This is a ridiculous bug, Apple nearly made me throw stuff out of the window.

Hi, I have my Drobo 1st generation since late 2008 or early 2009. I really like the concept and my drobo was able to grow with my needs. Pretty cool. I had problem 1 or 2 times but I successfully put the Drobo back on with almost or no data lost. I experiment the lost of a HDD 2 or 3 times an I was really prode to have my Drobo at this time. BUT...

I recently had really strange problem with my Drobo. First It start to unmount for no reason. Sometimes unplug the USB cable and put it back was enough to get the Drobo mount again, but sometime I had to unplug the Drobo and plug it back for a reboot and get my Drobo back.

After a couple of days, it start to do this strange behavior more often. Suddenly the Drobo start to relayout it's self with the message that my data was on risk. (Orange and green light blinking). The fisrt thing I notice was that I didn't have to replace any drive!!?! It took 2 or 3 days to finnish the process. And everything was back to normal.

Again, a couple days after, The same thing happen. But this time I had a really bad feeling and start to be scare to lost data. I use to have an another backup but the Drobo was now much bigger then my other backup solution so I was unable to backup everything. I was searching for a solution and my first thought was to buy I another Drobo, but for different reason I was not sure. So... Because I was still able to read the data on my Drobo I start to copy has much as I could (The data that was most important - Family photo) But after 1- to 30 minute the Drobo volume was unmounting it self. Not good...

I could not copy all my photos and now, Only one volume is mounting (the one that have less data and less important data :-( ) I try disk repair (I'm on Mac) Didn't work. The relayout is still in progress for now (34 hour left) But I don't know if my first and bigger volume will be back. If I don't try to copy data from my Drobo, the Drobo don't unmount.

I was searching on the net for solution. I found your web page and I found out that I just bought a APC XS 1300 and I my Drobo is plug in!!! I suddenly realize that my problem start around the same time!!!

Last thing. I notice that when Drobo was booting. (in the last 24h) One of my 4 HDD was blinking red for maybe 5 to 10 seconds and than nothing. Everything was blinking orange and green no HDD to change???

I then booted up and started working from it. Unfortunately, the problem persists! It crashed / went to sleep all the time! Even while I was opening a Photoshop document, it crashed, leaving my machine hanging. All this and the Drobo icon remained on my desktop.

I ran a Drobo Diagnostic and sent support the file. This was their reply;

"Diagnostics log contains records of quite a few Drobo's OS crashes. We should exchange your unit.

There are also quite a lot of power-losses noted in diags. Do you use an uninterruptible power supply?"

Anyway, after many more crashes and emails to support it was eventually replaced for another. After cabling it up, I switched it on and within the first hour it had crashed 3 times. I ran another diagnostics test and sent it to support. This was their reply;

"diagnostics file shows that reason for those reboots you noticed are power-losses. There could be something
wrong with the power supply unit. We can send you another one if you provide us wit a shipping address.

Some UPS cause problems for Drobo as well. Is Drobo connected directly to wall socket?"

I replied saying that the Drobo is connected to the wall socket, that I live in a new building and that the building manager has assured me that the power throughout the building is managed. I have bought new plugs and checked all connections. My Mac and a G Drive run off the same outlet and there have never been any problems with them. They replied;

"Do you have the 80W PSU or the 90W PSU?

The power supply part number (P/N) – not the model number – should contain the following characters:
“GPD80-12-7” (Global Power Corporation, 6.6A to 6.7A of current, for a total output of 80W DC);
OR
"EA11003A" (Edac Power, 7.5A, for a total output of 90W DC)."

I told them I have EA11003A version. They replied;

"we should send you an exchange power supply you can test with.
Please provide your shipping address."

I am still waiting.....

My opinion? The Drobo has a lot of issues that are shipped with each product. Issues that are well known and unresolved. (particularly power issues) I recommend you DO NOT waste your time and money with this product. Go for something that has been tried and tested (Mercury Elite-AL Pro QX2 ) so that you can focus on your work instead of tedious emails to support.

What a dumb bug. Surely they could fix this in seconds if they bothered?

I don't know what I did, but this issue eventually went away for me and logging in with my lowercased username works fine for me now.