I looked around and didn’t see the answer on forum so I apologize if this is a repeat question:
Can the Drobo 5D be moved from computer to computer and attached via USB or Thunderbolt and seen as an external drive in all cases WITHOUT the dashboard software installed?
I read a review that implied the 5D is using the computer to do the RAID/storage redundancy and it isn’t handled internally in the device like something such as a 5N (which I already own).
I want to be able to run this drive and hook to any system needed to access files (primarily photos and video) without add’l software needed.
OK. I wonder what the review I read was talking about. They mentioned the CPU utilization on a Mac was excessive and due to the RAID being handled in software which had seemed odd to me.
I’m glad to hear that it is usable without any installed software.
[quote=“tdehart@eriematerials.com, post:3, topic:139629”]
OK. I wonder what the review I read was talking about. They mentioned the CPU utilization on a Mac was excessive and due to the RAID being handled in software which had seemed odd to me.[/quote]
Whoever wrote that review must have been looking at something else (perhaps the Drobo Copy utility, which is a separate thing altogether).
Drobo requires zero processing on the connected computer. It does all its magic on its own. Drobo Dashboard if it is running, does “talk” to Drobo to get status, but Drobo will work perfectly fine on a system without Drobo Dashboard.*
Drobos connected via iSCSI require an iSCSI Initiator, which may require installation of Drobo Dashboard at least to get the initiator installed.
I figured as much as it wouldn’t make sense on a product like this to be software RAID as that defeats the purpose of the Drobo in my opinion. I have a 5N now and that is what I like about it (despite Mac access issues lately - Windows works fine). I wonder what this review is referring to then: http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-Drobo5D-cpu-utilization.html