Multi Drive question [Urgent]

[megadarkwood]

So I am planning an upcoming project that involves having 3-10 drives. How would I make all these drives look like one over a USB connection?

 

 

EXPLANATION:

A DIY Version of this: http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sata_port_multipliers/scsat10pm.asp

and over a USB Connection.

[joelthezombie15]

Raid, but you would need a raid card for that many drives.

If im understanding correctly

[megadarkwood]

Raid, but you would need a raid card for that many drives.

If im understanding correctly

Would I need to set up a whole new system to use the raid card over pcie?

or is there an alternative option

[megadarkwood]

If you need I can Explain better

[joelthezombie15]

Would I need to set up a whole new system to use the raid card over pcie?

or is there an alternative option

You would need space for all of the drives, and the raid card is PCIE.

 

If you need I can Explain better

Just so i understand fully yes please do in as descriptive detail as possible :D

[megadarkwood]

You would need space for all of the drives, and the raid card is PCIE.

 

Just so i understand fully yes please do in as descriptive detail as possible :D

ok ive edited the post

[joelthezombie15]

OH, so you want like a USB accessible NAS? that makes more sense. i dont know that much about nas' but you can buy enclosures for them that all you do is put in the drives (I think) 

[megadarkwood]

OH, so you want like a USB accessible NAS? that makes more sense. i dont know that much about nas' but you can buy enclosures for them that all you do is put in the drives (I think) 

Yeah I want to make a DIY one though :/

[joelthezombie15]

Yeah I want to make a DIY one though :/

there are a few build logs i think of people who built there own, maybe try and hunt them down and ask for some help, because idk about that stuff

[Guest]

What do you need this for and what are you going to be using it with? I think you'll have better luck putting it all in one rather than getting an external drive cage. You can get a very good RAID card for that cost which will give you better performance compared to those relatively cheap ones included in those setups. 

[megadarkwood]

What do you need this for and what are you going to be using it with? I think you'll have better luck putting it all in one rather than getting an external drive cage. You can get a very good RAID card for that cost which will give you better performance compared to those relatively cheap ones included in those setups.

Ill be using it for external storage for my laptop. And a summer project

[wpirobotbuilder]

Does it have to be a USB connection, can it be Ethernet?

[SMURG]

Does it have to be a USB connection, can it be Ethernet?

Ethernet is generally superior; especially over USB 2.0 (which is rated for 480mbps vs ethernet's 1gbps). My recommendation would be to build a mini-ITX machine. If you can deal with 6 drives maximum, you could get away with an Ivybridge i3/pentium/celeron and Intel's Matrix RAID (you'll need a compatible chipset, but H67 is usually the cheapest) if you bought a board with all 6 SATA ports on it. If you want more than 6, you'll need to buy something like an LSI RAID controller to hook them all up. That kind of thing would work over USB as well as ethernet (assuming you have one of those USB data transfer cables) though as I said before, ethernet is generally preferable.

[.Jay]

What is your budget for the enclosure?

[.Jay]

^ $$ budget

[ha1o2surfer]

What they are doing with this enclosure is using a special SATA chip set that supports port multiplier, kind of like a SATA hub. Then, in windows, each one of these drives would show up separately, then you can make a software RAID out of them (either Raid0/1/5/). I doubt a device with this many drives would do hardware RAID other than Raid 0 because of the amount of overhead it would require, also the cheap price is a dead give a way.

Anyways, what I would do is get buy a bunch of USB 3 to SATA adapters and then create your software array within windows if that's what you are looking to do. SATA would be much better than USB in this respect.

[SMURG]

What they are doing with this enclosure is using a special SATA chip set that supports port multiplier, kind of like a SATA hub. Then, in windows, each one of these drives would show up separately, then you can make a software RAID out of them (either Raid0/1/5/). I doubt a device with this many drives would do hardware RAID other than Raid 0 because of the amount of overhead it would require, also the cheap price is a dead give a way.

Anyways, what I would do is get buy a bunch of USB 3 to SATA adapters and then create your software array within windows if that's what you are looking to do. SATA would be much better than USB in this respect.

RAID 1 and 10 don't have any more overhead than 0 really. You're probably right that it doesn't support 5 or 6 though.

Software RAID is kind of icky imo though, even Intel's firmware RAID is preferable.

[.Jay]

What they are doing with this enclosure is using a special SATA chip set that supports port multiplier, kind of like a SATA hub. Then, in windows, each one of these drives would show up separately, then you can make a software RAID out of them (either Raid0/1/5/). I doubt a device with this many drives would do hardware RAID other than Raid 0 because of the amount of overhead it would require, also the cheap price is a dead give a way.

Anyways, what I would do is get buy a bunch of USB 3 to SATA adapters and then create your software array within windows if that's what you are looking to do. SATA would be much better than USB in this respect.

 

Or get an esata card and run esata in a small external box/array

[megadarkwood]

I found an old Pentium d and matx board. Ill use it to make use a raid card. Would it be possible to make a usb pass through. (Like a nas that can be accessible through usb and Ethernet)

[ha1o2surfer]

Or get an esata card and run esata in a small external box/array

right but the array and sata card usually go hand in hand since the chipsets have to match in order for the port multiplier function to properly work. Unless you buy an expensive box that does the RAID function for you, then it doesn't matter. but those are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination lol

[ha1o2surfer]

I found an old Pentium d and matx board. Ill use it to make use a raid card. Would it be possible to make a usb pass through. (Like a nas that can be accessible through usb and Ethernet)

USB passthrough? I don't quite understand, sorry. Any old motherboard wont support RAID, you can buy a chepo raid card off NCIX and do a small low level RAID then share the array over your network. Is that what you mean?

[SMURG]

USB passthrough? I don't quite understand, sorry. Any old motherboard wont support RAID, you can buy a chepo raid card off NCIX and do a small low level RAID then share the array over your network. Is that what you mean?

I think he wants to be able to access files over USB for some reason.

If you have a USB data transfer cable it should work. Assuming the board has USB ports ofc, which being a pentium D board will mean they're only USB 2.0 and therefore half the speed of ethernet -_-

You can do software RAID on any motherboard, but as ha1o2surfer says you cannot do firmware RAID on that pentium D board, so you may want to buy a cheap hardware/firmware RAID card.

[megadarkwood]

I think he wants to be able to access files over USB for some reason.

If you have a USB data transfer cable it should work. Assuming the board has USB ports ofc, which being a pentium D board will mean they're only USB 2.0 and therefore half the speed of ethernet -_-

You can do software RAID on any motherboard, but as ha1o2surfer says you cannot do firmware RAID on that pentium D board, so you may want to buy a cheap hardware/firmware RAID card.

Ill be buying a raid card ofc. And I want to access over usb to save on bandwidth

[SMURG]

Ill be buying a raid card ofc. And I want to access over usb to save on bandwidth

By bandwidth I'm assuming you mean the internet connection you pay your ISP for?

Using USB instead of ethernet won't save you any money/bandwidth in that respect, since the bandwidth you pay for is internet bandwidth only. Local transfers over ethernet, even when they go through your router, don't count towards your internet bandwidth that you pay the ISP for. Using USB would just be slower and less functional XD

The only time you'd be using up any 'bandwidth' would be if you were accessing files from this device over the internet from outside your home.

[megadarkwood]

By bandwidth I'm assuming you mean the internet connection you pay your ISP for?

Using USB instead of ethernet won't save you any money/bandwidth in that respect, since the bandwidth you pay for is internet bandwidth only. Local transfers over ethernet, even when they go through your router, don't count towards your internet bandwidth that you pay the ISP for. Using USB would just be slower and less functional XD

The only time you'd be using up any 'bandwidth' would be if you were accessing files from this device over the internet from outside your home.

Really? i didnt know that!

Thanks