Combining hard drives advice

xhobbesx

Distinguished
Jul 28, 2010
33
0
18,530
Hello, wondering if anyone could help me.

So I have 3x 500GB hard drives (all nearly halfway full) that I would like to put them all into one external hard drive bay enclosure. Within the hard drive bay enclosure, I would like to access my hard drives via eSata and with each hard drive showing up as a drive (F, G, H etc.) in Windows.

I have read a little about RAID (still don't really understand) and I do not think that is what I would like to have since I don't want the redundant storage and risk having the entire array fail with one hard drive failing. It also seems like I would have to wipe all data on the drive before I array as RAID. Also, if I have 1.5GB of total space, i would like to have 1.5GB of potential data.

I think what I would want is an external hard drive bay enclosure with JBOD configuration, where I think each disk will read separately in Windows.

So, knowing my case, are all of the following products right for me? Also, do you have any additional suggestions?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998053
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111164
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111177
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001

I also think this might work for me even though it is an internal one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994149

Lastly, I have a separate question but still related to the topic,. I have a Gigabyte MA790GPT-UD3H motherboard. A few of the enclosure required that my motherboard support port replicators. Does my motherboard meet that requirement?

Thanks for reading and happy holidays!
 
Solution
I would go with either the third one ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111177 ) since it does what you want and is only $70 AR right now. And it includes a free controller card, unfortunately it is a USB 3 card and not an eSATA card, which you will need since your board lacks a rear panel eSATA port. You would thus also need an eSATA card that supports port multiplier, like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124004

My other choice would be the IcyDock if your case has the room, as it will directly use your SATA connectors on the motherboard.

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
I would go with either the third one ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111177 ) since it does what you want and is only $70 AR right now. And it includes a free controller card, unfortunately it is a USB 3 card and not an eSATA card, which you will need since your board lacks a rear panel eSATA port. You would thus also need an eSATA card that supports port multiplier, like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124004

My other choice would be the IcyDock if your case has the room, as it will directly use your SATA connectors on the motherboard.
 
Solution