USB connected Drobo 5D won't mount on Time Capsule

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10 points

USB connected Drobo 5D won't mount on Time Capsule

Hi,

I recently purchased a Drobo 5D and, after setting it up plugged directly into my Macbook Pro via USB, plugged it into my Time Capsule (3rd Gen, firmware 7.6.4) via USB.

It showed up correctly in Airport Utility and I was able to connect to it easily via Finder. It was initially set up with 2x WD Red 3TB HDDs.

However, after a few days of successful usage, I plugged the Drobo directly into my mac for some faster data transfer. At this stage, I also updated the Drobo firmware from 3.0.9 to 3.0.10, and added a 3rd HDD (WD Green 2TB) to an empty bay. After shutting down the Drobo, I plugged it back in to the TC. From this point on, I have been unable to get the Drobo to show up in Finder or in Airport Utility. It continues to mount corretly when plugged directly into my Mac.

Things I have tried:

Downgrade Drobo firmware to 3.0.9 and 3.0.8 and back up again.
Downgrade TC firmware to 7.6.3 and 7.6.0 and back up again.
Remove the 3rd hard drive from the Drobo.
Factory Reset of Drobo, including reformatting of the hard drives (both via Drobo Dashboard and via Disk Utility).
Restore Default Settings of TC. (I have *not* wiped the TC hard drive).
Plugged the Drobo in via a powered USB hub. (other self powered 2.5" usb drives mounted correctly through the hub).
Used a different USB cable.

I've contacted Drobo support, they've looked at my log files and think there's nothing wrong with the Drobo.
Other disks mount correctly when plugged in to the TC via USB. The Drobo acts like it's not plugged in to anything and goes to sleep after a few minutes. The TC just doesn't see it there at all.

Any ideas on how to get the TC to see the Drobo again??

Time Capsule 802.11n (3rd Gen)

Posted on Apr 30, 2014 10:26 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 25, 2017 11:54 AM in response to simonsimon

Quite some time since this thread was active but I try anyway.. Just a quick question to simonsimon, your Drobo still works fine with your Netgear router? Do you have more than one volume on your Drobo?

//Mike

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Answer 2

Apr 30, 2014 11:44 PM in response to simonsimon

Normally multi disk units simply don't work on the TC. You need a hard drive that acts and behaves and presents itself to the TC firmware as a straight hard disk.

So I guess you will hate it but I think the abberation was that it worked at all.. not that it doesn't work now.

The TC is extremely fussy.. what is presented to it as a USB hard disk just has to be recognised as exactly that.

And plenty of normal USB drives don't work so I am really surprised it did.

Apple provide no help whatsoever. They do not want you digging down into the deeps of the TC firmware.. but you can if you are serious about this.

Read down to the bottom of this page.

https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repair/new-issue-with-a1355-gen-3-tc

If you solder in a serial console, you can get access to the low level netBSD commands.

I have been testing them after a long hiatus.. particularly hard disk commands to partition drives in place and do checks and fixes..

I surely DO NOT recommend this course. But it will maybe show you what the problem is. Albeit you cannot do anything about it.

BTW.. USB is very slow on the TC.. so plugging your drobo into the TC will result in file transfer speeds about half that connected to USB2 on the computer.. and far less than USB3 or FW800 or any later port.

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Answer 3

simonsimon Author

Level 1

10 points

May 1, 2014 12:10 AM in response to LaPastenague

Bugger. I'm sure I've read about other people using it in this manner, albeit with other issues - at least their disks were showing up! Maybe they just got ultra lucky.

Do the airport extremes have the same problem? Again, I know I've read about people using them successfully... but if it's touch and go maybe I'll hunt down another router.

Interestingly, right before it stopped working I did do some speet test comparisons (using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test),

Western Digital		Drobo		Time Capsule Internal
Write	Read	Write	Read	Write	Read
Wifi (via TC)	11.8	16.6	15.5	16.8	14.8	16.1
Ethernet (via TC USB2)	51.0	16.9	52.6	17.0	50.2	16.8
USB2	25.1	28.4	32.1	16.1	-	-

The Drobo and a different WD external disk were fastest when plugged into the TC and accessed via ethernet.

Can't understand why that's faster than directly into my Macbook (which is too old for USB3, sadly).

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Answer 4

May 1, 2014 1:37 AM in response to simonsimon

I would be wary of disk caching in your speed tests there.

ie you should actually transfer a 1GB file to the USB disk..

Read speed looks right.. and is always faster than write speed which honestly is impossible.

52.6MB/s on USB2,, when the max transfer speed is 480Mbit/s is really impossible. Even USB3 will struggle to get those speeds on a router via gigabit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

USB 2.0 was released in April 2000 (now called "Hi-Speed"), adding higher maximum signaling rate of 480 Mbit/s (due to bus access constraints the effective throughput is limited to 35 MB/s or 280 Mbit/s

See speed tests on USB3 equipped routers here.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32239-ac1900-first-look -netgear-r7000-a-asus-rt-ac68u?showall=&start=1

This shows comparison between latest routers with top end performance. USB3 almost manages 60MB/s .. but it is way below the capacity of USB3 for the same reason.. if that USB3 disk was plugged into the computer it would perform at double the speed.

For wireless you notice the speeds for read and write are about correct.. because wireless will be the rate determining step and is adequate to use USB 2.

AE is identical now in every way to the TC.. excepting it misses out on the internal hard disk.

Older models of the AE are slightly different but no better on the USB than the TC.

I did start a thread for working out what works and what doesn't work based on chipset.. but sadly few people have contributed to this point.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5912861?tstart=0

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Answer 5

simonsimon Author

Level 1

10 points

May 1, 2014 4:53 AM in response to LaPastenague

Are the new/current AE/TC's better with USB than the old ones? Mine is 3rd gen TC, from 2009. I'd like to hope they'd improved...

Makes sense about the speed things. One day I'll do a file transfer test... not today.

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Answer 6

May 1, 2014 5:19 AM in response to simonsimon

Since it is still USB2 port it has no improvement whatsoever.

Not until they release USB3 will there be an improvement.

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Answer 7

simonsimon Author

Level 1

10 points

May 1, 2014 5:21 AM in response to LaPastenague

Boooooo.

Ok, well thank you very much for your help.

Now just to decide if I send the Drobo back (I'm also in Melb and I bought it from the US on Amazon...) or if I try for a better router. Bah, Apple. So good until they're not.

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Answer 8

May 1, 2014 5:26 AM in response to simonsimon

The drobo is thunderbolt.. ??? From the specs, that is the interface to use.. I know it isn't easy with a laptop.. and if yours is too old then bad luck but the thunderbolt is missing.. buy a new laptop or even a mini with thunderbolt port and use it as a server.. make a great combo.

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Answer 9

simonsimon Author

Level 1

10 points

May 1, 2014 5:35 AM in response to LaPastenague

The Drobo 5D is Thunderbold and USB3.

My macbook is too old for both of those, but my partners MBAir has both.

I bought the 5D (over 5N) to use USB for wireless access now, and when i buy an iMac sometime in the next few years use the Thunderbolt 2 instead.

The plan was to use it for hosting Time Machine backups as well as to host movies & TV shows for my AppleTV2 (jailbroken). So it needs to be network accessable by 2 laptops and an ATV all the time.

Maybe a mini, maybe a 2nd hand mini is the way to go. Neither of our macs have 802.11ac, so no other reason to upgrade the router at this stage.

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Answer 10

May 1, 2014 5:40 AM in response to simonsimon

Yes, mini is a good solution.. I am sitting on a mini now.. (with a 27" LCD monitor). It makes no noise.. actually there is more hum from the power supply in the monitor that the mini.. It is i7 from 2011.. but it is the third one I bought.. only the 2012 has USB3 but very little other improvement.. you can buy 2011 for down around $400 if you shop carefully. Stick a small SSD as a boot drive in it.. and keep the 500GB as local data and then the drobo for your mass storage.. with gigabit works great as a server.

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Answer 11

simonsimon Author

Level 1

10 points

May 13, 2014 6:21 PM in response to simonsimon

A little follow up FYI:

I took my Drobo 5D into the Genius Bar at an Apple Store. They couldn't help with getting it to work on my TC, however they opened up a brand new Airport Extreme (2014 ac model) and it did not work on that either.

My mate in South Australia also has a Drobo 5D but has a new ac Time Capsule.
His Drobo mounted with no problems on the Time Capsule. It was running firmware 3.0.7.

He updated the Drobo firmware to 3.0.10, and it continued to correctly mount on the Time Capsule.

I have been sent a replacement 5D from Drobo, after they agreed that mine might be faulty. The new one does not mount on my old Time Capsule. However, it mounts better on my mac. What i mean here is that it mounts first time every time. The old "faulty" one would mount once, but if you restarted or ejected the drobo you'd have to restart it twice while not connected and before reconnecting, then it would work. So there was definitely something wrong with my first 5D, however clearly the interface between 5D's and apple routers is not reliable.

To solve my problem, I've purchased a Netgear R7000 router. The replacement Drobo mounts correctly when plugged into its USB3 port. Haven't tried it on the USB2 port on the router.

This router costs about the same as an Airport Extreme, but has way more features and reviews suggest far better performance in most cases.

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