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Looking For External Hard Drive Cage... I think.

G

Green™

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 20, 2010
60
0
Firstly, I would like to say that this cage is for my iMac (The iMac forum didn't reply) but figured owners of Mac Pros would know more about large types of storage.

I've got 4 hard drives lying around my room from my old PC, and would like them all in a cage of sorts sitting next to my iMac. 3 of the drives are data and the 4th drive will be reformatted as a time machine backup.

I've mroogled this and strangely couldn't find information about external hard drive cages. I don't think I need or want Raid either, do I? Thanks for making it this far.

To reiterate: Looking for an external hard drive bay that supports 4-5 3.5' drives where 3 have data and the other will be used for backup. Any help will be appreciated, thank you. :eek:
 
mjsmke said:
Theres loads of HDD enclosures to choose from.

Single Plastic box....
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=261118

Single aluminium box....
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=396550


Raid Enclosure....
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=224358

I know this is just one shop but it's just an example.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I already have two single external drive cases, what I need is a large cage of sorts that I can put all four drives in.

The last one you listed does in fact store 4 drives which is what I want, but it has RAID... Do all cages have RAID? I don't think I need it. Then again, if it works like I wanted, It'll be good.

Any cage recommendations for those of you who have or used them in the past?
 
I guess I do want RAID... Is it true that if one hard drive goes, they all do? Or something like that?
 
VirtualRain said:
Here's another recent thread on this subject with lots of suggestions...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/923111/
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the link. Alas, I feel like such an amateur after reading it. LOL Shoulda known seeing as it's for pro users...

I just want to access 3 hard drives from my iMac, without spending an arm and leg to accomplish the task. What would you do? Firewire 800 is the only port I need...
 
Green™;11124194 said:
I guess I do want RAID... Is it true that if one hard drive goes, they all do? Or something like that?
Click to expand...

raid 0 yes if one HDD goes all data is gone ? but as I say this is true for a single HDD ?

raid 1/0 or 10 or 1+0 many names :) is 4 HDD or more that work with raid 1 and 0 together :) hence the name
so you get speed and safety
or raid 5 is safe ?


Green™;11124468 said:
I just want to access 3 hard drives from my iMac, without spending an arm and leg to accomplish the task. What would you do? Firewire 800 is the only port I need...
Click to expand...


the mercury cases from OWC might be the ticket for you ? many connections reasonable price a few variety of ways to configure them that can work with the imac and grow to eSATA if you want

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Desktop/
 
Green™;11124468 said:
Hey, thanks for the link. Alas, I feel like such an amateur after reading it. LOL Shoulda known seeing as it's for pro users...

I just want to access 3 hard drives from my iMac, without spending an arm and leg to accomplish the task. What would you do? Firewire 800 is the only port I need...
Click to expand...

There are a few solutions on Newegg...

This is a known quantity but expensive...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111113

These are cheaper...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1&cm_re=4_bay_firewire-_-16-322-001-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816142003
 
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