Can it be set up as JBOD? Can you use drives that already have data on them without reformatting?
1110136
I am not an expert on the matter ... Don't know for sure but, I will doubt you can maintain the data as the Drobo needs to rewrite the disc to assure their structure... Not sure if will allow partitions either. Perhaps contacting Drobo directly you might find the right answer
1110137
No, it cannot be a JBOD. It forces at least 1 disk to be a data redundant disk.No, any data on the disk will be wiped after putting it into the Drobo as the device formats it with its own filesystem. When you put the disk into the Drobo, it will almost immediately begin formatting it if it isn't one of the drobo's disks.
1110138
No, it cannot be a JBOD. It forces at least 1 disk to be a data redundant disk. No, any data on the disk will be wiped after putting it into the Drobo as the device formats it with its own filesystem. When you put the disk into the Drobo, it will almost immediately begin formatting it if it isn't one of the drobo's disks.
2276887
You can certainly copy it. I do not use automated backup routines (except for C: drive) so cannot comment on these.
68978
If running JBOD setup "spanning mode" you can add disks to a volume, any other RAID mode you cannot add drives to a volume without dataloss.(except drive replacement in Raids 1 or 5)I setup a RAID1 on two drives(want all my stuff backed up) then when to try and add two more disks(again equal sized) and grow the volume. this cannot be done. have to setup a second volume or copy your data off and change the raid.On a side note the USB ports can be used for a big USB drive, then setup a backup task on the nas to copy your files off when you want to grow a raid or change format. (took 24 hours to copy my 4TB of data off to a 6TB mybook drive. If running JBOD setup "spanning mode" you can add disks to a volume, any other RAID mode you cannot add drives to a volume without dataloss.(except drive replacement in Raids 1 or 5)I setup a RAID1 on two drives(want all my stuff backed up) then when to try and add two more disks(again equal sized) and grow the volume. this cannot be done. have to setup a second volume or copy your data off and change the raid.On a side note the USB ports can be used for a big USB drive, then setup a backup task on the nas to copy your files off when you want to grow a raid or change... » Read More If running JBOD setup "spanning mode" you can add disks to a volume, any other RAID mode you cannot add drives to a volume without dataloss.(except drive replacement in Raids 1 or 5)I setup a RAID1 on two drives(want all my stuff backed up) then when to try and add two more disks(again equal sized) and grow the volume. this cannot be done. have to setup a second volume or copy your data off and change the raid.On a side note the USB ports can be used for a big USB drive, then setup a backup task on the nas to copy your files off when you want to grow a raid or change format. (took 24 hours to copy my 4TB of data off to a 6TB mybook drive. « Show Less
740079
Yes. But its a lot of data and it takes a while to copy to the local drives.
1424646
probably if you can get it work at all! Every restart I did resulted in it loosing the date and needing reformat (that was two new drives! both same problem).
1176114
It does allow JBOD but I wouldn't recommend it. You should really use RAID 5 to take advantage of this unit.
1233656
I have successfully transferred data from discs in an external USB-connected caddy, such as a Cavalry. I have not tried it with several in the Mediasonic as JBOD, but have my doubts. I'd try getting one external hard drive to act as a bridging device (ideally big enough to accommodate the 2TB drives if they are not full) than make the 2TB drives into a 6TB RAID array.
2278328
You sure can. I formatted the drive to use it as a Linux installation disk.
391633
Yes you can. Just select the JBOD function during the setup to treat all drives as separate (and Auto config should do that with DVD drives anyway)
2010995
I'm pretty sure it has to format them. When you put a drive in it will look at it and say that to use it it will need to format it and ask if you want to do that. But I'm not 100% sure. Drobo.com has a pretty good support section where I bet you can find the answer.
1728918
When you reformat a drive all of the data will be wiped out. Always make it a practice to backup your data because sooner or later a drive could go bad.
1360577
There is an option to format the drives once you log in but it won't automatically format the drives when you install them into the unit.
684476
Sorr y my first answer was not complete. You can down load software for wd and seagate drives that will recognize and format them.
1933542
Why would you need to do that? This is an array you would pop the bad drive out slap a new one in and it would rebuild the data on its own. The default is raid 1 but you can customize to your preference.
838530
Yes. You can pretty much format any drive you like to a FAT32. You can find many freeware programs that will do this. It still is going strong as my Wii U storage device.
1560555
Yes, I have one built with 4x6TB WD RED drives in an 18TB RAID-5 volume. I was able to format it with GPT, NTFS. I tested copying files, and I ran a chkdsk /r to test the free space. Everything looks good so far. I am going to be using it soon to fill with data.
1923240
Shouldn't auto format but would most likely give you the option to format/wipe both drives as WHS partitions are not supported.