Well, thank goodness!
New USB3 4-bay Drobo is available.
Time to finally retire my Gen2.
Thanks, Drobo!
I was surprised how quietly this came out. Only mention I saw was on TUAW a few days ago.
I can’t seem to find any information in the UK about this! None of Drobos UK partners are displaying this just yet.
Contacted SCAN Computers, and they say they’re waiting on word from Drobo themselves.
“We are currently in the process of getting this added to our stpock systems here at SCAN. Once the Drobo distributors have given us the pricing and availbility for this, it will be released to the website so that customers can see that this is a new product.”
Any idea when we’ll see this new device in the UK? I’m very keen on getting one 
Has anyone seen details on the $50 customer loyalty program for current gen 2 owners?
Many articles mention it but it is not clear how to take advantage of it.
Drobo have gotten back to me…
“thank you for contacting Support and the Interest on our Products. Yes the 3rd generation 4 Bay Drobo will be also on Sale in Europe by End of this Month.”
i’m gonna have me some fun 
I’m interested in doing the $50 promotion as well. Any ideas?
It looks like its a little hidden, Found this info @ http://info.drobo.com/webmail/2552/680904269/06dd1b35bbc6e72a687776a8be32a902
Customer Loyalty Program: Drobo is offering first and second generation Drobo customers a $50 USD rebate through June 9th, 2014.
How to claim your $50 rebate:
Enter code LOYAL when you pre- order (shipping begins in April) the Drobo 4 Bay at www.drobostore.com.
You will receive an email with a form. Simply enter your information and serial number of your generation 1 or 2 Drobo, and send it back to us.
You will receive your $50 rebate in the mail!
It’s perhaps a bit much to hope for, but anyone know if I can migrate a Gen2 diskpack to the new Drobo?
What are we gonna call this thing? Gen3?
hi mgriffin,
it sure seems like a “gen3”, and i would have thought it could accept a previous gen1 or gen2 diskpack, and i think i even read that somewhere… but to play safe, hold on a bit until you can find out for sure, or with a support ticket clearly specifiying as much firmware/dashboard version info as you have.
it sucks that they have dropped fw800. I’d be all over another drobo if it had fw800. I need to figure out a new time machine solution(old external drive failed). I tried upgraded to a 5N and have tried to use the FS as a time machine only device but is keeps on saying time machine not available. maybe this might put some old gen 2’s up for sale, that will be reasonable unlike the DroboS’s ive seen
I stopped using FW800 on my Gen2 after I switched to a ‘modern’ i7 Mac Mini. FW caused kernel panics all the time, USB was rock solid. I welcome a Gen3 with TB. Now I can chain my 5D, Gen3 and 27" monitor.
So were you using usb2.0 and getting decent speeds. I’m on a 2010 iMac with the 256ssd and 2tb spinner (no Thunder Bolt). When comparing the some other fw800 us usb 2.0 drives i had, the fw800 always seemed a lot faster.
I am using USB2 on my Gen2. It is only for Time Machine, so I really don’t care about the speeds.
When I had my Gen2 attached to my Late2009 iMac, it was via FW800 and it was faster than USB2.
from memory, i think the practical speeds were in this order.
usb1, usb2, firewire800 (not sure about the 400), usb3, thunderbolt.
from a “will it work 1st time” perspective, USB was the winner
and from an esata perspective (“does it Ever work?”) 
Firewire 400 is theorectical max 400 Mbps, so it’s between USB 1.x and USB 2.0
That said, because of the way Firewire works (different protocol) and the fact that the USB bus is often clogged with other devices and bottlenecks, Firewire 400 tends to be faster than USB 2.0 in the real world.
However Firewire 400 also is less tested (mainly due to fewer devices and less manufacturer attention) and sometimes unstable in some configurations.
So, between USB 2.0 and Firewire 400, if your Firewire bus is stable, use Firewire. But if you run into trouble, USB 2.0 is a good fallback.
Between eSATA and everything else the same holds - if everything works properly on eSATA, go for that! Otherwise fall back to Firewire or USB.
There is now a $60 off code (DROBONOW) available til June 16. I don’t have a reference for it but got it directly from Drobo when I called regarding the $50 loyalty discount.
To complete the loyalty reward, FYI, you can finish your rebate online now at http://www.droborewards.com/
thanks for the connections info bhiga,
and rickbo and mlakker about the rebate…
unfortunately it seems as though the loyalty offer is only for the usa 
what about us in the uk? we’re also Loyal
You can - I just did it. Please see the following: http://www.drobo.com/resource-center/migration/[hr][hr]
Does anyone have the firmware release notes for the Drobo Gen3? The newest firmware is 3.1.0 I believe. The link on the Drobo Download page is not right and does not work. I have reported it twice, but it still has not been fixed.