CAN I USE 6+ HDD'S SIMULTANEOUSLY

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die_pieter

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Good Day,

I have a real noobie question. I have about 20 or more HDD'S full of series and movies, some files, backups etc. Is there any type of hardware that I can use to plug all these HDD's into and be able to access them all on my computer or network?
 
sata port multiplier.

You could build nas of sorts (not sure if you'll find a case that can hold 20 drives) with a cheap R650 MB, a few port replicators & bob's your uncle.

You never specified a budget.
 
If you have enough space in your case and enough SATA ports, i dont see why not.
 
If you have enough SATA ports (you will most likely need an expansion card or 3) - and your PSU puts out enough juice then you wouldn't have an issue.

A case to fit all those HDDs is a different story though...
 
The old SCSI controllers allowed to start hard drives sequentially. :)

I think you should buy one or more 4TB drives, perhaps you can squize 5-10 old hard drives into the single one. Cheaper and energy savings too...
 
You say 20 HDDs. But you don't say what the total storage capacity is. My guess is they are small HDDs.

I'd recommend buying a few 4TB+ HDDs and move all your content onto those. You can add the new drives to a NAS or HP Microserver.

Even the most high end motherboards today don't have 20 SATA ports. The most I've seen is around 12, and that board costs like R6000.

You're probably gonna have to buy a few NASs/Mircoservers as most usually offer 4 drives. NASs with support for 20 drives, if they exist, are gonna be big money. And I mean BIG money.

Much cheaper to just get a few high capacity HDDs. I think I've seen 8TB drives around. Look into it.
 
A NAS won't work since you already have data on the drives.

You need a SATA port replicator as ponder said.
 
Shalin_ZN said:
You say 20 HDDs. But you don't say what the total storage capacity is. My guess is they are small HDDs.

I'd recommend buying a few 4TB+ HDDs and move all your content onto those. You can add the new drives to a NAS or HP Microserver.

Even the most high end motherboards today don't have 20 SATA ports. The most I've seen is around 12, and that board costs like R6000.

You're probably gonna have to buy a few NASs/Mircoservers as most usually offer 4 drives. NASs with support for 20 drives, if they exist, are gonna be big money. And I mean BIG money.

Much cheaper to just get a few high capacity HDDs. I think I've seen 8TB drives around. Look into it.
Click to expand...



This^^ - also, are you sure you need all those drives?
 
Well that's a bummer. I've seen those DVD Copy machines with one master DVD Drive on the top and 10+ beneath that to copy to all the discs simultaneously. Thought maybe somebody designed something like that for a bunch of HDD's to fit into. That would be cool though, if somebody did design it, and it shouldn't be too expensive.

Is there a way to use a cheap motherboard with say 4 sata ports and expand the sata ports? And if possible, how? Then I can load a MediaServer OS on that machine and use it like a big NAS or MediaServer to stream all the movies and series etc to my TV's?
 
You need a controller card for that many drives. Not only that but where are you going to put 20 drives? You'll need a proper case to house them all.

None of this stuff is cheap, I've actually been browsing for these types of cases but you just can't find them locally.

My controller should be arriving tomorrow though, I got one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251929259243

Ended up costing my about 2k with shipping and customs. Plus I still need the connectors which I'm getting from a friend for a good price though.
 
henco1989 said:
Well that's a bummer. I've seen those DVD Copy machines with one master DVD Drive on the top and 10+ beneath that to copy to all the discs simultaneously. Thought maybe somebody designed something like that for a bunch of HDD's to fit into. That would be cool though, if somebody did design it, and it shouldn't be too expensive.

Is there a way to use a cheap motherboard with say 4 sata ports and expand the sata ports? And if possible, how? Then I can load a MediaServer OS on that machine and use it like a big NAS or MediaServer to stream all the movies and series etc to my TV's?
Click to expand...

The tecnology exists.

Both with software on your existing motherboard and in hardware dedicated racks...how do you think the massive data centres look?

Unraid does media but you'll need a PC to run it (like an HP Microserver) or buy a dedicated unit which is lots of bucks.

OpenMediaVault is another option.

****

You have too many drives though.

More drives = more complexity = more risk.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
You need a controller card for that many drives. Not only that but where are you going to put 20 drives? You'll need a proper case to house them all.

None of this stuff is cheap, I've actually been browsing for these types of cases but you just can't find them locally.

My controller should be arriving tomorrow though, I got one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251929259243

Ended up costing my about 2k with shipping and customs. Plus I still need the connectors which I'm getting from a friend for a good price though.
Click to expand...

Again that is pure RAID though.

You need exact same size drives or be willing to sacrifice bigger drive's extra space to line up with smaller ones.

RAID is great if you pre-plan a brand new solution and buy all hte hardware.

UnRAID is magic because you can mix drives.

****

OP you can also look at Windows Storage Space. Thing is the more drives you have hte more risk you have. If you don't set it up redundantly then you lose one drive and you lose them ALL.

Setting it up redundantly steals some space, but means you can lose drives and replace them without losing data.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Again that is pure RAID though.

You need exact same size drives or be willing to sacrifice bigger drive's extra space to line up with smaller ones.

RAID is great if you pre-plan a brand new solution and buy all hte hardware.

UnRAID is magic because you can mix drives.

****

OP you can also look at Windows Storage Space. Thing is the more drives you have hte more risk you have. If you don't set it up redundantly then you lose one drive and you lose them ALL.

Setting it up redundantly steals some space, but means you can lose drives and replace them without losing data.
Click to expand...

I don't intend to use it as a RAID device. I'm going to be flashing different firmware which allows JBOD on the card and then using it in conjunction with ZFS.
 
DrJohnZoidberg Please keep me updated on how its going with your project. I'd like to do something like this. even if it takes only 10 drives at a time. Unraid looks amazing for this but I dont want to buy this expensive software and not be able to set it up correctly. Plus building some hardware also feels good, so I'd like a project like this.
 
Another thing that is often overlooked when putting a lot of harddrives into a PC is the 5V rail. I exceeded mine and had difficulties with my PC booting, random crashes, etc (that was on about 10 drives). I took 3 out and it ran perfectly until my power supply started dying and once again, issues with the 5V rail.
When I bought my replacement, I specifically looked at 5V rail Amperage when choosing a new one, but they don't vary much so you will likely need to run 2 - 3 PSUs for 20 drives.
 
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