Solution for old harddisks?

[Erwin R. Leijen]

Good afternoon all,

After a few years of buying ever newer computers and notebooks I am left
with quite a lot of old hard disks (all IDE disks).

I already bought some casings in which I can install these disks and use
them as external firewire drives.

However, each casing needs its own power cable and firewire cables,
making it quite a mess and not really low on power consumption.

Is there something available in which I can install all of my old drives
and make them available either through an USB 2 or firewire connection
or even through (wireless) LAN? Please note that I have about 9 old
drives by now (including some 2.5" notebook drives).

I want to use the drive to store all my media files and virtual CD's.

Many thanks,

Erwin Leijen

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Erwin R. Leijen" said in

Good afternoon all,

After a few years of buying ever newer computers and notebooks I am
left with quite a lot of old hard disks (all IDE disks).

I already bought some casings in which I can install these disks and
use them as external firewire drives.

However, each casing needs its own power cable and firewire cables,
making it quite a mess and not really low on power consumption.

Is there something available in which I can install all of my old
drives and make them available either through an USB 2 or firewire
connection or even through (wireless) LAN? Please note that I have
about 9 old drives by now (including some 2.5" notebook drives).

I want to use the drive to store all my media files and virtual CD's.

Many thanks,

Erwin Leijen

So why not go to a server-style full tower case (the kind that has lots of 5.25" external bays where you can use adapters for the smaller drives) and put everything together - motherboard, cards, drives - in all one case? For example, http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA10003, but this one is pricey. I haven't looked at server cases so maybe they are all pricey. By the time you find a NAS (network storage access) case that handles 9, or more drives, and after you added another mobo and NIC, you could end up spending a lot, anyway. I would suspect the Codegen cases (http://www.codegengroup.com/proddetail.asp?id=189 and http://www.codegengroup.com/proddetail.asp?id=142) are cheaper. Did a Google search on the Codegen S-101 (second link) and it sells starting at $145 (case only), so by the time you add a PSU you're up to the price for the Enermax (first link) - but you would have the option of selecting your own wattage, especially if you wanted more than the 400W PSU in the Enermax.

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[Rod Speed]

After a few years of buying ever newer computers and notebooks
I am left with quite a lot of old hard disks (all IDE disks).

I already bought some casings in which I can install
these disks and use them as external firewire drives.

However, each casing needs its own power cable and firewire cables,
making it quite a mess and not really low on power consumption.

Is there something available in which I can install all of my
old drives and make them available either through an USB
2 or firewire connection or even through (wireless) LAN?

Yes, you can obviously get a decent case with lots of drive
bays and put them all in there with a older motherboard etc.

Not really practical with new hardware tho, you'll
spend more to use those old drives than the cheapest
new drives available with the same total capacity.

Please note that I have about 9 old drives
by now (including some 2.5" notebook drives).

I want to use the drive to store all my media files and virtual CD's.

Makes more sense to bin them and just buy the
cheapest new drive you can find after rebates etc.

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Rod Speed" said in

Makes more sense to bin them and just buy the
cheapest new drive you can find after rebates etc.

Or just use them for backups. Use DriveImage to save disk images of your system drives. You could use a removable drive bay. With a removable drive bay, you could even boot different operating systems without having to use a boot manager (that usurps the bootstrap program in the MBR), or using them for different types of data files. If you'll be swapping the drives a lot, make sure to get a good quality removable drive kit.

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[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Or just use them for backups. Use DriveImage to
save disk images of your system drives. You could
use a removable drive bay. With a removable drive
bay, you could even boot different operating systems
without having to use a boot manager (that usurps the
bootstrap program in the MBR), or using them for different
types of data files. If you'll be swapping the drives a lot,
make sure to get a good quality removable drive kit.

Same problem. You'll be spending more on removable drive
bays in total than a brand new drive of the same total capacity.

And removable drive bays are a kludge that flout the ATA standard.

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Rod Speed" said in news:[email protected]:

Same problem. You'll be spending more on removable drive
bays in total than a brand new drive of the same total capacity.

Buy one chassis for $25 (http://snipurl.com/5avm). Then buy a tray at $15 for each drive (http://snipurl.com/5avn). Over half a dozen drives, the chassis and tray together cost all of $19, and less with more drives.

And removable drive bays are a kludge that flout the ATA standard.

Oh, and you think using boot managers isn't without even further risk? There is no "flout" of the ATA standard. The ones I mentioned are not for hot-swapping drives. Shutdown, swap the drive, boot. Adds all of about 10 seconds over using a boot manager to load different operating systems but without any pollution, isolates the OS drives to prevent corruption, and allows for protected data storage (because the drive isn't in the machine and it can locked away).



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[Alien Zord]

Good afternoon all,

After a few years of buying ever newer computers and notebooks I am left
with quite a lot of old hard disks (all IDE disks).

I already bought some casings in which I can install these disks and use
them as external firewire drives.

However, each casing needs its own power cable and firewire cables,
making it quite a mess and not really low on power consumption.

Is there something available in which I can install all of my old drives
and make them available either through an USB 2 or firewire connection
or even through (wireless) LAN? Please note that I have about 9 old
drives by now (including some 2.5" notebook drives).

I want to use the drive to store all my media files and virtual CD's.

Any likely solution would be large, unwieldy, cumbersome, relatively
expensive and frankly impractical. A computer with an OS that can append
drives would be needed and a lot of hassle setting it up.
A solution that may end up costing you nothing: sell them on eBay and buy
one large drive.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Buy one chassis for $25 (http://snipurl.com/5avm).
Then buy a tray at $15 for each drive (http://snipurl.com/5avn).
Over half a dozen drives, the chassis and tray together cost all of $19,

Like I said, you'll be spending more on removable drive bays
in total than a brand new drive of the same total capacity.

and less with more drives.

Its the total price that matters with that approach.

Oh, and you think using boot managers isn't without even further risk?

Nope, not with one thats properly debugged.

There is no "flout" of the ATA standard.

Fraid so, particulary on the ribbon cable detail.

The ones I mentioned are not for hot-swapping
drives. Shutdown, swap the drive, boot.

I wasnt talking about that.

Adds all of about 10 seconds over using a boot
manager to load different operating systems

And requires that manual operation,
and some risk of dropping the drive etc.

but without any pollution,

What ?

isolates the OS drives to prevent corruption,

Anyone with a clue has systems fully backed up anyway.

and allows for protected data storage (because the
drive isn't in the machine and it can locked away).

And backups on removable media thats a hell of a lot
more portable than a great pile of old drives each in their
own removable drive bay tray are a lot easier to do real
offsite backups with, completely eliminating any risk due to
the house burning down or floating away in a flood etc etc etc.

 

[SpongeBob]

Good afternoon all,

After a few years of buying ever newer computers and notebooks I am left
with quite a lot of old hard disks (all IDE disks).

I already bought some casings in which I can install these disks and use
them as external firewire drives.

However, each casing needs its own power cable and firewire cables,
making it quite a mess and not really low on power consumption.

Is there something available in which I can install all of my old drives
and make them available either through an USB 2 or firewire connection
or even through (wireless) LAN? Please note that I have about 9 old
drives by now (including some 2.5" notebook drives).

I want to use the drive to store all my media files and virtual CD's.

Many thanks,

Erwin Leijen

I take the covers off and put them on top of my monitor so I can see who's
sneaking up behind me at work...they make great rear view mirrors...sorry,
but it's the truth...

 

[Rod Speed]

I take the covers off and put them on top of my monitor so I can see who's
sneaking up behind me at work...they make great rear view mirrors...sorry,
but it's the truth...

I've reported you to the RSPCPPDOHDBCF

You'll be soorree...

 

[SpongeBob]

I've reported you to the RSPCPPDOHDBCF

You'll be soorree...

Thanks...Now I'll have computer huggers protesting outside my office!