So i had my drobo running fine for a bit but then all of a sudden i started to hear a vibrating sound coming from the drobo that i could stop by removing the front panel from the drobo or by gently pressing on the drobo casing. I assumed as both drives were working it was the drobo fan. So i removed the drives and the fan is fine it didn’t vibrate so it must be one of the drives. I put them back in and booted it up. When i replaced the panel once the drobo had booted up (which i did gently) the bottom of the two drives disappeared from the system, bringing about the red light, green light combo on the remanning drive and the relayout procedure (see my feature request to stop this issue). (pressing on the drive didn’t remount it either).
Note: at one point the drive also dismounted within the drobo without any interaction. I forgot to mention this before.
So i left it to do the its work. The next time i put the cover back on it proceeded to dismount all the drives system shut down.
I am not sure what to do at this point, is the drives faulty or the drobo. Should i post the log on here. Suggestions/answers appreciated.
its probably just resonance, the hum of both drives and the fan together all interacting. i would expect the audible sound is the faceplate vibrating against the chassis.
to try and minimise this you could try moving one of the drives into a lower slot (while drobo is off!) this will change the dynamics slightly.
I have drives in the bottom and 2nd from the top slots. To as you suggest, reduce the vibration with a harder surface, lower the centre of gravity of the drobo but allow the best cooling for the drives. I have also tried switching their positions and the noise is still present.
The vibrating noise is not all the time but only occasionally, usually after the drives have been spinning up, i.e the drobo is moving data about itself. My thought is that maybe my drives Samsung spinpoint F2 1TB drives dont feel completley secure in there placement in the drobo, i.e i can (while the drobo is off) rock the drives slightly to the left and back, they move about half an inch. Is this normal or are the mounting points for the drives loose in some way. I would assume that once the drives are in, they should be pretty much stuck unless you remove the holding spring.
Right, this story grows. The noise has been continuing, i have been putting up with it. However today it was particullary loud so i removed the face plate and the noise continued. I then pressed one of the spring holders for the drives (NOT one that is holding a drive in, but a empty drive bay one). This caused the bottom drive to eject, (I repeat here that i did not touch the drive or apply a large amount of force to the drobo in anyway). This caused the drobo to put up a red light on the top drive and a green light on the other remanning drive, it did not attempt to rely out the data just sat there with these lights up. I took out the bottom drive and placed it back in. A quick rescan later and its both green again.
anyone think that the drive bay on the bottom drive is misaligned or loose and could be the source of the noise and the the randomly ejecting drives.
(side note, in a previous thread when i said i moved the drobo, this was across the room, i.e 15 foot, so i haven’t manhandled it, and i removed the drives)
I love this product and idea but any help would be appreciated, i currently have a £400 pound noisy, currently unreliable box sat next to me.