Drobo and the too Advanced Format transition

Mar2010

As hard drives increase in size, hardware manufactures are moving towards a new type of internal design that Western Digital calls “Advanced Format” (but it’s generally known as “4k”). You can read more about this transition at Anandtech. What’s important to know is that these new hard drives look the same as the previous non-4k hard drives that you are probably using now. And if you’re a Drobo user, you might run into problems with the new drives unless your Drobo is running the latest firmware (version 1.3.6).

Because I ran into significant issues getting the new firmware onto my Drobo, I thought I’d put up a short guide for those who are having problems as well. This tutorial assumes that you’ve already tried the typical firmware update method described by Data Robotics, found here (PDF), and that you’re already running the latest version of Drobo Dashboard, which you can find here (version 1.6.8 as of this post). I’ll also focus on first-generation Drobos running via Windows:

1. Download the latest firmware (currently 1.3.6) from Data Robotics.
2. Unzip the downloaded file; you’ll have a file called 1.3.6.tdz.
3. Rename that file to 1.3.6.zip.
4. Unzip that file and keep the file that ends with _rev1.tdf.
5. Goto Drobo Dashboard, click Advanced Controls, and choose the Tools tab.
6. Hold the CTRL key, and click Check for Updates.
7. Select the _rev1.tdf file and click Open, the click Ok.
8. Once the update is complete, you’ll have to click the button prompting you to Reboot.
9. After your Drobo has restarted, you can go to Drobo Dashboard, then Advanced Controls, the Tools to verify that the 1.3.6 firmware has been successfully installed.

And that’s it! Your Drobo is now ready for the new hard drive revolution, and you no longer have to think about putting it on Craigslist because of the headaches it has caused (at least in terms of the firmware issue). Of course, you could always just avoid buying 4k hard drives for now, but eventually you’ll have to jump in and update your machine.