simpsons11 2 Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 I am filling up my movie library and my HTPC doesn't have room for the third hard drive I installed. I honestly not using a ton of space compared to others but working on buying movies and ripping them. I currently have two 750 gig drives and a 160 gig drive I've been using to have WMC record live tv and temporary put my recorded tv on. I would like to get at least a 4-bay enclosure and don't want to spend very much (around 100-200ish). Seeing what items are being used in the community that works well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pagali 62 Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 I've been very happy with the Probox 4-drive enclosure, been using it almost 2 years with no problems. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001&Tpk=probox%204%20bay%20hard%20drive%20enclosure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaefurr 1337 Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 I've been very happy with the Probox 4-drive enclosure, been using it almost 2 years with no problems. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001&Tpk=probox%204%20bay%20hard%20drive%20enclosure I was about to recommend that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpsons11 2 Posted November 5, 2013 Author Share Posted November 5, 2013 (edited) I've been very happy with the Probox 4-drive enclosure, been using it almost 2 years with no problems. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001&Tpk=probox%204%20bay%20hard%20drive%20enclosure I've actually was just reading the reviews on that box. I was also looking at the step up that has a raid controller. Worth the extra cost to be able to do a RAID 5? Edited November 5, 2013 by simpsons11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGMayor 88 Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 I picked up this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111166 in 2011 for 149.99 and and a 4 bay one as well. I don't bother with RAID though, so it's all set up as JBOD. If a drive dies, I'll deal with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashkelly 62 Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I picked up a couple of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576012 just over 2 years ago and am very happy with them. I am running them on USB 3.0 but eSATA is available as well. They also have the same one with RAID. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DigiTM 60 Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 (edited) I've been using these ones on USB 3.0 and they have been working like a charm for the last 18 months. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392051 I also have a couple of the ones that crashkelly has. Also working like a charm. I really have to ease down on my media collection, way too much storage is needed. Edited November 6, 2013 by DigiTM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpsons11 2 Posted November 6, 2013 Author Share Posted November 6, 2013 I picked up this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111166 in 2011 for 149.99 and and a 4 bay one as well. I don't bother with RAID though, so it's all set up as JBOD. If a drive dies, I'll deal with it. In JBOD, does it show all drives as one or does it just show each drive separately with its own drive letter? I know what JBOD stands for but have no knowledge exactly how it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashkelly 62 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 In JBOD, does it show all drives as one or does it just show each drive separately with its own drive letter? I know what JBOD stands for but have no knowledge exactly how it works. In my experience it shows all the drives as one. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelman1991 19 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Not in my experience - unless you are using some form of drive pooling - I have 2 enclosures and the drive contents show as individual drive letters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6766 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 If you want to pool the drives as one, try Drive Bender, or similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaefurr 1337 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Flexraid works good for pooling as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashkelly 62 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Not in my experience - unless you are using some form of drive pooling - I have 2 enclosures and the drive contents show as individual drive letters Yup, think you are right and I was thinking of something else. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpsons11 2 Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 I appreciate all the help! If doing software raid, is it recommended to use WD Red drives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaefurr 1337 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I'd say go with Reds since they were designed for RAID/NAS 24/7 setups I've been using green drives for the past 2 years and ive yet to have one fail on me and I run 24/7. But its like a $5 difference nowaways anyway, so id probably never buy a green again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnchimpo 7 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I'd say go with Reds since they were designed for RAID/NAS 24/7 setups I've been using green drives for the past 2 years and ive yet to have one fail on me and I run 24/7. But its like a $5 difference nowaways anyway, so id probably never buy a green again My greens always caused problems in my RAID5. Would show that they had failed when they were really just fine. Eventually I just decided to RAID0 with two backups for the improved performance and reliability. I can lose the last month of new movies/tv without being too upset. If I built another RAID though I'd definitely stay away from the greens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddiehl 2 Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 I'm also looking to purchase an enclosure.. Do any of them allow the drives to be shown individually?- "D" "E" "F" "G" for example. Drives are getting big enough these days that I'm not concerned with pooling. My desktop acts as my 'server' which has 4 shared 3tb drives installed. My plan was to get a 4 bay enclosure with another 4 3tb drives and have each drive backed up and synced to it's corresponding drive in the desktop using Crashplan or another reliable backup/sync tool and another tool to moniter the overall health of the drives.. In theory in the event a drive crashed in either location all I would need to do is copy the contents of the good drive to the new one, and not have to worry about files being spread across multiple drives.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnchimpo 7 Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 I prefer SyncBack for automated backups. Having a JBOD/RAID would probably serve you better than individual drives. You get the benefit of faster read/writes and its much less likely to lose data. You can always use folders to separate your data types vs drives anyhow. Drive mapping in windows has become pretty malleable since Win7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airbender 113 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 I picked up a couple of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576012 just over 2 years ago and am very happy with them. I am running them on USB 3.0 but eSATA is available as well. They also have the same one with RAID. Cheers Hi Are you able to see the all 8 drives with this one ? what is speed rate on USB 3.0 ? I am thinking about getting this one but have few questions to ask as my system is AMD Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airbender 113 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Hi also see Synology DiskStation 4-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS411slim (Black) the problem is this unit is old but good reviews and it is only 4 Bay drives but i have 5 drives and most of them are 4TB so still debating between NAS and Mass storage system OP did you get a hard-drive-enclosure ? sorry did not want to hijack your post but l am same issue looking for one and budget is tight so going back and fourth Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianW 1052 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Whatever you do - get the largest number of bays you can and use the largest capacity drives. You'll eventually fill whatever you have, so the larger you go, the longer it will last.. I started with a 4 bay NAS with 4 x 1TB drives (the largest available at the time) in RAID 5. I then went to an 8-bay NAS with 8 x 2TB drives (3TB were far too expensive at the time and 4TB hadn't been invented). Now that is getting close to full. I keep moving stuff off of it to delay having to purchase something bigger. At the moment I have my eye on the Synology DS2413+ but hopefully I can last until Synology bring out a 2014 model and 5TB drives are available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airbender 113 Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Whatever you do - get the largest number of bays you can and use the largest capacity drives. You'll eventually fill whatever you have, so the larger you go, the longer it will last.. I started with a 4 bay NAS with 4 x 1TB drives (the largest available at the time) in RAID 5. I then went to an 8-bay NAS with 8 x 2TB drives (3TB were far too expensive at the time and 4TB hadn't been invented). Now that is getting close to full. I keep moving stuff off of it to delay having to purchase something bigger. At the moment I have my eye on the Synology DS2413+ but hopefully I can last until Synology bring out a 2014 model and 5TB drives are available. Hi Great advise for me and everyone so i am still debating between a unit that can be eSATA or USB 3.0 or Network Mediasonic H82-SU3S2 ProBox 8 Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 3.0 & eSATA (Black) $300 or Rosewill RSV-S8 8-Bay 2.5" & 3.5" Hot-Swappable RAID 0/1/5/10/5+spare/Spanning/JBOD Storage Enclosure System with 120mm cooling fan, Port Multiplier, Tray Design, and Bundled with PCIe RAID Controller Card $259 at newegg or just a NAS system Synology older model for about $300 to 400 for 4 Bay All look good and all have same kind of reviews but offcourse Synology is great unit i wish if it was little chiper Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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