So I was moving my drive and when I put the cover back on I accidentally ejected a drive. I didn’t notice until I plugged it and the drive light was red. I thought it was dead until I noticed it was not pushed in. I pushed it back in and it went into data proaction mode with the alternating flashing lights and still doing it after 4 hours. Is it possible the drive is still bad? Why is the data re-writing just because the drive was out for a few minutes?
hi, i seem to remember reading somewhere that if a drive is ejected for a short amount of time and put back in, it may just be rechecking all of the integrity of your data but it might be doing a rebuild which could take about 24hours per 1tb of data that you have (maybe a little longer if still plugged into a computer but if its already connected up then you might as well leave it as it is)
im not sure what “short time” actually means and it might vary from firmware to firmware, but as far as i know your data should still be accessible to you ,(but if you start accessing lots of files it will likely slow down the recovery that it is doing).
the drive itself, maybe actually ok, but once the rebuild/recovery is finished, you could try checking in dashboard to see if it has any more messages for you (and to also use dashboard to create a diagnostics file for future)
hang in there and it should be ok in the end 
thank you! After 3 days the verification is done. I’ve got 4 greens, but now it will not mount? It WAS mounted and available during the rebuild but now does not show in finder or in dashboard. Any other ideas? Thanks.
hi im not sure about a mac, but on a windows computer ive had to disable the dshboard program (and service) a couple of times and reboot both computer and drobo, when ive had a drobo tht didnt mount up.
you could try that, firstly to shut down the computer and then more safely shutdown the drobo.
and to restart with just the drobo with power cable, and then when it goes through the led lights startup, it should then go into standby mode at which point you could try loading up the computer (and verify that no dashboard service or app is running) and to then try to conect it to see if it finds it now.
btw am not sure what connection you were using before?
Paul I really appreciate your help. I am admittedly a NOVICE when it comes to this stuff. My drobo (2nd gen) is connected by USB. I just bought a firewire to thunderbolt adapter to try but not while I am in the middle of all this.
So here is what happened next. The rebuild was done but the Mac could not be seen on the dashboard or in the Finder on the Mac. So I rebooted both the drobo and the Mac. When the Drobo re-booted the 2nd bay had a solid red light for about a minute, then all four went green and it went back into rebuild mode! ( I have 4X2TB drives). When it went into rebuild mode it mounted and could be seen in dashboard(it was showing about 1.4TB free) and in the Finder, but now after another 24 hours of rebuild it doesn’t show up in either. I’m worried that I have entered some endless cycle here. I guess I can’t do anything more until the rebuild finishes again.
hi doc,
i think sticking with usb for now is probably the safer bet, and would only swap it with another cable if the existing looks a bit squashed or kinky (if you pardon the expression)
unless an existing connector is damaged in some way, then in my opinion, converters or adapters can only add more potential problems to the mix at least right now (similar to your line of thinking)
when you mention the 2nd bay, which drive did you accidentally eject btw? (it might be coincidence but just wondering)
the fact that the drobo showed up for a while, in dashboard and finder, could indicate that when the drobo encounters stress (problems/something intensive) it might be dropping out from being available to other places, but when this current rebuild completes, could you try the following:
- to see if it appears in finder:
(if so, try to copy and paste your data onto another hard drive or usb stick etc while it is here to play safe if you can)
(and probably best to do it in a quick but controlled way, such as disconnect from the net, disable antivirus stuff, and copy your data or folders in batches, as it may work better instead of a select all)
- to see if it appears in dashboard again
- and if so, to make a note of any info it might show such as drive failing etc (or capture a screenshot etc for future ref just for yourself for now)
- to try and capture a dashboard diagnostics log (while dashboard sees it)
and if it does not appear in dashboard (or finder above), to just reboot the computer, with usb still attached to the drobo
and then if still nothing, to shut down all, and to reboot each device separately (eg with no connection to each other)
(i may be mistaken, though when you say in the above post, that it showed up while rebuilding, it sounds as though the drobo was rebooted while still attached to the computer… so after trying some ideas i mention here, i would also be interested to see if the reboot/rebuild cycle happens again when a drobo is simply powered on with nothing else attached?