External Rackmountable IDE Drive enclosure?

[chsh1ca]

I was just wondering if anyone could point me to a direction where I can find an external rackmountable IDE drive enclosure that is capable of holding at least 3-5 drives. I have a LOT of quasi-important data to back up on a regular basis, and it doesn't justify the expense of tape, so I figured that I would see if anyone can recommend a good solution to me. I need something similar to the IBM EXP300 enclosure, but I'd prefer IDE over SCSI. I don't even know if such a beast exists for IDE, as all I've found are single drive USB external enclosures designed for desktops.

Can anyone make a recommendation?

 

[Lord Evermore]

IDE isn't specified to allow direct connections externally. What would you plug it into? Leave the computer case open with an IDE cable hanging out? Length limitations would also be an issue, as well as the fact that you can't have more than 2 devices on a cable.

Firewire would be a good solution for you, though I'm not sure you can find a rackmountable device. You could use single-drive enclosures, and just build a platform that mounts in the rack, and the drives sit on top of it. The enclosures can be daisy-chained and provide good throughput if you get the right kind. There are also multiple drive Firewire enclosures that aren't rackmount size, way too tall.

 

[mcveigh]

http://www.3ware.com/products/ata.asp

some others make ones like it also, puts 3 drives into 2 drive space

 

[JoshFink]

Does Promise Make one of these? Do you know?

Thanks

Josh

 

[mcveigh]

I think so, but not sure

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: JoshFink
Does Promise Make one of these? Do you know?

Thanks

Josh

No, Promise sells external ATA RAID boxes that connect to a PC through a SCSI interface.

 

[JoshFink]

Yeah.. I saw that, I was hoping they had these as well. Would be nice. Oh well, too much into a promise card to abandon it for a 3Ware.

Thanks

Josh

 

[chsh1ca]

Actually, I don't mind a SCSI connection to the IDE drives, it's just the cost of the drives is what is mostly prohibitive in this venture. The Promise UltraTrak is pretty much dead on what I'm looking for!

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: chsh1ca
Actually, I don't mind a SCSI connection to the IDE drives, it's just the cost of the drives is what is mostly prohibitive in this venture. The Promise UltraTrak is pretty much dead on what I'm looking for!

For the cost of the RM8000 (8 drive 3U) alone you could buy a decent standard rackmount case and 10 current generation 36GB 10K drives. Add in the cost of 8 ATA drives and you could probably up that to 73GB versions.

 

[JoshFink]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
http://www.3ware.com/products/ata.asp

some others make ones like it also, puts 3 drives into 2 drive space

Just out of curiousity, will this work with the promise card? I'm just assuming it has 3 IDE outputs on the back of it that you can plug into the IDE controller?

Anyone tried this?

Thanks

Josh