I posted this in another forum before I found this GEN 3 specific forum. Anyway, here goes:
I just received my order in the mail today for the Drobo Gen 3. I followed the instructions at drobo.com/start
First problem was the Drobo dashboard won’t recognize the account I created on the site.
Second problem is Windows says the drivers were not successfully installed for the device.
Third problem, I googled “flashing blue lights” and followed these instructions: http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/det...r-wont-see
Ridiculously it says to wait 20 minutes for the device to be recognized.
I waited.
It’s still flashing blue lights.
I bought a $300 box that flashes blue LEDS. Looking for technical support pushed me to these forums. Great. I searched this forum for “flashing blue lights” and it says no results.
Can anybody help at all?[hr]
I called tech support and it turned out the problem was that the GEN 3 arrives without the ability to recognize the included USB3 cable. You have to switch to a USB2 cable for the initialization process. Luckily, I happened to have one lying around.
Then you can switch back to the included USB3 cable after the Drobo is operating normally.
I’d delete this post but figured somebody else might have the same problem and this will help them.
hi, i wonder if all gen3’s require a usb2 cable to be setup initially, or if a usb 3 cable will work (if there are no driver/compatibility problems on the computer)?
eg i had problems using esata to stuck with usb3 (on my drobo-s gen2)
If you still have a support case open, please advise in the case what the marking shows on your USB 3.0 cable, as there is a chance we could RMA the cable.
Same frustrating experience here with the USB v3.0 cable included in the Series 3 box. Boot up to flashing blue lights, extensive search for troubleshooting led to the same BS “wait for 20 minutes” advice, finally found this thread and the USB 2.0 cable solved my problem, or at least allowed the unit to be discovered. Maybe there is something strange about my USB 3.0 interface it does not like, (an add-on card), but dammit this should be prominent in the documentation, or at least the troubleshooting pages. Drobo has good feedback on B&H, I am disappointed.
UPDATE: USB 2.0 cable allowed discovery and format, yet swapping the USB 3.0 cable back in it was still un-discoverable. I unplugged and plugged the USB with the unit on and it was discovered. During BeyondRAID formatting the USB v3.0 had to be similarly unplugged and plugged to let formatting complete past the reset step. How is something like this released for general availability at the vendor? Don’t they test?