Drobo External Storage

I purchased a Drobo 5D3 for use as an external drive array for my xbox one and xbox one x. I am looking for an explanation from one of the Microsoft Storage wizards to explain the following -

What is the actual difference when plugging in an external USB 3.0 HD device and the xbox one wishes to format for either Media or for Games?

The array is formatted as NTFS and is completely useable and readable by any windows box...... but once its connected to the xbox one - I am prompted with the must be formatted for use and once formatting starts the array goes in to a constant reboot and
I have to erase the array and start over.

Now I know that I can get around this issue by using unbuntu and running gpart and then running a tool for xbox MBR modification so the xbox one can use the drive. BUT what isn't documented is that after performing this - the array does function properly
and us totally usable by the xbox - ANY TIME there is an update to a game or application - the XBOX fails on installation - you must manually resume installation, and the xbox redownloads the WHOLE game all over again, and does not perform an update. This
is causing excessive data downloading to occur on my WAN link and am trying to get this resolved through proper channels.

My console is in TEST GROUP ALPHA - running code - 10.0.16299.4055 (RS3_RELEASE_DEV_1711.171203-1700)

The drobo is running firmware 4.04 with MSATA caching enabled.

I have requested support through the Alpha testers console TT system and the response I have received is - IF the device was not formatted by the xbox then its unsupported.

I have also submitted a TT through Drobo and here is the response I received -

Hello James,

Thank you for contacting Drobo Technical Support, The Drobo is only capable of formatting NTFS or HFS+ file systems and must be formatted using the Drobo Dashboard software.

Use of third party applications to format the Drobo can cause issues with the array and cause the reboot loop you experienced.

If the Xbox cannot use a disk that has already been formatted by Drobo Dashboard for NTFS then it is not possible to use the Drobo with that device.

Kind Regards,

Luke A

Sr. Drobo Support Agent

So obviously - formatting the array to NTFS isn't good enough for the xbox one for game storage, so the xbox modifies something to the storage device when it re-formats. I am willing to be a tester to try and get this working, I know that I am not the only
drobo user out there and its nice to have redundancy for the data so you don't have to download again - especially for those of us that do travel a lot and would like to keep our whole digital library available.

Any assistance with this issue is greatly appreciated.

:)

 

Yes, the PlayStation 4 Supports External Storage, but There’s a Catch

Well now I am wondering if the X1 will let us use it to put game son it, probably not

Via: Yes, the PlayStation 4 Supports External Storage, but There?s a Catch | TIME.com

 

Yes, the PlayStation 4 Supports External Storage, but There’s a Catch

I don't think that it's that bad of a catch to prevent me from using the external storage. Though I am not sure if I will ever need to actually use external storage. The fact that there will be 33 games at launch makes me think that eventually, a lot of users will need the external space. I'm OK with it not being functional for downloadable games. No biggie.