Any thoughts?

I mentioned in the previous to this post that I have a Drobo on the way.

And I picked up an extra 500 GB drive. 

Here's the issue. The drobo reformats drives when they are stuck into it. I've currently got two 500 GB drives that I was using in my NAS; one was the main drive, one was the backup. 

I'm trying to figure out a way to get all the information off that system and into the drobo if the controller is knackered. I restored the firmware, and now I can see my backup drive. Which leads me to suspect that there might be something wrong with the cable or with the drive. I've gotta do a bit more rewiring to see if I can get things up and running. 

I have two external drives. Right now both of them have partial backups of what's on my NAS. They may or may not have files on them that are unique to them (they shouldn't, but because I am paranoid, I don't want to flush any data off them). 

And, because I am not rich, I was planning on recycling the two drives from the NAS into the drobo. 

In a perfect world, both drives would be working. Because I am simply using Super Duper! to Clone Drive A to Drive B (Main to Backup), I could pull Backup Drive B, stick it into the drobo with my new drive, let Drobo do it's formatting magic, then copy everything off Drive A to the Drobo. Once Drive A was clean, I could take it out, stick it into the Drobo, and Bob's your uncle. There would be a brief moment there when the information only existed in its fullness in one place.  I have a mostly complete backup on one of my portables, but not fully.

So yes, this is a problem of my own making. I'll think further upon it, and see what I come up with, but if you have any suggestions....?