Drobos that directly connect to your computer—​DAS and iSCSI SAN devices like the 5C, 5D3, 8D, and B810i—​do not need additional setup. You can immediately select them as a volume for your backup destination. For NAS Drobos like the 5N2 and B810n, see our instructions below.

Drobos support expandable storage. You can add new drives or upsize drives (replacing smaller ones with larger ones) on the fly, and the Drobo automatically supports the larger capacity. Drobos do this using a technology called thin provisioning. When you mount a Drobo share, the OS sees the maximum amount of storage that the Drobo is capable of, rather than the amount that is available.

Retrospect allows you to easily configure the amount of storage you use on the backup destination, and you can change it at any time. Use the following steps to limit the backup storage that Retrospect uses on your Drobo.

If you are running macOS Mojave or macOS Catalina, you will need to enable "Full Disk Access" for Retrospect to be allowed to access your Drobo. Please follow our step-by-step guide.

Adding Drobo to Retrospect as a destination is easy. Follow our quick video tutorials for step-by-step guidance:

Retrospect for Windows: Setting up a NAS as a Backup Destination

Retrospect for Mac: Setting up a NAS as a Backup Destination

Note that you can add Drobos by name (the one that appears in the Drobo Dashboard) or by IP address:

Adding Drobo to Retrospect as a source is easy. Follow our quick video tutorials for step-by-step guidance:

Retrospect for Windows: Setting up a NAS as a Backup Source

Retrospect for Mac: Setting up a NAS as a Backup Source

Note that you can add Drobos by name (the one that appears in the Drobo Dashboard) or by IP address: