ide usb

[Benny]

So there are hundreds of usb to ide convertors to run my old ide's on my PC, but I'm after a little caddy that will hold around 4 ide drives and usb into my pc....any ideas?

[suicidal_monkey]

4 caddies, a powered usb hub, and some gaffer tape?



...of course you could put up a little bit of cash and opt for some of the swankier NAS boxes out there? SCAN.co.uk seem to have had a few multi-drive boxes recently...

[suicidal_monkey]

not cheap really so probably best to do your own thing?

Couple of icybox things bolted together, or a number of those IDE-USB adapters with the drives mounted in the drive cage ripped out of an old case, a USB hub, put some sort of a cover around it if you like to make it look nice, and probably a fan or two for good measure. Make a multi-way splitter for the power input so you don't need multiple kettle leads. Depending on space you have available, and the number of drives you have, you could mount it all inside an old PC case as a frame.

[Gone_Away]

Originally posted by Benny@Jun 13 2006, 01:52 PM
So there are hundreds of usb to ide convertors to run my old ide's on my PC, but I'm after a little caddy that will hold around 4 ide drives and usb into my pc....any ideas?

[post=131429]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

Required for the next lan? :norty:

[Penfold]

Originally posted by suicidal_monkey@Jun 13 2006, 04:27 PM
not cheap really so probably best to do your own thing?
Make a multi-way splitter for the power input so you don't need multiple kettle leads.

[post=131450]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

What's that then? Would be an easy thing to do?

[suicidal_monkey]

Originally posted by ThePENDRAGON@Jun 20 2006, 09:08 AM
What's that then? Would be an easy thing to do?

[post=132509]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

standard external enclosures use a reasonable amount of power, but not a huge amount for a 13A rated cable...

Get a good hefty kettle lead, use that to plug into a fused (&switched?) socket on the outside of your case like the one on the back of a pc, then attach 4 or 5 short connections internally from the socket outputs to power the individual USB enclosures, either using further cut-off kettle lead endings (easier) or by hard-wiring in some thickish cabling in their place...) make sure you've earthed your outer casing (just in case ) and you can power up/down the lot of them in one go.
alternatively get a power brick and use that to distribute your power. Take up more room but doesn't require any soldering etc

Also add in a powered usb hub (taking power from the same kettlelead input perhaps so it's all in one box) and some short usb leads to connect the usb part of your enclosures to the hub, and the hub becomes your single connection to all 4 or 5 drives...

I guess if you factor in the cost of the individual parts (5 USB enclosures, cables and plugs, outer box/casing, hub) and your time than you're looking at enough money (assuming your time is valuable ) to buy a "proper" multi-disk NAS solution?