Using my old hard drives

Discussion created by Matt Lombard on Jan 18, 2021
Latest reply on Jan 20, 2021 by Frederick Law

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I have half a dozen hard drives with stuff on them that I'd like to keep, but I don't need access to them every day. I'd like an NAS type device that I can turn on, access data, then turn it off. Right now all the drives are connected to an old computer that is running out of power connections. I don't want anything fancy or expensive. Just a trimmed down bare bones computer with a lot of AT drive connections.

I used to have a NAS, but it went screwy, and would only hold 2 drives, anyway. Most of the drives are HDD, one is SSD.

Is there any kind of device that will accommodate this situation?

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14 Replies

Matt Juric Jan 18, 2021 5:46 PM
Are you just looking for an HD enclosure like these?

Hard Drive Enclosures | Newegg.com
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Matt Juric Jan 18, 2021 5:47 PM
Currently being moderated.
Are you just looking for an HD enclosure like these?

Hard Drive Enclosures | Newegg.com
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- Matt Lombard @ Matt Juric on Jan 18, 2021 5:51 PM
  Something like this that accepts AT connections, except 1/6 the price:
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  - Matt Juric @ Matt Lombard on Jan 19, 2021 9:35 AM
    Dig thru the link I sent you and see if you can find something. The power search on Newegg is pretty extensive.
    
    If you're looking for uber cheap and lots of drives you're probably better off making your own. Build a cheap PC with a Motherboard that has LOTS of available drive slots.
    
    You could also just drop in a few HD controller cards to an existing PC if you have slots available and drop all the HDD's into a cardboard box. that option limits you to whatever space you have in the PC and how many drives you can hook up to an individual card.
    
    Buy a $200 MB, cheap CPU, power supply and 4-5 4X cards and you can hook up 25-30 drives for $500-600 dollars. Price drops as you need to hook up less drives.
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Ben Nemec Jan 19, 2021 9:18 AM
Matt,
What's the total space of all the drives combined? Here's where I'm going:
- "Data I want to keep on Old spinning drives" I find that an oxymoron.
- old files are only of use if you can find them, so unless you have them all cataloged perfectly you would like something that offers quick searching speed.
- a couple of 1 or 2 TB SSD SATA III drives will consume very little power, will be very quick, fairly cost effective and less likely to die on you.
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Josh Brady Jan 19, 2021 9:42 AM
If they really are old drives, I would assume they're not really big... why not just buy one monster drive and copy everything? You can get 8 or even 10TB for $200...

Refurbished: HGST WD Ultrastar DC HC510 10TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200RPM 3.5-Inch Data Center HDD HUH721010ALE600 (0F27452) - New…
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- Matt Juric @ Josh Brady on Jan 19, 2021 10:07 AM
  Josh Brady wrote:
  
  If they really are old drives, I would assume they're not really big... why not just buy one monster drive and copy everything? You can get 8 or even 10TB for $200...
  
  Refurbished: HGST WD Ultrastar DC HC510 10TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200RPM 3.5-Inch Data Center HDD HUH721010ALE600 (0F27452) - New…
  Good point. I was assuming they were all newer and larger drives and alot of them.
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Matt Lombard Jan 19, 2021 10:43 AM
Ok, I guess I haven't thought this through very well. I have:

- 1 120 gb ssd
- 1 740 gb hdd
- 1 750 gb hdd
- 1 1 tb hdd
- 1 2 tb hdd

I've also got a working computer and enclosure that they all fit into along with a DVD drive that is nice to have now and then, and a couple extra monitors. The most economical answer is to just put all that together and turn it on when needed. Plus then I'd have an extra computer for testing stuff when needed.

Sorry for the false alarm, I guess this problem solves itself.
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Frederick Law Jan 19, 2021 11:46 AM
It is getting hard to get IDE connection for old drives.
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- Anna Wood @ Frederick Law on Jan 19, 2021 2:45 PM
  Frederick Law wrote:
  
  It is getting hard to get IDE connection for old drives.
  
  What Frederick Law suggests.... Get a docking station and keep the bare hard drives on the shelf. The docking station can run anywhere you plug the usb port in.
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  - Matt Lombard @ Anna Wood on Jan 19, 2021 3:27 PM
    Now that you mention it, that's brilliant! So the drives become like portable external drives. The cable includes power and data. Never would have thought of that. Thanks!
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    - Frederick Law @ Matt Lombard on Jan 20, 2021 10:16 AM
      Use the docking station.
      The cable does not pass power.
      I used internal power cable with the cable.
      I have the case open all the time.
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    - Ben Nemec @ Matt Lombard on Jan 20, 2021 10:30 AM
      Matt Lombard wrote:
      
      Now that you mention it, that's brilliant! So the drives become like portable external drives. The cable includes power and data. Never would have thought of that. Thanks!
      If the data is worth all this trouble, I would get it off those old spinning disks. I certainly wouldn't make a habit of moving them about and starting/stopping them regularly. That's just me though.
      
      I'm enjoying the ~$300 dell R710 from ebay that came with 4 1TB drives as my where house. Yeah, they are spinning drives, but they are RAID so I have a little wiggle room for disk failure.
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      - Frederick Law @ Ben Nemec on Jan 20, 2021 11:33 AM
        I have a 3T MyBook at home.
        Carry a 1T portable with hardware encryption.
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Using my old hard drives

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