Cheapish external drive solution?

Soldato
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My Google-Fu is weak today..

So currently I have a my OS drive, a RAID5 array, and essentially a backup of the RAID 5 array, in my desktop. This has a couple of advantages - I don't have to keep connecting/disconnecting external HDDs, for example, every time I synch the array with them (every couple of days) - but has the rather major disadvantage of them all being plugged into the same PSU/chance of them all being nicked at once.
So i'm looking for a cheap, simple solution to keep the backup drives outside the PC.
I'm not after a NAS solution - they're too expensive. I have the Antec p182 case - which has removable 'enclosures' for sections containing HDDs; what I do if I want to take them someplace atm is to remove the whole section - I then have the circuit board from an old external MyBook, which I use to connect whichever of the drives I want, via USB. Keeping this system would work, but has a couple of drawbacks.. I can only plug in one drive at a time, and the SATA power connector is a bit short and is dying (and held together with electrical tape).

Ideally I would want a solution that'll allow me to plug all my drives into the computer at once, probably via single USB (transfer speed not important). Is there any fairly cheap (let's say sub £100) way of doing this? It can either be using my existing 'enclosure' or using a (single) dedicated enclosure, which would need space for 4 (5 would be better) 3.5" HDDs.

If there isn't any way of doing that, I'll probably botch my existing MyBook circuitboard up some more to extend the SATA power cable a bit, and live with it.


Cheers for any and all suggestions/thoughts.. and let me know if that didn't make sense :)
 
StarTech appear to do something along the lines of what you're after. I've no idea how good it is though. I don't think it supports RAID, but I'm not quite sure from your description if that's something you actually need.
 
StarTech appear to do something along the lines of what you're after. I've no idea how good it is though. I don't think it supports RAID, but I'm not quite sure from your description if that's something you actually need.

RAID's not needed - I'll just look into that now :)
 
RAID's not needed - I'll just look into that now :)

StarTech do do the right sort of thing. But it appears even their 2-drive options are near or at the £100 mark, and their 4-drive one is nearly £300, so out of the question unfortunately!
 
I obviously can't link it for you, but the 4 drive one I saw was nearer the £120 mark.

Edit: Having said that, I can't seem to find anywhere that actually lists it as in stock.
 
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My Google-Fu is weakening by the minute :o
Cheers, looking at things other than just the manufacturer's site helped!
 
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