[SOLVED] How to add a substantial amount of direct storage to a PC

[fobos8]

Hi guys
I do a lot of work with laser scanning for work and this creates a huge amount of data. The 2 8TB HDDs on my PC are full and I'd like to add some more storage.

I have a NAS locally that creates copies and I also do online copies. What I'd like to do is have some form of external storage directly attached to my PC.

The plan is to every year retire a HDD from my PC to the external storage and then put a new HDD into my PC for that year.

Once the HDD is in the external storage system I'll rarely need to read or write to it.

For the external direct attached storage can I just use a docking station like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ORICO-4-Ba...ds=hdd+docking+station&qid=1601116094&sr=8-33

or am I better off with an enclosure like this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TerraMaste...nal+storage+terramaster&qid=1601116651&sr=8-5

Please bear in mind that I'm not interested in RAID as I have that on my NAS. I also need to be able to stick the retired HDD into the external device and have it readable by windows (I don't want to have to use any proprietary storage software).

Cheers, Andrew

 

[USAFRet]

The second one. I have a MediaSonic 4 bay thing quite similar.

Plug in a drive, Windows sees it.

 

[fobos8]

thanks Titan

Is anyone using the docking bay type for this type of storage?

 

[madmatt30]

thanks Titan

Is anyone using the docking bay type for this type of storage?

I use one but not really for mass or backup storage, more for cloning etc, plugged into a pc the drives will be seen as normal storage drives.

The issue is the drives are exposed so while it's functional as a 4 drive storage device I wouldn't be using it as a permanent solution.

You're paying extra for the casing and mounting on the boxes enclosure but it's probably worth it for neatness, convenience and safety.