Is there a way of plugging many old hard drives into one computer

Depending on how old the hard-drives are, you could use a controller card like this one:

NISIS Ultra ATA/133 IDE Controller Card
Froogley goodness

Quote:

Original post by johnnyBravo I've got 12+ old harddrives and I was wondering if there is a way to plug them all into one computer?

Assuming the target drives are IDE and the target computer has at least one USB port, you would get a setup like this:

              +-----{USB 2.0}----[drive enclosure 1]              |              |         ...[USB hub]-----+              |              |              +-----{USB 2.0}----[drive enclosure 12]

Then connect the USB hub to your computer with a standard USB cable. Twelve drives is a lot of drives to simultaneously connect to your computer, though.

hope that helps,

USB is a terrible idea for this quantity of drive (it'll choke repeatedly). I'd go with Firewire if you're using the external enclosure system.

You'll probably need an extra power supply to run all the drives if you decide to go with an ATA controller card.

Here's what I'm currently doing:



1) Get a huge case. HUGE. CM Stacker. 12x5.25" bays.
2) It comes with one 3-bay-to-4-hard-drive adapter, with a 120mm fan on it.
3) Get two more of these adapters.
4) Get an IDE controller card. 2 connectors = 4xIDE
5) Get a motherboard with lots of SATA connectors too (7xSATA).
6) Make sure you have a power supply that's good enough to power it all.
7) ASSEMBLE!


motherboard capacity: 7xSATA, 2xIDE
controller capacity: 4xIDE
case capacity: 2x5.25, 12x3.5

Consolidate your data. You'll probably spend more money on cards and power supplies or enclosures or stuff like that than you will on one or two big drives.

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Original post by CpMan Consolidate your data. You'll probably spend more money on cards and power supplies or enclosures or stuff like that than you will on one or two big drives.

Unless, of course, you're building a new computer and needed those parts anyways...

Quote:

Original post by johnnyBravo I've got 12+ old harddrives and I was wondering if there is a way to plug them all into one computer?

my only question is why would you want to plugin 12+ really slow hard drives into one system?

With 12 old HDD's, expect at least one of them to die every 6 months.

Quote:

Original post by Nemesis2k2 With 12 old HDD's, expect at least one of them to die every 6 months.

I suspect they've probably been left in the closet, and are stuck solid or at least highly defective.

It's probably not worth the effort.