Drobo support and probably pay to have them help me.  :(

I should've bought a Synology when Mr. A bought his, I wouldn't have all these headaches now.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on July 07, 2019, 10:08:55 AM
I think it might have made sense to do the cloning on a pc with raw disks or partclone etc.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 07, 2019, 10:38:14 AM
Drobo's sparse documentation says to do a block-level clone. ddrescue does a block-level clone, right? What you're suggesting isn't a block-level clone, if I understand correctly.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Melbosa on July 07, 2019, 03:04:12 PM
Order can matter in RAIDs btw (I had this problem with DLINK's NAS), make sure the disks go in the same order they came out (which I hope you can remember).
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 07, 2019, 07:02:45 PM
I have stickered every drive, and wrote SRC or TGT on the sticker, and put a number 1-5 on each sticker.  It's not supposed to matter with Drobo, but just in case, I made sure I knew exactly what drive came from what slot and what slot to put it back in.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on July 08, 2019, 06:51:23 AM
Quote from: Thorin on July 07, 2019, 10:38:14 AM
Drobo's sparse documentation says to do a block-level clone. ddrescue does a block-level clone, right? What you're suggesting isn't a block-level clone, if I understand correctly.
Oh right, sorry. You did use dd? Yes, that'd work. Now I presume you didn't let anything modify the clones you made? so you can always try again?
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Darren Dirt on July 08, 2019, 11:29:35 AM
Quote from: Tom on July 05, 2019, 01:14:57 PM
Considering you can get 512GB miro sd cards now and micron has released a 1TB micro sd card, yeah. things sure change.

Confirmed! 256GB microSD just put in my Samsung A8 and it only cost $49.99! https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX73347
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 08, 2019, 02:25:25 PM
Quote from: Tom on July 08, 2019, 06:51:23 AM
Quote from: Thorin on July 07, 2019, 10:38:14 AM
Drobo's sparse documentation says to do a block-level clone. ddrescue does a block-level clone, right? What you're suggesting isn't a block-level clone, if I understand correctly.
Oh right, sorry. You did use dd? Yes, that'd work. Now I presume you didn't let anything modify the clones you made? so you can always try again?
I think the new 5N2 started formatting them or something, so when I put them in the old FS it saw them as modified. I didn't let anything happen to the original drives, though, which is why I'm cloning a second time. I have successfully resisted the urge to put my originals in anything.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on July 09, 2019, 08:00:40 AM
Quote from: Thorin on July 08, 2019, 02:25:25 PM
Quote from: Tom on July 08, 2019, 06:51:23 AM
Quote from: Thorin on July 07, 2019, 10:38:14 AM
Drobo's sparse documentation says to do a block-level clone. ddrescue does a block-level clone, right? What you're suggesting isn't a block-level clone, if I understand correctly.
Oh right, sorry. You did use dd? Yes, that'd work. Now I presume you didn't let anything modify the clones you made? so you can always try again?
I think the new 5N2 started formatting them or something, so when I put them in the old FS it saw them as modified. I didn't let anything happen to the original drives, though, which is why I'm cloning a second time. I have successfully resisted the urge to put my originals in anything.
Ah, good. I was worried there. I'm glad you don't have a problem with the drives themselves. you generally don't get a second chance to copy off dying/dead disks.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 09, 2019, 09:13:45 AM
Honestly, I think this is going to turn out to be a failed power brick that I could've bought for a hundred bucks or less.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 09, 2019, 11:38:02 AM
Finished cloning the drives a second time last night, so I put the clones in the old FS and connected the new 5N2's power supply since they're interchangeable according to Drobo.  The FS started up, took ten minutes, then told me that too many disks had been removed from the disk pack and to put the drives I removed back in.  So no, you can't clone a diskpack onto other-sized disks and then use the cloned diskpack as if it was the original.  That sucks.

So I finally bit the bullet.  Shut down the FS, took out the cloned diskpack, put in the original diskpack, and started the FS back up.  So that's the old drives in the old Drobo with the new power supply.  It starts up, after ten minutes all the lights are green but the Drobo can't be accessed via File Explorer and Drobo Dashboard says the file system can't be mounted.  FSCK!  Okay, a bunch of googling, Drobo says to repair the file system but that could cause all data to get lost, at this point I feel a crushing weight of despair that my family's pictures from the last fifteen years are gone forever.

Instead of doing the repair, I decide to do a proper shutdown (since the last time these drives were used the Drobo did not properly shut down because of a power failure), and then start back up.  Takes nearly twenty minutes, but finally the file system mounts and all files are available!  So yes, it really was just the old powerbrick stopped working.

I now have all the important files, documents, and pictures getting copied over to another drive in my main computer.  I'll be setting up BackBlaze for my main computer, so that those docs and pics start living in the cloud.  Then I'll start migrating 7TB from the old FS to my main computer, and then from my main computer to the new 5N2.  Since I only have one working powerbrick for the Drobos, I have to do it with this intermediate step.

I plan to order another powerbrick for the FS, and then set this all up so that I have my main computer, 5N2, and FS all working together.
main computer
- Plex
- all MyDocs folders point to 5N2
- scheduled backup of MyDocs from 5N2 to local drive
- BackBlaze backs up MyDocs backup on local drive
- scheduled backup of other files from 5N2 to FS
secondary computers
- all MyDocs folders point to 5N2
5N2
- holds active copy of docs/pics and other files
FS
- holds secondary copy of same files as 5N2

So all the most important files will be on three devices at home and backed up to the cloud.  And then the nearly 7TB of "replaceable but would rather not spend that much time replacing them" files will be on two devices at home.

Does anyone have any suggestions for good Windows software to just backup files from one network location to another?  If not, I'm kinda thinking of writing my own little utility, it's really not that hard to do, I just know my file copying code will probably not be nearly as efficient as professional software.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Melbosa on July 09, 2019, 11:58:05 AM
PowerShell with RoboCopy is my suggestion if you are doing it yourself.  I've used XXcopy in the past as well as it has some nice robust features over robocopy.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 09, 2019, 12:18:39 PM
Xxcopy is no more, because the person primarily responsible for Pixelabs, the maker of xxcopy, died in the summer of 2017 and the business shut down.

RoboCopy, you'd set that up as a scheduled task to call some powershell, then the powershell calls RoboCopy, right?  I could probably just make myself an installable Windows service that does the same thing.  I dunno which is less work / easier to maintain and remember to transfer to a new computer when I (some day) upgrade.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Lazybones on July 09, 2019, 12:21:23 PM
Quote from: Melbosa on July 09, 2019, 11:58:05 AM
PowerShell with RoboCopy is my suggestion if you are doing it yourself.  I've used XXcopy in the past as well as it has some nice robust features over robocopy.

I would agree, if you want to SYNC two folders via a simple schedule on windows Robocopy is the best it does deltas, permission etc and even multi-threading. Similar to RSYNC on Linux.

For my phone photos and videos I have my phone and my wifes phone use the Google Phots FREE sync by default, which does reduce original quality but is unlimited. Then when the phones are full ish we DUMP the originals to our NAS so I always have two copies. I am also considering setting up a full backup of the critical NAS data to something like black blase as well.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 10, 2019, 01:13:59 AM
Man, you'd think it'd be easy to get a power supply for a Drobo, but no.  Drobo sells them on their website, and they sell in the US and in the EU including the UK, but apparently not in Canada.  Canadian Amazon has several cheap Chinese knockoffs, I'm not interested in that.  I found a site DroboWorks.com, they're an official reseller, I'm waiting to hear how much it costs for a proper branded power supply to get shipped to Canada.  I found a couple of proper power supplies on US Amazon, but I'm sure the shipping to Canada is $50+, making the power supplies, like, $150+.

I'm at the point where I think I should get all my files over to the 5N2, bite the bullet and buy a Synology, sell the 5N2, and just junk the FS.  I'm getting so sick of the roadblocks I'm encountering.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on July 10, 2019, 08:34:43 AM
To me it seems Drobo doesn't want you to fix your device. I think I've heard of other people (even youtubers) that have had issues with drobo appliances having a dead power supply or other part and them being unable or unwilling to pay for the replacement parts.

People usually end up going Synology, or self built (or one of those funky hawt 45Drives machines: eg: Av15 (https://www.45drives.com/products/storinator-av15-configurations.php) or XL60 (https://www.45drives.com/products/storinator-xl60-configurations.php))
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 10, 2019, 05:16:49 PM
If I lived in the USA or the UK or Germany or Sweden, Id' have no problem getting the required parts.  They just don't provide good service here.  Drobo did respond within 24 hours to my email asking where to get a power supply, and they gave me a link to an Amazon.ca listing.  It's $160 after shipping, insane!  I found the exact same item on Amazon.com, it's $97USD after shipping and they gave me a $25 gift card at checkout time so it's only $72USD, which is about $100.  Still pretty expensive for a power brick, wish I could just go down to the local store and buy it.

My biggest hangup at this point is that if I have more problems in a few years, I can't just take the drives out and hook them up to a Linux box and read them.  Synology doesn't have this limitation, does it?  You can read drives that came out of a Synology by using Linux, right?
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 10, 2019, 05:18:58 PM
Yeah, they even tell you how to do it using Ubuntu: https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Storage/How_can_I_recover_data_from_my_DiskStation_using_a_PC
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Melbosa on July 10, 2019, 05:23:49 PM
Quote from: Thorin on July 10, 2019, 05:18:58 PM
Yeah, they even tell you how to do it using Ubuntu: https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Storage/How_can_I_recover_data_from_my_DiskStation_using_a_PC
Yeah cause Synology knows things break... lol
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 10, 2019, 05:30:27 PM
Yeah.  I'd need at least a 5 or 6 bay, I'd prefer an 8 bay.  But that's $800-$1,500 for the empty device.  It's gonna be a while before I have enough cash to scrape together for that, like a long while.  So I guess I'm stuck in Drobo Prison for now.  Once one of the Drobos dies in a few years, I guess I'll deal with it then.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Lazybones on July 10, 2019, 05:52:15 PM
Synology has normal raid options and file system options it also has more advanced less compatible options.

For example the current file system is btrfs and the the dynamic Synology raid shr auto creates LVM raid sets.

Both can be recovered in Ubuntu but btrfs is very new and the shr can create some interesting LVM mess if you have a bunch of odd drive sizes over time. However you CAN recover it.

You can also use an open source fork of the Synology DSM os on your own hardware if you want https://xpenology.org/xpenology-explained/
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 17, 2019, 02:40:32 PM
Everything's back to normal now.  I'm serving files from the new 5N2, I'm mirroring all of the 5N2's content to the old FS, and I'm backing up all of documents and pictures from the 5N2 to my main computer.  I've got scheduled tasks calling tiny powershell scripts that use robocopy to do the file copying with log files output to my main computer.  All that's left is to set up BackBlaze to delay-mirror the backup on my main computer into the cloud.

"mirror" here, I mean only keep files on the target if they exist on the source.
"backup" here, I mean copy all new and changed files from the source to the target, so if something gets deleted on the source it still exists on the target.
"delay-mirror" here, I mean mirror but with a time delay (BackBlaze is a 30 day delay).

I also had to figure out why my work computer could read from the old FS but not the new 5N2.  Turns out the old FS only supports SMBv1 but the new 5N2 supports SMBv1,2,3, so with the old one it uses v1 and that's fine but with the new one it uses v3 and our work laptops are set to not allow guest access to connected devices, but that group policy apparently only applies for SMBv2 and 3.  So I also set up a user with a password and then set up a net use script so I can get to music on my Drobo while I'm working during the day.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Lazybones on July 17, 2019, 05:28:10 PM
Sounds like they forgot the policy to fully disable insecure SMB 1
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Mr. Analog on July 17, 2019, 05:55:06 PM
I'm glad you are all back up and running!
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on July 17, 2019, 06:23:42 PM
Quote from: Lazybones on July 17, 2019, 05:28:10 PM
Sounds like they forgot the policy to fully disable insecure SMB 1
Yeah, they were probably counting on Windows 10 to disable it and didn't think anyone would re-enable it...
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on August 03, 2019, 12:56:48 AM
So I've had two drives fail in the last two weeks.  An old 5TB in the old Drobo, and a new 6TB in the new Drobo.  Tom, I'm using your 3TB drives a little longer while I wait for these drives to be RMAed.  On the plus side, both Drobos don't have any file loss, so my docs+pics are all still in three different places.  But man, I don't like when drives fail :(
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Tom on August 03, 2019, 06:49:59 AM
Quote from: Thorin on August 03, 2019, 12:56:48 AM
So I've had two drives fail in the last two weeks.  An old 5TB in the old Drobo, and a new 6TB in the new Drobo.  Tom, I'm using your 3TB drives a little longer while I wait for these drives to be RMAed.  On the plus side, both Drobos don't have any file loss, so my docs+pics are all still in three different places.  But man, I don't like when drives fail :(
Yeah, I've gotten into the habit of stress testing new drives before putting them into service. Infant mortality is a real thing. esp for consumer drives.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on August 03, 2019, 03:57:47 PM
Well the 5TB is a WD Black that I bought Feb 2016, so it's three and a half years old.  The 6TB is a WD Red that I bought in June, but I think it just experienced unstable power.

Why unstable power?  Well, I had a 50' extension cord plugged into my outside plug, my trailer plugged into that, then a battery charger and an air compressor plugged into the trailer (to charge a battery and to inflate tires).  The air compressor worked good at first, then kinda sputtered and kinda shut down but kinda fluctuated, then shut down completely.  Turns out I tripped a breaker.  Flipped it back on, then found my main computer on a black warning screen saying it had detected power spikes so went into protection mode and wouldn't boot until I specifically told it to.  Thing is, the computer is not on the same circuit as the outside plug.  The Drobo is on the same circuit as the computer, though, so likely experienced the same power spike.

Oh yeah, the air compressor has a big label on it that says "DO NOT USE EXTENSION CORD, PLUG DIRECTLY INTO WALL OUTLET".  I should follow instructions better...
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Lazybones on August 03, 2019, 04:33:56 PM
Devices with AC motors and microwaves can be very bad for electronic device stability if they are are not isolated from those loads.

This is why I have some form of even small UPS in front of all my devices, or if I had to pick one it would be my SERVER / NAS setup.. Most UPS units employ at least basic power filtering which helps keep things clean and will sent you warnings without the interruption when they are detected.
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Thorin on August 06, 2019, 12:13:24 PM
Okay, I've got BackBlaze set up on my primary computer now.  All the important documents and pictures are stored on the new Drobo and daily mirrored to the old Drobo, and they're also hourly backed up to the primary computer, and now the primary computer is mirrored to the cloud (with a 30 day delay in deleting non-existent files).  Good god, I think that's good enough!

I also found got this interesting link sent to me from BackBlaze: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-q2-2019/.  I didn't realize they were publishing hard drive stats, cool!
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Lazybones on August 06, 2019, 12:49:18 PM
They have been publishing states for several years that are very interesting. 
Title: Re: Drobo FS died, looking for another and drives
Post by: Darren Dirt on August 07, 2019, 02:10:19 PM
Quote from: Thorin on August 06, 2019, 12:13:24 PM
Okay, I've got BackBlaze set up on my primary computer now.  All the important documents and pictures are stored on the new Drobo and daily mirrored to the old Drobo, and they're also hourly backed up to the primary computer, and now the primary computer is mirrored to the cloud (with a 30 day delay in deleting non-existent files).  Good god, I think that's good enough!

I also found got this interesting link sent to me from BackBlaze: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-q2-2019/.  I didn't realize they were publishing hard drive stats, cool!

On the subject of mass data centers, Sweden has an actual, genuine, "Under-a-Mountain Bond Supervillain Data Center" https://www.backblaze.com/blog/these-arent-your-ordinary-data-centers/