Multiple Hdd as a single one

[Imago]

Hello everyone! Dumb question time has arrived again, ahah!

I'm thinking to buy a big HDD (about 5Tb) in order to have my backups in a single place since I have them scattered in various separate USB extrernal drives, two of 1Tb and two of 500Gb and have some new space for future backups...

But they are TRULY expensive and I can't afford them just yet... So I thought: There's a way to use multiple USB HDDs as a single one like in those NAS racks, like with RAID 0 but on a USB HUB?

If feasible, it could be flexible enough to add more disks in the future and "expand" the available space?

[Radium_Angel]

USB drives fail too often to be put into a RAID array (IME and IMO) but yes, it could be done, but you'd be better off buying a home NAS.

[KangUsapEmenq]

11 minutes ago, Imago said:

There's a way to use multiple USB HDDs as a single one like in those NAS racks, like with RAID 0 but on a USB HUB?

Definitely need a really decent powered USB hub to accommodate those drives.

 

Yet as @Radium_Angel said, a NAS would be a much more feasible option either; more stable power, hence better longevity of the drives, and perhaps more reliable transfer speed either.

[Imago]

It's a temporary solution until I find an affordable one.

I have a good external powered USB 3 HUB, I thought to use that since the begining.

So how can I do that? I know the trick of mounting many drives on a single drive letter under Windows Disk Management but isn't what I need.

[Radium_Angel]

4 minutes ago, Imago said:

It's a temporary solution until I find an affordable one.

I have a good external powered USB 3 HUB, I thought to use that since the begining.

So how can I do that? I know the trick of mounting many drives on a single drive letter under Windows Disk Management but isn't what I need.

Fair warning: You will erase all drives as they get set up as RAID, and if you have differing sizes, the RAID size will be reduced to the smallest drive size (and assume then all the added drives are of that size)

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-to-set-up-raid-windows-10,36783.html

 

[Imago]

9 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Fair warning: You will erase all drives as they get set up as RAID, and if you have differing sizes, the RAID size will be reduced to the smallest drive size (and assume then all the added drives are of that size)

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-to-set-up-raid-windows-10,36783.html

 

Thanks, I'll check it.

[Imago]

Yes, it's exactly what I need!

Making more research I found I could use a docking station instead of the USB HUB in the future, I just have to pull the disks out of their enclosures and insert them there, it will cost me way less than buying a whole new disk or a prebuilt NAS.

Thanks everyone for the help!