Drobo Pro - Can't Access Files After it is detected by Windows 7 and not detected by Drobo Dashboard - What a Nightmare!!

Story - What a Nightmare!!
I initiated a large folder copy, and move operation to backup a folder on my C:\ drive to my Z:\ drive (Drobo Pro backup).  Windows popped open the normal copy window with the normal calculation... message.  I waited, and waited, and waited, about 10-20 minutes, and the window had still not finished calculating, and still didn't start copying/moving the files.  I decided to wait another 30min-1 hr (forgot exactly how long), when I came back, windows still didn't start moving the files!  Okay, now I'm getting really impatient!!  I decide to cancel the move operation, and windows opened it's cancel window, but nothing happened... waited again, and still nothing happened, already having lost my patience, I decided to force Windows Explorer to shutdown.  It stopped responding, and wouldn't shutdown.  I tried to end the task via 'Task Manager', and it still wouldn't shutdown.  The only thing I saw happen was that the windows task bar disspeared, and everything was frozen on my computer.

Next, I decided to shutdown my computer via the windows key on my keyboard since I lost access to the windows taskbar.  No response.

Last resort, I held down the computer power button until my computer powered off.  I turned it back on after waiting 30 seconds.  I can't remember if Drobo turned off or not at this point.  Anyways, the computer booted back up, but now the Drobo volumes could not be accessed even with 'Drobo Dashboard' displaying the drive, and 2 volumes.

I took off the cover plate on my 'Drobo Pro', and the 2 lights were solid green.  I waited for the 'Activity' light to turn off, but it never did, and I wasn't copying anything to the drive after the reboot, and there were no other flashing LED lights for each drive, so now that I can't access the drive, and I've determined it's not busy, I use the power button on the back of the device to power it off.

Next, I power it back on after it had powered off.  It came back on, but strangely the number of blue lights had reduced from 4 LEDs to 3 LEDs.  This scared me a bit, thinking it could only mean that there was data loss!  This started a slow panic.  I still wasn't sure if the data was lost or not, so I tried to keep my cool.

Next, windows detected my drive, but strangely 'Drobo Dashboard' did not.  Uh, oh, now what?  I clicked on the Y:\ volume, and it displayed the content.  Then I clicked on the other volume Z:\ and explorer stopped responding.  I wasn't able to access my files, uh oh!!
* Now I'm really considering that I've lost all my files, I start to panic!!

Google
I head onto Google to do a search to see if anyone has ever had this problem.  I don't come across any postings that list a crash after a failed copy command, with the drives no longer responding, and Drobo Dashboard no longer detecting 'Drobo Pro'.
* I did multiple searches, and even followed the directions on the following 3 drobo forum pages, but it didn't work:

http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/621
http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/445/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzg4MzcxOTMwL3NpZC9Za0NUdzRKbA%3D%3D
http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/161

I didn't call tech support, as I no longer have the free support.  I think my unit is 3-4 years old, so it's long expired.  Though, I was highly considering the call.

I felt like I was having a nightmare, and started thinking of all the data that would be lost if I couldn't get the Drobo to come back; Photos, files, videos, going back to who knows when that I've never burned up on disc.  Oh boy, I was really regretting not doing that now!  My thought now was, if I get this to start working again, I'm going to buy everything onto DVDs!

I spent the next hour or so, rebooting my computer after it froze from trying to access Drobo, and rebooting Drobo each time as well.  I must have tried this 3 times before deciding it wasn't a problem that could be fixed with a fresh 'shutdown/reboot' of both my computer, and the 'Drobo Pro Unit'.
* now what??

Solution
* Perform at your own risk, I will not be responsible for anything that goes wrong!!  I only know that the following is what I tried, and what worked for me.  Be very careful when removing your Hard Disk Drives that Drobo is off, otherwise it will think the drive failed, and attempt to rebuild, or even fail and you may lose all your data
1. Running on desperation, I decided to do something I wouldn't dare do, but that I read about a long time ago about how you can move your drives from one drobo unit to another.  And from something I had just read from one of the forum pages about what a normal Drobo boot looks like, I decided do the following because I want to see if my Drobo Unit is still good or not.  I also know that removing all my drives with Drobo turned off is okay, as long as they are all reinserted with the power off, before the power is switched back on (as if moving from one unit to another):
i) I shutdown my drobo unit with no activity lights on, using the switch at the back of drobo
ii) After it turned off fully, I popped out every drive that I had in the unit, far enough so that none of them would be detected in the unit
iii) I rebooted my computer - for safety measures (probably not needed, but I did it anyways)
iv) After my computer booted up fully, I turned on 'Drobo', and without any drives installed, it booted very quickly, and lit up one drive LED in red (I didn't take note of what the other LED colours were)
* you may want to remove the power cord for safe measures, to make sure Drobo is fully off
* this seemed normal, so I concluded that there was nothing wrong with my unit
v) Next, I used the power button on Drobo to power it back off
vi) With the 'Drobo Unit' fully off, I reinsert all drives into the Drobo Unit, making sure they all drives are fully inserted
* you may want to remove the power cord for safe measures, to make sure Drobo is fully off
vii) Next, I power on the 'Drobo Unit', and wait it boot
viii) It powers on successfully, but I notice that there are still only 3 LED blue lights instead of 4, but in Windows 7, I'm able to access the files on each of the 2 volumes in my Drobo ... relief at last!!
* knowing this, I suspect the 4th blue LED light is off because the Dual Redundancy checkbox must have been unchecked by the issue at some point
* I check the Drobo Dashboard menu, Drobo Settings > General, and what do you know, the 'Dual Redundancy' was unchecked, so I rechecked it, and clicked 'OK' to save my change
* the lights blue lights changed from 3 to 4
ix) The array appears to need to rebuild itself, estimating 4 hours

Closing Comments
So relieved!!  I can't even believe that the random (thought) removal of the drives, and reinserting them was what fixed the issue, but Boy! am I happy it did!!  I felt like my heart was going to stop for a moment there when I thought all my data was lost!
* so glad I didn't have to call tech support too as I've read many bad reviews on the support provided

To Do List
1. Burn all files in my Drobo Pro to disc - JUST IN CASE!!  :0)

(Please leave your questions, and comments, I'd like to hear if this helped anyone else.)