Question How to connect HDDs to my Raspberry Pi ?

[Zashuiba]

Hi Internet, I come to you in times of need.

I don't know how to connect the data from my HDDs to my raspberry pi. I've thought of this many, many ways and I just don't see how it's possible. Maybe you can come up with an idea?

This is my setup:

• Raspberry pi 1 (2014)
• 7 HDDs (I'd like to use all of them)
• 400W ATX power supply (I would short it so that it turns on without a mobo)

Important: I care not about data throughput. Obviously, USB 2.0 is not going to yield too high speeds.

In a perfect world, I just want to somehow interconnect data from the HDDs to the USB interface of the Pi, while the HDDs themselves are powered by the external power supply.

I bought some "SSD to USB" cables (7 of them, actually), but they come with the power portion welded together! So it's useless. I also bought a USB hub, but its wall wart is just 12 W ! That's not going to power even a single HDD. Maybe connect the SATA adapters to the USB hub but with another, much more powerful, DC adapter? But I'm not sure the hub can handle such a current.

https://imgur.com/a/sCa5xiz

Ideas?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Aeacus]

I bought some "SSD to USB" cables (7 of them, actually), but they come with the power portion welded together! So it's useless.

Well, those adapters are for 2.5" SSDs, with far less power draw.

For 3.5" HDD, you need adapter with plenty of supplementary power. Like this one with dedicated 24W of extra power,
amazon: https://www.amazon.com/CLAVOOP-Adapter-Converter-External-Seagate/dp/B0CYLK9QFG

For starters, but just one and try it out. If it works, you can buy more. And no need to use ATX PSU at all.

 

[USAFRet]

4 bay HDD adapter
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KY73BNQ

Connect via USB.

 

[Zashuiba]

Well, those adapters are for 2.5" SSDs, with far less power draw.

For 3.5" HDD, you need adapter with plenty of supplementary power. Like this one with dedicated 24W of extra power,
amazon: https://www.amazon.com/CLAVOOP-Adapter-Converter-External-Seagate/dp/B0CYLK9QFG

For starters, but just one and try it out. If it works, you can buy more. And no need to use ATX PSU at all.

Thanks for the suggestion! I thought about it. However, I think the setup becomes really really messy if I need to plug 7 wall warts into an extension cord without any ventilation. In my mind, that's what the ATX PSU is for. But maybe I'm caring too much. The power draw is going to be far less during idle, that's also true, so ventilation is maybe not necessary at all. In fact, my laptop adapter is 120W and it barely overheats, if ever ...

 

[TerryLaze]

You could just look for raspberry pi nas on the interwebs...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l30sADfDiM8

Raspberry pi 1 (2014)

Just saw this now...just why,man.

 

[Moonstick2]

It would b e

In a perfect world, I just want to somehow interconnect data from the HDDs to the USB interface of the Pi, while the HDDs themselves are powered by the external power supply.

I bought some "SSD to USB" cables (7 of them, actually), but they come with the power portion welded together! So it's useless.

Assuming that's a typo for SATA to USB, they all come with the power part integrated, since it's an edge case where somebody wants to connect an internal SATA drive to USB but already have power to that drive.

What you could try is get SATA male-female data extension cables to connect each drive to the data-only portion of its corresponding SATA-to-USB, powering each drive from the ATX, connecting each drive to a USB hub and the hub to the Pi.

It'll be a bit of a Frankenstein arrangement. You'll also need to configure your Pi manually to mount each drive correctly on boot and to be able to deal with the disappearance of any drive without hanging. Will it work? Possibly. Will it work reliably? Ummmm....

If this isn't good enough for you then you should explain what the actual problem is that you're trying to solve, i.e. why you're even wanting to do anything like this in the first place.