Reliable multi HDD external boxes?

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richms

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# 205609 19-Nov-2016 14:08

I have a couple of orico external boxes that take 5 HDDs and plug in thru USB.

Unreliable pieces of crap.

Anyone got any pointers on some that are reliable, dont randomly disconnect and then reconnect minuites later and similar things like that?

Drives are a variety of WD greens and reds, not looking for any raid in the box, and a NAS is not suitable since crashplan cant handle backing up network shares without messing about using 2 drive letters for each mapping.

Richard rich.ms

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# 1674193 19-Nov-2016 14:40

3.5'' HDD Enclosure Lian-Li

Available in 1-, 2- ,3-, & 5-bay versions - all with USB3 plus eSata connectivity

I have two of the older 5-bay EX-503 models which have worked perfectly for several years (populated with 6TB and 8TB WD Reds).

I use RAID 5, but it has a JBOD option.

The eSata means that the enclosure becomes part of your PC, so Crashplan should work with it.

The only catch is that many modern PCs don't have eSata ports.

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richms

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# 1674368 20-Nov-2016 06:02

Ok, I will keep that one in mind but it seems to be one of the more expensive ones around.

The issue with crashplan is that for it to work properly it has to be a service, and when it is a service it cant access drives mapped by the logged in user. It is fine with USB attached drives - when they dont go disappearing from under it.

Richard rich.ms

Jax

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# 1674379 20-Nov-2016 08:38

I came across these two articles recently

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10844/cru-toughtech-duo-c-storage-enclosure-2x-25-to-usb-31-gen-2-typec-capsule-review

http://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/simon-crisp/drobo-5c-usb-type-c-das-review/

there might be something there for you

driller2000

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# 1674400 20-Nov-2016 09:35

I know you said no raid solutions....so how about unRAID - good option IMO especially if you have spare HW lying around.

My unRAID server has been running for over 4 years now - and it has been great.

Has been very adaptable and robust:

Have added multiple HD's to the array as my storage needs grew.
Have upgraded the Parity Drive successfully - twice.
Have had a HD fail and replaced it successfully.
Also suffered random shutdowns due to power failures earlier in it's life - got a UPS post this.
Even had to reflash MB bios recently.

So have done all of this and I have not lost ANY data - grown the server to 12 drives (1 x Parity / 11 x Data) - is currently 41 TB - and with 8TB HD's I could expand to 88TB if I needed to.

So worth a look I reckon esp seeing the nominal price of the SW.

richms

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# 1674507 20-Nov-2016 12:37

I prefer to run things as mirrors, so in the event I need to I can grab one drive from each mirror and go somewhere else since a majority of the stuff is things that are handy to keep, but not worth keeping an offsite backup of.

Mind you, with what.cd disappearing I might start to value the flac collection a bit better now since I cant just redownload it all.

Richard rich.ms

driller2000

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# 1674523 20-Nov-2016 14:06

richms:

I prefer to run things as mirrors, so in the event I need to I can grab one drive from each mirror and go somewhere else since a majority of the stuff is things that are handy to keep, but not worth keeping an offsite backup of.

Mind you, with what.cd disappearing I might start to value the flac collection a bit better now since I cant just redownload it all.

Yep fair enough - mine is a media server - so while I would cry just a little if I lost a drives worth (in the scenario parity and a storage drive died at the same time) - it would sort of be replaceable....