How can i connect 4 hard drives

[gaurav00]

Hello,
i want to connect 4 -5 hard drives ranging from 500 gig to 2 Tb to my computer .. how is it possible ?

 

[gaurav00]

OK Just to extend it ...
I have approx 7 Tb of data ... mostly on Hard Drives ( external and internal both rangining from 500 gb to 2 Tb). in last 1 month i have lost 4 Tb.. i am tired to taking backups and recovering... 2 Tb is completely lost 🙁 dont know what to do.. is it a possible way where i can permanently hook on my other hard drives... and use them as plug and play ( switch off when not required)...
Thanks...

 

[huron]

I'm a little confused...do you want some drives active and others not?

How much data needs to be active at once?

Are the other drives you are connecting just going to be backup drives?

Sorry to hear about data loss...there was an interesting article about HDDs and failure the other day....it's pretty much a guarantee at some point (especially after 5 years or so)...interesting data.

If you are looking to use drives as a backup, you could just connect via eSATA or USB and backup data.

If you want them all in the system or eSATA and want hot-swap, you need to make sure you have AHCI (motherboard, and configured correctly in the OS).

If you are looking to better protect against a drive failure, a RAID volume with a hot spare might be in order.

I have a setup where I have a dedicated tray for a backup disk...something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Aluminum-Mobile-Triple-KF-813-BK/dp/B000CDR8OG

That way I can backup data to that disk, take it off site (my office), and put in a new disk for the next backup.

There is an option to connect RAID towers to your current computer that use eSATA as a port multiplier, I believe...

With more info, I think we could point you in the right direction.

 

[gaurav00]

Hi Huron,
thanks for reply... the situation at the moment is ...
I have a intel core i3, with 8 gb RAm. at the moment there are 2 Hard drives( 1 Tb and 2 Tb - total 3 tb) internally attached and a dvd drive.
I further have 1 2000Gb and 2, 2 Tb drives and 1 500 gb drive which contains different different stuff... i might use drive 4 for few hours and then drive 6.... to keep them in seprate casing is difficult and causes data loss [lost a complete 2300 movie collection with no back up 🙁].
What i want :

any possibility that i can in addition of keeping my existing drives (3 tb) can use the other 4 drives either via USB or lan... ideally each having a power switch which can help me to conserve energy and keep the drives shut when not needed.
i know that there are few products available,.. but most of them are for back up... i dont want backup .. i Just have too much data that i want at one source and i cannot spend thousands on buying a 200 tb drive 🙁
will be thankful is any solution is possible...
what I want or looking for is ...

 

[huron]

For ease of use, if they are SATA drives, and you have an eSATA (or USB) interface on your motherboard (and AHCI enabled) you can get something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071

eSATA is certainly faster, but that dock will do either.

That would allow you to plug in a bare drive, power it on, do whatever, then power it off and unplug. It would only support a drive at a time.

If you wanted more drives and hot-swap, you might have to look at a hot swap enclosure for your computer.

I'd still advise a backup if you don't want to lose your data. I always have my data in more than one location...don't want to lose something important.

Honestly, it sounds like with that kind of data that you should set up some sort of home server (possibly with RAID) and backup.

I know you don't want to spend a lot, but that would offer some protection against drive failure, and if you set it up, would allow you to restore if something did happen.

 

[gaurav00]

Best answer selected by gaurav00.

 

[gaurav00]

Thanks again... i guess setting a server is best option ...

can you suggest me something as well... i mean i dont want to relay anything or broadcast ... just to give you an idea of my data .. i have some 3000 movies ... some TV, my work related ( 2 Tn or so) etc ....

because of my work i have to store few Gb's of fresh data every week ( which i back up and seprate disk)... but to do trend analysis i might need any days data and it is very risky to keep it in USB drives as i have already lost 1 tb of music 🙁 .

i dont know about RAID drives ... so if you can suggest any webpage where i can also buy that kind of product... or any product availble for my kind of needs...
many thanks..
cheers