5C 5-Bay Direct Attached Storage

Simple. Safe. Smart.

The Drobo 5C is the latest generation of the award-winning platform that started it all. It holds true to the unique design and simplicity that has made Drobo the best desktop storage solution for storing and protecting all your data. Whether you are at home or in the office storage expertise is not required to ensure your data is always safe and protected. It includes the state-of-the-art USB Type-C connector for a simple way to attach the Drobo to your PC or Mac. USB-C is compatible with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.

Inside every Drobo is the revolutionary BeyondRAID storage technology that protects data against a hard disk crash, yet is simple enough for anyone to use. As long as you have more than a single disk in Drobo, all data on Drobo is safe no matter which hard disk fails. There’s no need to worry about anything else.

Leave Your Limitations Behind…Go BeyondRAID®

Built on our award-winning BeyondRAID technology, the Drobo 5C protects your data without any intervention – even in the event of multiple drive failures. You can even switch from single to dual disk redundancy with a single click, ensuring enterprise-level dual parity data protection when required. Drobo’s with BeyondRAID are also self-healing and have virtual hot-spares. If a drive happens to fail, Drobo will automatically re-layout the data to return to a protected state without disruption.

Drobo takes the up front guess work out of determining the amount of capacity you require. Buy the capacity you need today, and when you need more storage, simply replace your smallest drive with a larger one and immediately use that capacity in seconds. You can even mix and match drive brands, capacities and speeds.

To further enhance your experience, every Drobo comes with Smart Volume technology. Smart Volumes™ are thinly provisioned volumes that automatically utilize capacity as needed from a common pool of storage. Additionally, as data is deleted, free capacity is returned to that common pool, immediately increasing the available capacity.

BeyondRAID along with Smart Volumes deliver next-generation storage technology by bringing together enhanced data protection, reliability, expandability, and ease-of-use.

Enhanced Backup for Time Machine

Time Machine and Drobo: A Perfect Pairing
Apple’s Time Machine was designed to make backing up your files simple and painless. Pairing Time Machine with Drobo improves your data protection by ensuring your data is safe in the event of hard drive failure.

Control How Much Storage Time Machine Uses
Apple’s guidelines are to set the storage space for Time Machine at twice the size of the Mac’s hard drive that is to be protected. Time Machine users know that it will gradually use all available disk space without an easy way to stop this from happening. With Drobo you can easily control the maximum storage space available for Time Machine backups through Drobo Dashboard. When you install a Drobo, Drobo Dashboard prompts to see if you want to create a dedicated storage volume for Time Machine’s use, allowing you to set the size of this volume.

Manufacturer Part Number
DDR4A21-24TB
EAN/UPC
0816604020173,816604020173
Full Product Specifications

Note:

  • The full product specifications below are from the manufacturer and may contain information related to other package quantities that will not apply to the product that you are reviewing. Please confirm the actual content and/or package quantity from the main product specifications page.
  • These specifications may represent the entire product series/model/line to which this product belongs with specific configuration differences between the individual products stated.
  • These specifications may have been copied from the same product in other region/country in which case there might be minor differences in region-specific data such as Input Voltage, Terms of Warranty etc.

Connectivity

  • 1 x USB 3.0 port, Type-C

Drives and Expansion

  • Up to five (5) 3.5″ SATA II/III hard disk drives (sold separately).
  • Drives of any manufacturer, capacity, spindle speed, and/or cache can be used. No carriers or tools required. Click here for drive recommendations.
  • Expandable by adding drives or hot-swapping drives with larger ones. Use the Capacity Calculator to estimate available storage in various configurations.

BeyondRAID Features

  • Thin Provisioning
  • Instant Expansion
  • Mixed Drive Size Utilization
  • Automatic Protection Levels
  • Single or Dual-Disk Redundancy
  • Virtual Hot Spare
  • Data Aware
  • Drive Re-ordering

Management

  • Drive bay indicator lights, capacity gauge, status lights
  • Drobo Dashboard version 2.8.3 or later

Operating System Support

  • Apple® Macintosh® macOS 10.10 and higher
  • Microsoft® Windows® 10
  • Microsoft® Windows® 8
  • Microsoft® Windows® 7

File System Options

  • Apple® macOS: HFS+
  • Microsoft® Windows: NTFS

Hardware Features

  • Carrier-less Drive Bays
  • Power Fail Protection with Internal Battery
  • Metal Chassis and Cover
  • Kensington Lock Port for Security (lock not included)

Additional Software Features

  • Drive Spin Down
  • Dim Lights
  • macOS Time Machine Support

Warranty

  • One (1) year warranty in the US or outside the EU or two (2) year warranty in the EU.

Size and Weight

  • Desktop Form Factor
  • Width: 5.9 in (150.3 mm)
  • Height: 7.3 in (185.4 mm)
  • Depth: 10.3 in (262.3 mm)
  • Weight: 8.5 lb (3.9 kg) without hard drives, power supply, or packaging

Power and Cooling

  • AC Input – 100-240VAC~2A, 50-60Hz
  • DC Output – 12V, 10A, 120W max
  • Fixed, 120mm variable speed cooling fan

Box Contents

  • Drobo 5C
  • 3.3 ft. (1 m) USB 3.0, Type-A to Type-C cable
  • 9.3 ft. (2.8 m) power cord with power adaptor
  • Quick Start Card