Cracking Open the Drobo B800i SAN Storage Device

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Front

As of this writing, the Data Robotics, Drobo B800i SAN storage device costs $3,500 (US) without drives. The box weighs just over 16 lbs. (without drives) and measures 12.17" (W) x 5.46" (H) x 14.10" (D).

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Communication ports, power connector, and power switch

The Drobo B800i has two 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet ports and a USB 2.0 port for management.

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Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Drive bays

The Drobo B800i has eight bays, which support 3.5" SATA I / SATA II drives. It can handle up to 24TB of raw storage, and Drobo's BeyondRAID technology lets you combine drives of different capacities.

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Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Drive bay cover

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Inserting and removing a drive

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: 2.0TB Western Digital WD2033FYYS SATA HDD

Our Drobo B800i test unit came with six 2.0TB Western Digital WD2033FYYS SATA hard drives.

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Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Bottom

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the case screws

Six Phillips screws hold the outer shell in place.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Front panel gasket

A rubber gasket surrounds the drive bays. It will come loose when you remove the outer shell.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Sliding off the outer shell

With the screws removed, you can slide the outer shell off the Drobo B800i.

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Outer shell removed

With the outer shell removed, we get our first look inside the Drobo B800i. Unfortunately, there's not much to see yet. We'll need to remove a few more components to view the motherboard and drive interface card.

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the power supply screws

First to go is the power supply. Four Phillips screws hold it in place.

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Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the power supply

With its screws removed, you can lift the power supply away from the Drobo B800i's case. Be extremely careful when doing this. Power supply components (specifically the capacitors) can store enough charge to injure and even kill you.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: FSP Group Model FSP180-1H01 power supply

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the drive bay assembly screws

With the power supply removed, I turned my attention to the drive bay assembly. Several Phillips screws hold it in place.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the drive bay assembly

With its screws removed, you can lift the drive bay assembly away from the Drobo B800i.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Case and drive bay assembly

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Drive bay assembly (8-bay model)

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the drive controller PCB mounting bracket screws

The drive interface board is mounted to a metal bracket at the back of the drive bay assembly. The bracket is held to the assembly with Phillips screws.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the drive interface board

Once the bracket's screws are removed, you can separate it and the attached drive interface board from the drive bay assembly.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Drive bay assembly

Without the interface board, there's not much to the Drobo B800i's drive bay assembly.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the drive interface card screws

The drive interface board is held to its mounting bracket with three Phillips screws and three metal fasteners.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Compressing the drive interface board bracket fasteners

Using a pair of needle-nose pliers, I compressed the mounting bracket's fasteners enough to remove the drive interface board.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Drive interface board - Top

The Drobo B800i drive interface board has eight SATA connectors. The clear plastic tubes mounted to the board transfer light from the drive activity/status LEDs to the front panel.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Drive interface board - Bottom

On the back of the drive interface board are several chips.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: National Semiconductor VM09AB 95234C1

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: NXP PCA9555 16-bit I2C-bus and SMBus I/O port with interrupt

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: SATA interface component cluster

Behind each of the board eight SATA connectors is a collection of components.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Drive interface board markings

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Case with motherboard, fans, battery, and more

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Motherboard mounted in case

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Disconnecting the motherboard cables

Before removing the Drobo B800i's motherboard, I disconnected all the cables attached to it.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the motherboard screws

The motherboard is held to the Drobo B800i's case with several Phillips screws.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the motherboard

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Case without motherboard

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the back cover

The Drobo B800i's back cover is held in place with plastic tabs. Using a flathead screwdriver, I popped the tab loose from the case's metal frame.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Case with back cover removed

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the cooling fans

The Drobo B800i's two cooling fans are secured to the case's metal frame with reusable pop rivets. Using a thin scriwdriver, I removed the rivets.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: ADDA AD0912UB-A70GL DC Brushless cooling fans

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Near empty case

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: 3.7V, 7500mAh Li-ion battery pack

Mounted to the side of the Drobo B800i's metal case is a 3.7V,  7500mAh Li-ion battery pack.

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Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Motherboard and heatsink

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Heatsink

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Removing the heatsink

A small heatsink is attached to the Drobo B800i's processor. The heatsink is held to the motherboard by two plastic fasteners. Using a pair of needle-nose pliers, I compressed the fasteners enough to remove the heatsink.

Photo by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Motherboard - Top

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Motherboard - Bottom

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Marvell MV78200-A1 SoC (800 MHz and 1 GHZ operating speed)

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Hynix H5PS1G63EFR 1Gb DDR2 SDRAM (x4 - 512MB)

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Fairchild AA44AL FDD 8870

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: ICS 0737971Y 1051 557G-05ALF

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Marvell 88E1121R-TFE1 F1P1481.2 0951 A0P TW

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Texas Instruments M430F2132 09K G4 CJN3B

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: NXP LVC244A 2222806 SXG040G

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Marvell 88SX7041-BDU1 Q3A9791.1 1049 B0E TW

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Spansion S29GL512P11TFI01 048FF188 A

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Texas Instruments 07DN74K G4 ALVCH162260

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: CR2032 system battery

Cracking Open the Drobo B800i: Complete teardown

The Data Robotics Drobo B800i was a snap to crack open. Working on it was like working on a standard desktop or tower computer.

The unit uses standard Phillips screws, the case is easy to remove, and the internal components are simple to detach.

Unfortunately, the motherboard and drive controller boards are proprietary--making Data Robotics the only source for replacement parts. Provided you can get the hardware however, most IT pros with previous hardware repair experience should be able to work on the Drobo B800i.

Photo by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
Caption by: Bill Detwiler