I have an old computer that I use for storing and streaming my media. It has an attached external drive. I would like to increase my storage and build something that could be extensible to at least 100TB. I am not worried about backup.
I looked and I think I need a HDD rack or enclosure. Some people gave me links to good deals on ebay and some other sellers but they are based on the US and shipping fees are high. I saw this HDD enclosure and it seems to be what I am searching but I don’t if they are good.
Do you have some advices for me?
If you’re in it for the long haul buy a “cheap” used server off of eBay and upgrade it.
If you want something more inexpensive buy the cheapest case you can find with the most HD mounting points. Then get yourself a SAS controller from eBay and connect everything up.
Then go look at installing unraid. Done.
I got an HP DL380 with 16 drive bays, and I basically just dump any old hard drives in it whenever I upgrade. I have 24TB in it, had it for years, and I’ve only ever lost one drive at a time, and I just shrink out the dead drive, and then toss another one in if I get a new one. “I’ll move your files to your new computer if I can keep the old one…” I even 3d-printed a couple of 2.5"-3.5" adapters to stuff old laptop drives in there. Caddies? Uhh… I think it was 120$ from the local electronics recycler. It’s old, it’s slow, it’s basically a giant samba share.
I have 120TB in my unraid server so far and it grows every year.
Running a supermicro chassis now which is amazing if power hungry and a bit loud.
And at over 100lbs, a thief is gonna blow out their back trying to steal it.