Mac Mini Storage Options?

[Ironduke]

Im going to return to the Mini soon, I moved away to the cough (Hackintosh)
Never really got it to work Lustfully Like a mac, always the odd niggle & problem I could only fix by re-installing etc.. (I no linux geek)

The one issue I have with the Mini is Hardrive space. its just not enough for expansion, my hackintosh has 4 Hardrives each over 1TB.

I have been looking at DAS options and the best I have come up with is The ICY Dock 561, which supports esata (nogood) & USB.

I was hoping to find a 4 Bay DAS with Firewire800, im not interested in all that RAID stuff I simply want all 4 disks to appear as they are not JBOD or Raid.

any suggestions?

 

[Hellhammer]

How about NAS or online storage? They you would need no wires and you could access the data wirelessly (requires fast internet connection).

Most multiple bay enclosures have RAID but you don't have to use it if you don't want to.

One option is to share your Hackintosh HDs (use it as a server) over network and use them to store data (not sure how it is done but should be possible).

 

[Gordy]

I'm not sure what 4 bay drive enclosure would work for you best, but have you considered consolidating your drives into 2 x 2tb drives and then having either a 2 bay drive enclosure or 2 single drive enclosures connected by firewire. There is less power required and less noise too.

I've currently got a lacie quadra drive with a 1.5tb seagate in connected via firewire to my mini. Works very well as I have it stored in a cupboard so that the sound of the drive is no audible.

 

[Ironduke]

How about NAS or online storage? They you would need no wires and you could access the data wirelessly (requires fast internet connection).

Most multiple bay enclosures have RAID but you don't have to use it if you don't want to.

One option is to share your Hackintosh HDs (use it as a server) over network and use them to store data (not sure how it is done but should be possible).

yeah thought about using the hackintosh as a server but its a waste of a q6600 & 8800gt

also had a time capsule, nice but abit slow

 

[SoCalRich]

LeCie

I use a 4 drive system totaling 3.5 TB. They are all LeCie drives mounted in a very cool 4 bay rack.

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11156
and the 4 bay rack
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10029

Works well for me...

 

[WilliamG]

I use a 4 drive system totaling 3.5 TB. They are all LeCie drives mounted in a very cool 4 bay rack.

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11156
and the 4 bay rack
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10029

Works well for me...

How do you back that up?

I use groups of WD 2TB Studio drives in RAID 1. Redundancy is important to me.

 

[hoosker]

miniStack

If you can live with a single drive, I like the miniStack from OWC. They are available up to 2TB and have same attractive mini footprint with additional USB and FW ports. 3 yr. warranty I think.

 

[mstrze]

yeah thought about using the hackintosh as a server but its a waste of a q6600 & 8800gt

Well...if it's a waste as a server...it's surely a larger waste sitting around unplugged.

 

[reebzor]

I'm in the same position. I have 3tb connected to my mini (2tb and 1tb usb externals) that is about full. I think I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and buy a 4bay enclosure and run it in raid 5. I require some redundancy, I don't want to lose all my data because of one crappy drive.

 

[Ironduke]

Well...if it's a waste as a server...it's surely a larger waste sitting around unplugged.

I was going to sell the parts minus the HD's

 

[ADent]

How about FW drives? Might be cheaper to get two external 2TB drives than anything else.

You can hook two of the drives up to the mini directly - you won't be able to put the cover on, lose the optical drive, but you could house it all in a computer case.

 

[mstrze]

How about FW drives? Might be cheaper to get two external 2TB drives than anything else.

You can hook two of the drives up to the mini directly - you won't be able to put the cover on, lose the optical drive, but you could house it all in a computer case.

Yes...

What's the problem with adding a couple of external drives...either FW or USB 2.0? It's like this appears to not even be an option for you. A brand new 1.5 TB WD drive (enclosure comes with eSATA/FW/USB) can be had from Best Buy and other retailers for about $100-120depending on if you hit a sale or not. And these drives allow daisy-chaining on FW (each has an additional port) so you could easily have 4 FW drives and STILL have an available FW port!

I have 3 externals hooked up to my Mini....no issues....lots of storage and backup.

 

[muthma]

How about this as an option: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.blog.visualizers.de/?p=4818&gt

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi,
I'm using 2x single external enclosures + 4-bay ProBox external (all connected thru USB). It looks like this on my screen:

 

[srowndedbyh2o]

How about a Drobo? Can hold up to 16TB.

 

[crazycat]

I am using two 2TB's hard drives with my mini totaling 4TB, if you do need more you can always add another hard drive or go the Drobo way.

I am using:

1 - Lacie 2TB2TB.

2- WD 2TB2TB.