Multiple internal drive used to make 1 external uber drive

[smileyguy4you]

Ok so ive been searching around for a while with how to create a home made external drive that utilizes multiple internal drives, i get innundated with buy a external drive case, most are for one drive, or extremely over priced, i want to take my old internal hard drives around 5-10, but could go higher, and perferably put them in some sort of casing, got old computer cases laying around and other random parts/cables, and hook them up so that it comes out as one esata plug or usb 2.0 plug that i can hook up to a computer like 1 large external drive. So how should i go about doing this parts wize or if someone knows of a site that actually explains how to do it fully, all ive found is put them in a pre perchased external drive case.
i was looking at this thread
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249837-31-using-case-power-supply-enclosure
it helps somewhat, but i need a little more indepth and, i think im looking for somethign a little different but same general priciple.

thanks for any help in advanced

 

[Guest]

this isn't going to be easy, but to start i would think about getting a cheap case then something like this-

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/ad5sapm-e.asp

and something else like this-
http://www.arrowmax.com/product_info.php?products_id=266

you also need to make sure your motherboard e-sata port will handle port multiplication. Even then you are going to see the individual drives - getting 'one big drive' will require software RAID. It may be simpler to build/buy a NAS.

 

[xaira]

there are companies that make controler cards so ull have to find a controler card for usb/esata , as i can guess ud want raid JBOD AND ID BET ALL THOSE DRIVES ARENT ONE INTERFACE so ull need to find a controler that supports sata, ide and i guess ull have to buy a power supply just to power the drives, thisll be a nice project, if u ever get =all the parts and get it to work thatll be pretty kool

 

[smileyguy4you]

alright so, again i do not want to buy a pre built hard drive holder, i'd much rather make my own, both for the learning experience and to say i made this rad hard drive uber tower thingy.

So for the controler card any links to the right type i would need to get? im also guesing i would not need a large power supply for this since its just running the hard drives, so i could find a cheap low bugget one? also looking at all my drives are sata so i should only need a controller that supports sata, Ill need the usb out to plug it to another computer whats the best way to go about that? and could you explain the port multiplication and how to go about doing that?

Thank you again

 

[smileyguy4you]

And sorta a premis to all this, i do alot, ALOT, of video editing work and have multiple external bought drives already along with maxed out internal drives, and im upgrading all those internals to larger drives so i have the 80-500 gig drives that will no longer be used, and i dont want to use up another 5 usb/w/e plugs to make them external id like to only use up preferably 1 or 2 at max and thus is why id like to build it on my own, so i can spend more of my money on my new internal drives as well as learn more about this, so in the future when i most likely upgrade internal drives again i can add these new ones to the uber external id like to learn to build

I also have some knowledge of metal working, was thinking of building my own case specifically for just hard drives and the other hardware needed, puting in the suspended hard drive bays, as many as possible