external enclosures/case?

Richard Bulmer · 30 Jun 2021 at 11:45

Hi folks, i currently have 10 USB external drives & docks connected to the PC, all requiring their own power source. I was wondering if there is anyway of putting these in a PC case or something so that my pc always has access to the drives.

I need to do this as cheap as possible, as i am disabled not working

VersionMonkey · 1 Jul 2021 at 12:36

Is the concern the mulitple power adapters, USB connections, space or a combination of all three? Or are you thinking of removing the drives from the external enclosures and making them internal drives?

If it's power you'd first need to go round them and work out what each needs - noting voltage, current draw and connector type. Then try and find something that could supply all of them - but if there's a great deal of variation that could be tricky.

For the USB connections, a hub would probably do the job to combine them - but would ideally be a powered hub adding another power supply to the mix. Hubs with 10+ ports are available but will get quite pricey if you need USB3.

A case would depend on what they are and how much access you need to them. A PC case may not be the most appropriate option, though.

If you just want to take the drives out and stick them in your PC's case, then they are probably mostly, if not all, SATA drives inside the external enclosures, so you'd perhaps need an extra sata adapter for your PC, and bays to put them in.

Richard Bulmer · 1 Jul 2021 at 12:41

VersionMonkey said:
Is the concern the mulitple power adapters, USB connections, space or a combination of all three? Or are you thinking of removing the drives from the external enclosures and making them internal drives?

If it's power you'd first need to go round them and work out what each needs - noting voltage, current draw and connector type. Then try and find something that could supply all of them - but if there's a great deal of variation that could be tricky.

For the USB connections, a hub would probably do the job to combine them - but would ideally be a powered hub adding another power supply to the mix. Hubs with 10+ ports are available but will get quite pricey if you need USB3.

A case would depend on what they are and how much access you need to them. A PC case may not be the most appropriate option, though.

If you just want to take the drives out and stick them in your PC's case, then they are probably mostly, if not all, SATA drives inside the external enclosures, so you'd perhaps need an extra sata adapter for your PC, and bays to put them in.

a combination of all 3, i'm running out of room in a little corner in a 1 bed flat, currently using 18 plug sockets for everything. As i buy bigger hard drives, they go in the PC, and the smaller ones come out. those that arent needed get put into HDD protective covers. those that i still need are in the docks. And there are 7 USB3 externals connected

Richard Bulmer · 1 Jul 2021 at 13:02

I should also point out that i have a spare (10+ yr old pc lying about) probably hasnt been switched on in 5 years. but it ought to still work, i think that has 4 sata ports

VersionMonkey · 1 Jul 2021 at 16:01

OK, so all the drives were originally internal drives anyway - mostly 3.5" drives, I take it? From your description, I take it that your current PC is full and there's no more bays/motherboard sata ports to use?
And there's a reason you don't copy the data off the old drives onto the new drives?

Not sure about cheap options.

Some approaches come to mind:

The ready made option would be a multi-bay external enclosure like this one:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/icybox-usb-3.0-10-x-3.5-hard-drive-external-enclosure-hd-13h-bt.html

Not very cheap, but the most straight forward option.

You could replace your current PC's case with a tower-server case and then you would likely need to get one or more add-in SATA cards (unless your current motherboard has lots of ports).
Server cases tend to the expensive side, though. And it seems that large server tower cases are getting rarer.

Using your old PC as a NAS is probably not the way to go if it only has a few SATA ports on the motherboard as you'd need to replace that. If the case for it has a lot of drive bays, you could try
converting it into an enclosure (if it has 5.25" bays, you could also install a hard drive back plane e.g. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/icybox-5-bay-sata-sas-hard-drive-backplane-hd-036-bt.html).
You'd need either a bunch of eSATA->SATA backplates or a SAS/SATA multilane adapter board. You would also then need one or more corresponding add-in cards for your current PC plus appropriate cables.
Oh and a PSU jumper like this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-water-blocks-ek-atx-bridging-plug-24-pin-wc-995-ek.html for the old power supply.

If your current PC does have spare SATA ports and/or 5.25" bays, the cheapest option to address at least some of your drives might be to put a hard drive back plane into that and probably supplement
it with a SATA card (OC only have 2-port examples, you might need more ports: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/star...press-controller-card-pexsat32-cc-004-sr.html).