Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The older Drobo models were quite flakey but it's almost a different company now. The 5D is a very solid product but it took DR a while to refine their system to what it is today.

Agreed. Had a Drobo 2 and sent it back within the week, but took a chance on a 5D recently and it's been fantastic.
 
Mavericks and 1st gen Drobo

I got my 1st gen Drobo to run on Mavericks.... Uninstall any and all versions of dashboard and eject Drobo. Then unplug from power and usb. After a restart of your Mavericks Mac plug Drobo back in to power and reconnect usb.

Seems to me dashboard is the bottle neck. Worked for me. Took about 5 to 7 minutes to fully com back but it's stable.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.