Build your own external hard drive enclosure?

[EarthwormJim]

My father wants to get an external hard drive for backing up his computer. For whatever reason he doesn't want to use the NAS I have on our network.

I was originally looking at just a 1tb external hard drive. They're pretty expensive, so I figured a good enclosure and two 750gb samsung drives would be ideal (and cheaper).

As far as enclosures I was looking for one with usb and esata, two bays, and adequate cooling for two drives. All the enclosures I find with esata and usb are typically >$120 which I think is kinda ridiculous (more than a hard drive?!).

Since I have a few small computer cases and spare power supplies laying around, is there any way I could get the controller cards that these external enclosures use? Namely a controller card with JBOD or some RAID functions that can output esata, usb, and maybe firewire(not essential).

 

[tw1164]

I don't know if any cheap DIY options to allow sata/usb/firewire. If you want all those options just wait for a hot deal on an external drive.

If you still want to go the DIY route, I would just pick one and use it (I would use esata myself). You can use an old computer case to house the drives you just need a PCI bracket for that case. You have to monkey w/ the power supply since you're not using a motherboard. I think you need to put a wire from the green wire to a black one. People smarter then me can explain it better.

You'll be able to use a normal controller that has external ports, or just get a 2nd bracket for you host machine.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Thanks for the link to that site tw1164. Found some neat things, still a little pricier than I hoped, but not bad either. As far as the PSU, that's a non issue, I'll just solder the green wire to one of the grounds.

http://www.cooldrives.com/usb20espcbfo.html looked pretty good if I wanted jbod or raid support.

or http://www.cooldrives.com/usb20todusab.html if I don't really care about jbot or raid support.

 

[taltamir]

You could always find a simple cheap enclosure with poor cooling, tear it apart, and build a proper enclosure using its electronic components.

Or better yet, put the extra drives INSIDE your father's computer.

Or just use eSATA directly...
Just an FYI, eSATA IS IDENTICAL to SATA. Just the cable plug is slightly different shape, but you can get cables with any combination of shaped edges you want...
Check this out:
http://www.cooldrives.com/essaii3gbexp.html

You can plug in a SATA drive to an eSATA port directly without anything getting in the way, and it will work just as an internal drive. It is the best you can do. Just build a nice case for it (i typically set it on a piece of paper while I do work with SATA drives..)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16812226003

3$ and 3$ shipping for a 2 port eSATA bracket. You plug it to your motherboards and it acts as an "eSATA" port on your PC.

I use the following:
http://www.brilliantstore.com/..._dekcell_cpa_1261.html

on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-eSATA-4-...14864976QQcmdZViewItem


There is actually a HUGE advantage to plugging it direct to the computer...
The HDD is actually OFF when the computer is off, since it gets power from computer. (don't worry, HDD take between 5 and 10watts each).
There is also the benefit of MUCH faster transmission, since it isn't held back by the enclosure components.

 

[EarthwormJim]

I realize esata is pin for pin identical to sata, but on his current computer there are no free internal sata ports left. It's an older nForce 4 board with just 4 sata ports. USB is the only option.

He's slowly transitioning to his new computer that I built up, which has plenty of free sata ports and a pci bracket with esata.

I'd like to format both drives as a JBOD (1.5tb of storage), just out of curiosity if I did use the computers controller to make a JBOD array, would it be recognizable on another computer?

Reason for so much storage is he does video editing, nothing huge but he still has a lot of videos he needs to back up.

Speed is not essential but a nice bonus, it's simply back up, not a scratch disk or output.

 

[deepinya]

Tha cooldrives site is awesome. I love the in-depth explanations for noobs like me who would have never known these prducts existed.