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I have a Drobo 2 system that holds 4 drives, but in the last bit I heard a noise coming from the unit and thought it was a drive that was on it's way out, so I ended up picking up a couple of larger drives to be replaced. So I started to pull one drive, than another and another one and the unit was still making a noise. Hum, why on earth did I not think of this before, the fan in the back was making all that noise.

So I ended up putting all the drives back in, let it do it's thing for a few hours, and started to think what I wanted to do with the fan issue. A few hours later I decided that the unit is not covered under warranty and to get it repaired by Drobo would cost $69.00 for a contract plus the shipping costs.

Now I don't have issues taking the unit apart to replace the fan, but if you don not feel comfortable with this, than send it in.

• Remove the 4 feet on the bottom of the unit. Slide off the top cover.
• On the front panel, there are 3 tabs, one on the top and on the bottom left and right sides. Pull the front plate off.
• Now you can remove the drive bay insert, just pull it out.
• To remove the back plate, there is a screw on the bottom that needs to be removed. Now where you pulled the plastic drive bay out, right in the back towards the top there are 2 plastic tabs, lift up on them and that back cover should come out.
• On the top of the unit, if you look on the sides, you will noticed that this has a slide key on the plate.
• Now you should have access to the fan in the back.

Now the fans in these could be either 80mm or 90mm not sure, but I just cleaned the fan and put it back together, but it will get replaced in a week.

The only thing you might see is the plug end on the new fan does not match, relax take breath don't sweat. Remove the old fan, install the new one to make sure that it fits properly, and if so cut the wire on the old fan all the way up at the fan so that you have a enough wire to work with. Now cut the plug off on the new fan, but closer to the plug this time to make sure you have enough to work with.

Splice all the wires, and I would solder them together an cover the bare wires with electrical tape or shrink tubing if you have it.

Plug in the unit to insure that the fan is working and nice a quiet, pull the power from the unit and put it back together. Nice and quiet now.

Fan should run you max no more than $10.00. Say 2 hours of your time, to take apart, replace fan, and of course clean the inside. You just saved yourself $60.00 plus the shipping charges.