Multiple HD storage unit advice needed

darragh o meara

Folks,

Sorry if this has been asked over and over again.

Im looking for advice on getting all my Ext hard disks together in one unit.

Currently have 3x 4TB, 2x 2TB, 4x 1TB and some 1TB laptop HDs that I want to put together in one unit. Moreso interested in getting the fullsize drives in the one unit together, I dont use RAID setups etc. Current Iomega unit is set to JBOD but it wont take the bigger drives.

I use these drives for back ups of photos and personal files. The only requirement I would like is remote access, down the line Id like to be able to stream music and movies from it to smart devices in the home.

So the big question. Whats the best value/easy setup/ easy use solution out there. I spend a lot of time on the road so want something I can plug in and forget about.

tazzzZ

I self built a server and use Unraid as the server OS. I guess first thing is how much are you willing to spend?

darragh o meara

tazzzZ wrote: »

I self built a server and use Unraid as the server OS. I guess first thing is how much are you willing to spend?

Sorry, Im a bit late to the party. Can ideally spend 200-300 ish ( what an already built enclosure would cost )

Seen this one over the last few days and looks interesting:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TerraMaster-D5-300C-External-Enclosure-Exclusive/dp/B071S6ZCMM/ref=sr_1_3?crid=8TPFMDFQNY3B&dchild=1&keywords=5+bay+hdd+enclosure&qid=1587538012&sprefix=5+bay+en%2Caps%2C214&sr=8-3

tazzzZ

darragh o meara wrote: »

Sorry, Im a bit late to the party. Can ideally spend 200-300 ish ( what an already built enclosure would cost )

Seen this one over the last few days and looks interesting:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TerraMaster-D5-300C-External-Enclosure-Exclusive/dp/B071S6ZCMM/ref=sr_1_3?crid=8TPFMDFQNY3B&dchild=1&keywords=5+bay+hdd+enclosure&qid=1587538012&sprefix=5+bay+en%2Caps%2C214&sr=8-3

Yea that would serve to consolidate your drives and data to one place but you would need to have it attached to an always on pc for streaming your media.

A nas would suit you better. Either prebuilt like a qnap or synology (expensive when getting up to high drive capacity) or self built as I've done(there are plenty of free os you can use) . Really does come down to choice.

Edit...
Terramaster do nas's aswell just the one you posted is an external enclosure.

darragh o meara

tazzzZ wrote: »

Yea that would serve to consolidate your drives and data to one place but you would need to have it attached to an always on pc for streaming your media.

A nas would suit you better. Either prebuilt like a qnap or synology (expensive when getting up to high drive capacity) or self built as I've done(there are plenty of free os you can use) . Really does come down to choice.

Edit...
Terramaster do nas's aswell just the one you posted is an external enclosure.

Would you be interested sharing some details of your setup? My initial intention was to go down the full NAS route but after a little more research, I'm not sure if I'd be happy with my drives going 24/7 in case of drive failure as they're not NAS spec drives. I have a 3TB WD NAS ordered to sort out that side of things.

tazzzZ

darragh o meara wrote: »

Would you be interested sharing some details of your setup? My initial intention was to go down the full NAS route but after a little more research, I'm not sure if I'd be happy with my drives going 24/7 in case of drive failure as they're not NAS spec drives. I have a 3TB WD NAS ordered to sort out that side of things.

My current setup is way overkill but my first setup.. I just bought a cheap case with 3 x 5.25inch bays. I then got a 3x5.25 inch Bay to 5xhotswap 3.5inch drive cage. And went from there. Served me very well until I got the data hoarder bug... I'm now up to 91tb of usable storage space.

In terms of os I went for unraid but there are great free oses out there too. Freenas or open media vault amongst others.... I was happy to pay for unraid as everything about it fit my needs.

If your uncomfortable building as I said before qnap or synology or try find something second hand on adverts.

darragh o meara

tazzzZ wrote: »

My current setup is way overkill but my first setup.. I just bought a cheap case with 3 x 5.25inch bays. I then got a 3x5.25 inch Bay to 5xhotswap 3.5inch drive cage. And went from there. Served me very well until I got the data hoarder bug... I'm now up to 91tb of usable storage space.

In terms of os I went for unraid but there are great free oses out there too. Freenas or open media vault amongst others.... I was happy to pay for unraid as everything about it fit my needs.

If your uncomfortable building as I said before qnap or synology or try find something second hand on adverts.

In fairness putting it all together would be no prob for me, have built and fixed more PC's than I care to remember. Just hadn't thought down the road of building one as a storage server. Must look into this a bit further.

91TB wow thats a lot of storage..