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Old IDE HDs-- what to do?
- Thread starter Viper69
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2010
- Location
- Wakefield, QC
Get them backed up before they bite the dust? Would be the best thing you can possibly do with them. LOL
- Thread Starter
- #8
I see guys...No I was looking for USEFUL ideas hahah...never mind. I'll keep buying external enclosures. They serve as redundant backups for important files. I wasn't sure if I could combine them all with software and have them serves as 1 giant drive.
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2002
You can run them in JBOD and have them show up as one giant drive, or RAID 5 if you have a bunch of similar capacity.
Use a Highpoint 454 if you don't have enough PATA channels - it will support eight drives.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115016 (or http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115016)
I have a 6GB Hitachi MicroDrive (1" CompactFlash, 3600rpm, 128kb cache) that I keep around.
Use a Highpoint 454 if you don't have enough PATA channels - it will support eight drives.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115016 (or http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115016)
I have a 6GB Hitachi MicroDrive (1" CompactFlash, 3600rpm, 128kb cache) that I keep around.
- Thread Starter
- #10
Are there any limitations in JBOD regarding the drives, my size range is 20gig to 300 gig or so, and anywhere in between. They are all different makes/models too, the only thing they have in common is spindle speed and being IDE, all are 7200rpm.
Thnks in advance
- Joined
- May 15, 2006
The problem with running that many old drives is the cost of a controller like that in addition to the electricity they will draw is going to be more than a larger capacity drive. That isn't even mentioning the fact that they are much farther in their life, more likely to die, and it will likely be a pain to setup. I wouldn't suggest it. However, if that seems fun to you, by all means, try it. Old hardware can be fun to play with. I wouldn't store anything you care about on it, though.
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2002
There are no limitations for JBOD.
With RAID 5 all the member drives will be treated as the same size as the smallest drive (and as fast as the slowest drive).
For all the reasons thideras pointed out I would not use it for any critical data, even in a RAID 5 array.
But if you want to play around with some different RAID setups then PATA controllers are pretty cheap right now.
With RAID 5 all the member drives will be treated as the same size as the smallest drive (and as fast as the slowest drive).
For all the reasons thideras pointed out I would not use it for any critical data, even in a RAID 5 array.
But if you want to play around with some different RAID setups then PATA controllers are pretty cheap right now.
- Thread Starter
- #13
Good point you guys on age, I forget the drives are old. I currently have them in their own external HD enclosures. They aren't used often at all, some aren't used but once or twice a year (the smaller ones). I only use them as redundant backups actually. I can't bring myself to just throw them out either.
I have a modern USB3.0 3 TB drive for "everything", but one drive can crap out. SO I use these for backups of like music and photos primarily. I burn stuff to DVD or CD as well. Nothing is perfect....or lasts forever.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2002
- Location
- Washington State
I have quite a few old hard drives over the years and have done so many things with them.
When I built my first RAID it was from a few old similar drives that I had no more use for. I've bought docks and external enclosures to make them portable backups, I have put together media PCs that housed all of my music and home file servers that all my networked PCs do backups to. I've installed them as secondary drives to install and play around with Operating Systems I'm not familiar with.
Otherwise they're fun to take out back and put a few holes in before you end up tossing them out or recycling them.
And just for the sake of coolness
http://mashable.com/2011/09/13/hard-drive-creations/
When I built my first RAID it was from a few old similar drives that I had no more use for. I've bought docks and external enclosures to make them portable backups, I have put together media PCs that housed all of my music and home file servers that all my networked PCs do backups to. I've installed them as secondary drives to install and play around with Operating Systems I'm not familiar with.
Otherwise they're fun to take out back and put a few holes in before you end up tossing them out or recycling them.
And just for the sake of coolness
http://mashable.com/2011/09/13/hard-drive-creations/
- Thread Starter
- #15
I have quite a few old hard drives over the years and have done so many things with them.
When I built my first RAID it was from a few old similar drives that I had no more use for. I've bought docks and external enclosures to make them portable backups, I have put together media PCs that housed all of my music and home file servers that all my networked PCs do backups to. I've installed them as secondary drives to install and play around with Operating Systems I'm not familiar with.
Otherwise they're fun to take out back and put a few holes in before you end up tossing them out or recycling them.
And just for the sake of coolness
http://mashable.com/2011/09/13/hard-drive-creations/
I'm curious, if I wanted to explore a new OS and software that go along with it, be it Ubuntu or some Linux variant, what are some for a beginner to experiment with?
