Drobo Fan Replacement

Nov 11, 2017 Filed in: DIY | Repairs | Computers | Upgrades

I've had my Drobo since February 2011. It's been almost 7 years. A few drives have come and gone in that time. Some have died. Some have been upgraded. All the while, the Drobo has performed flawlessly. Up until now.

Yesterday I got home and went into the computer room and heard a horrible noise coming from the Drobo. It sounded like the fan was on the way out. It made a horrible rattling sound. The bearings were definitely shot.

Time for a fan upgrade!

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First up, remove the 4 feet on the bottom and slide the cover off.

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Remove this center screw.

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Remove this screw from the side…

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…followed by these two on the other side.

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Then pop the clips that hold it in and slide the whole inside assembly out.

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The top cover is on pretty tightly. I took my screwdriver and gave it a good solid whack to loosen it.

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After that, it just slid right off. Don't pull it off all the way….

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…the fan is connected to the back. You have to disconnect it before you can fully remove the top cover.

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To remove the back cover, just pop these four clips.

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To remove the fan, you have to pop these four plastic retaining clips out.

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Supposedly you can pinch them with some pliers and push them out, but I broke all four of them in the process. Before you attempt to replace the fan, make sure you have some new screws.

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Here's the fan. It's a standard-issue 12V 92mm PC fan.

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Now, I could have hopped on Amazon and spent $15 bucks on some new fangled super quit next gen fan, but why do that when I literally have a bag of PC fans? See, this is why we don't throw stuff away.

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It's nothing fancy, but it's a 92mm PC fan and it'll do the trick.

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Of course, the connector was totally different so I cut off the old one and soldered on the Drobo's connector.

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I also have a ton of PC fan screws.

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The holes on the back of the Drobo were just a hair too small to allow the screws to thread through, so I took a 3/16 drill bit and made the holes just a hair larger. Worked like a charm. I then screwed in the new fan. Solid.

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