Multiple hard drives with laptop

markgodley

I have about 3-5 old internal hard drives (data) from my old desktop computer - all range from about 500gb -2tb.

I’m looking for a cheap solutions for storing them (ideally together) and being able to connect to my laptop from time to time (mainly going to be photo storage for my photography).

I’ve had a look on amazon and the only thing I can really find is some racks but they range from £70-150 .

Seems expensive for a rack and power?

Any suggestions?

Obviously there are single enclosures, but these all need their own power supplies

wormvortex

I use this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inateck-Docking-Station-Function-Tool-free/dp/B00LN0GX4I/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1535202876&sr=8-9&keywords=hdd caddy

Obviously it's only two bay but finding a 5 bay one (if it exists, won't be cheap unless you look at the proper DAS enclosures). If you actually need all the drives connected at once I'd consider buying a large HDD and copying the files across to it. 500GB is tiny when talking about a hard drive now a days.

This one has the benefit of offline cloning as well. Great for making 1-1 backups. Simply insert a blank drive into bay B and the current one into Bay A and hit clone. No PC needed.

markgodley

Awesome this looks ideal, thanks

gbjbaanb

TBH I'd buy a cheap desktop PC (one with a large case) and stick all the drives in it. then I'd stick the case in the attic or back bedroom and attach to it via wifi.

markgodley

Wonder if i could pick your brain on this.

I was just about to buy this, then noticed something in the comments. People are saying the clone drive in B must be bigger than in in bay A.

Obviously i understand why - makes sense... but... say i have 2x 500gb drives and formatted the same, they could vary ever so slightly in sizing due to being different makes.

I.e.
Drive A 465gb remaining after format
Drive B 462gb remaining after format

So if i filled the drive fully in A it wouldn't clone to drive B as there isn't enough space.

However, if i was to say fill Drive A with 440gb (leaving a little free space to be safe) worth of data then cloned, i assumed this would be Ok and the clone would work?

Hope this makes sense!