Best external hard drive enclosure/multiple bays

[olemed]

I bought a 27" iMac retina and need to look at external hard drive enclosures for multiple drives. I currently have two 2 TB hard drives and I'm looking at several 'scenarios'. Mostly storage for music, documents, and lots of images as well as some video files. Help me think through these options.

Scenario 1:
Get a 4 or 5 bay enclosure and add my 2 drives and add more in the future. Possible options:

Drobo 4-Bay
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...21_4_bay_3_gen_3_5_sata_ssd.html/prm/alsVwDtl

Xcellon DRD-401 Four-Bay
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...drd_401_4_bay_external_raid.html/prm/alsVwDtl

Oyen Digital Mobius 5-Bay
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...mobius_5_bay_raid_enclosure.html/prm/alsVwDtl

Scenario 2:
I have a sata docking station that I bought to retrieve data from my sister's hard drives after her PC died. For $30 it was a nice investment. I could just keep my drives as is in a drive case and swap them back and forth as needed. This would be slightly inconvenient as I'd need at least one connected most of the time.

Scenario 3:
Get a 8 TB Thunderbolt or USB 3 WD MyBook. Obviously USB 3 is the cheaper option. Speed is nice but not a necessity for my needs. Could entertain RAID with this.

I could even entertain scenarios 1 & 2 above but instead get a 2 bay enclosure instead of 4 or 5.

 

[matreya]

These are more expensive, but are much more reliable than multibay USB3 enclosures:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/External-Drive/OWC/ThunderBay-4

I have two of the previous Thunderbolt1 editions of these and they are very good.

 

[rkaufmann87]

These are more expensive, but are much more reliable than multibay USB3 enclosures:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/External-Drive/OWC/ThunderBay-4

I have two of the previous Thunderbolt1 editions of these and they are very good.

I totally agree with matreya on this, the ThunderBay 4 is an excellent solution, it is expandable and extremely fast and OWC specializes in Mac solutions.

 

[olemed]

I totally agree with matreya on this, the ThunderBay 4 is an excellent solution, it is expandable and extremely fast and OWC specializes in Mac solutions.

Thank you both for the feedback. I will consider this as well. Can one add a mixture of drive sizes here? My two 2 GB and then say I get two 4 GB drives to fit the rest of the space for a total of 12. That'd be sweet!

 

[matreya]

Thank you both for the feedback. I will consider this as well. Can one add a mixture of drive sizes here? My two 2 GB and then say I get two 4 GB drives to fit the rest of the space for a total of 12. That'd be sweet!

Yes, you can put varying size drives in the bays, so adding 2 x 4TB to the 2 x 2TB you already have is no problem.

 

[olemed]

Yes, you can put varying size drives in the bays, so adding 2 x 4TB to the 2 x 2TB you already have is no problem.

Awesome, thank you! I am thinking of getting WD green drives since I won't be using RAID. My understanding is that red or black WD drives are best for RAID. I've honestly never used RAID, I don't know that I need to. I've always used my drives independently and always have a backup of important data on a secondary drive.

 

[matreya]

Personally, I wouldn't touch WD Green drives with a bargepole. I've had much better results with HGST and Toshiba drives.

 

[olemed]

Personally, I wouldn't touch WD Green drives with a bargepole. I've had much better results with HGST and Toshiba drives.

My current 2 2TB drives are Samsung and Toshiba so I have had much luck with them and they've been in my Mac Pro for years. I will consider Toshiba again along with HGST. Is it okay to get a NAS drive if I don't plan to use it that way? They seem to be rated for more hours so I figured that might be a bonus (though they are a little pricer).

 

[matreya]

My current 2 2TB drives are Samsung and Toshiba so I have had much luck with them and they've been in my Mac Pro for years. I will consider Toshiba again along with HGST. Is it okay to get a NAS drive if I don't plan to use it that way? They seem to be rated for more hours so I figured that might be a bonus (though they are a little pricer).

Yes, a HGST Deskstar NAS is perfect for desktop drive use. Of the 16 I have, 4 of them are setup as regular desktop drives, the remaining 12 are used in 3 RAID arrays.