Nas

[Enquiries]

I have an old 8 bay Drobo device I want to replace, what is the best unit to upgrade to? Is there a unit similar to the old Drobo. I’m overwhelmed with choices. I especially like the Drobo because it kind of set itself up and I really didn’t have to to anything but replace defective hard drives. I’m looking to replace this unit before it dies… it running on a windows 11 pc. Any guidance or a specific unit I should get, please tell me… I’m not a tech nerd, I just know how to plug and play and follow directions. If something goes wrong I might be in trouble trying to figure out what went wrong… is there something easy to plug and play, that has some easy to follow set up instructions and support videos?

[ed]

If you want something that feels closest to a Drobo but is modern, reliable, and easy to live with, the best option is one of Synology’s Plus Series models, because these are the only ones that support SHR, which behaves like Drobo’s BeyondRAID. SHR lets you mix drive sizes, expand later, and swap disks without understanding RAID.

From the current lineup, the most suitable replacements for an old 8 bay Drobo are:

Synology DS1825+

8 bays, supports SHR, simple to set up, excellent reliability, and a huge amount of documentation and tutorials.
This is the closest match to what you’re used to with Drobo but with far better performance and long term support.

Alternative if you want something slightly larger

DS2422+
12 bays, still supports SHR, but it is overkill unless you expect very large expansion. Most Drobo users do not need this.

Models to avoid

Anything in the XS or XS+ series
These do not support SHR, so they behave like traditional RAID only. That means no Drobo like flexibility and more complexity.

TerraMaster option (budget friendly)

TerraMaster offers TRAID, which works similarly to SHR. It is easier than traditional RAID, but their software is not as polished or stable as Synology. Good for saving money, but Synology will give you the smoothest, safest migration.