Drobo B810n 16TB: Network Attached Storage (NAS) 8-Drive Hybrid Storage Array with Seagate IronWolf Pro HDDs and 1x240GB SSD - Gigabit Ethernet x 2 ports (DR-B810n-5A21-16H)

We have a Drobo B810N and it started saying drives were in then out then in again. Then it started saying the drives were failing. In one week, it said 2 SSD drives (Samsung 850 Pros) and 1 HD drive (WD Red 4TB) failed. A day later, the Drobo said ANOTHER HD failed and then the next day it labelled a 5th drive failed. What is the likelihood of 5 drives on 5 different bays, 2 different drive types from 2 different manufactures failing in 7 days? Like a fool, I paid $299 for DroboCare and they said, "You drives were bad." This was what the Drobo had said, but I bought the support because they were different drives and bays, but they wanted NO RESPONSIBILITY. They would rather believe 5 out of 8 drives failed in 7 days by pure chance. They then denied my request for a refund even though all they had done is read back the errors. Seriously, if you want a device that has real support, this is not it. They don't try - they just spit back EXACTLY what the error message was without doing any research. Not worth it.

The hardware is fantastic. The only thing (that was) keeping this from 5 stars is the abysmal customer support from Drobo post-purchase.Update (2017-10-16): I was personally contacted today (by email and then by phone) by Valorie from Drobo. I explained my grievances to her, and we were able to determine that there were apparently some fairly major technical issues with their CRM software (support ticket system) which somehow meant that I never received any emails or updates for the support cases I created. She assured me that they are working internally to determine what happened and to resolve this issue.Update (2017-11-16): After a lot of work on their end, their support ticket system seems to be fixed, and I can see all the comments on my cases now, and I actually get emails when they reply to the case. Raising this review to 5 stars for their dedication to fixing this critical issue.Update (2019-03-05): Last month, one of the cooling fans started making interesting noises, so I opened a support ticket to have it repaired (I don't have DroboCare). After some back and forth, comparing the sound of the unit with and without disks, etc., they determined that I would need to RMA the unit. When they gave me the address I needed to send it to, I noticed that it was only a few miles from my house, so I asked if I could just drive it over myself. I expected a bureaucratic, "no, you have to mail it, that's the policy," but they actually told me that would be absolutely fine! When I got there, a really nice employee (sorry, I don't remember your name) offered to repair the unit while I waited. 40 minutes later, I had a fully repaired Drobo and was on my way. If I could give 6 stars for Drobo's support team going above and beyond, I would.

I have two of these. The older one has been solid for three years. The more recent one has failed four times. When I installed new drives, it couldn't see them and I assumed they were bad. When placed in other slots in the drobo, those drives reported as good. do I did a drive dance until all drives reported good, and set this unit up to back up the original unit. Three more times I have found the unit reporting some or all drives have failed. Three times I've gone through shutdown and rebuild and all drives report fine. It's on it's own UPS in a shock isolated, highly ventilated area.I've reported this to drobo twice, and I have not received any satisfaction. As an IT professional, let me tell you a backup solution that works half the time is worthless.

We purchased 2 of these units at over $3000.00 a pop for a client of ours very recently. All firmware is up to date, all updates applied. We also have Synology NAS devices that give us no problems. We have tried and tried to work with Drobo support and "we" continually have to follow up with them (they NEVER call us back when promised), we send them emails, get an automated response, we respond back and get a email from a live person usually about a week later telling us to try something we have already been told to try and then they tell us it wasnt updated in the ticket on their end! This has been going on for over a month now.Our main problem is transferring a file (or files) to the drobo or from the drobo, its extremely SLOW, 2-5 minutes to transfer a file a 1GB file on a flat 1GB network. Transferring files from the file servers, VM's, Synology's.. it works fine, its just the Drobos. We actually have one Drobo set up with 35TB of storage space and the other drobo is a real time backup of the first Drobo, so the users are technically only hitting 1 Drobo. It's about 15 users in a graphic design company. I bought these units based on the few good reviews i saw on Amazon. At this point we do not know what to do. We are desperate for Drobo to help us. I am going to send another email support now with a link to this Amazon review so they know who we are. We want to like these units but so far the units are not working correctly and the support is horrible (that comes from 10 of my support desk technicians that never complain about anything typically). If Drobo gets this resolved and helps us, i will update my review, but for now, this has cost us a tremendous amount of time, money and damaged our reputation and confidence with our client.

I ordered this unit on August 2018. Still works perfectly almost a year later. No issues and firmware updates are provided regularly. Lightning fast access speeds. I also use a few SSD's.