Hi folks,

I'm thinking of buying a sans digital 6 or 8 bay enclosure, but does anyone know if you can turn off hard drives? I can just eject the hard drives individually right?

I'm thinking of leaving it JBOD b/c I have 3 or 4 current internals from 2 mac pros which I may switch out. I'd like to keep those internals in 1 box instead of adding to the 9 externals I already have.

I'm tired of having extra cables and wires going to and fro the mac pros and/or power units. It's ridiculous.

Most importantly, I won't need all the HDs on all the time - some will be 'retired' for backup purposes so not used on a daily basis.

I'll use 1 to host my photos as it takes up the most space on my main internal. Once I move that pictures folder, the main HD will be low enough to put on a 120 or 128 GB SSD, which i'm excited about.

Cheers,
keebler

I've got an 8 bay Sans Digital, and while you can eject individual JBOD drives, you can't physically cut the power to them. They may spin up every now and then, and will reconnect when you restart the computer.

I've got an 8 bay Sans Digital, and while you can eject individual JBOD drives, you can't physically cut the power to them. They may spin up every now and then, and will reconnect when you restart the computer.

Thanks John. Are you happy with it? Is the fan loud?

I have 2 HDs already to put in something, plus possibly 2 or 4 more, depending on what i do. i'd like to have 1 consolidated box for them instead of more individual or dual externals.

I have one of these as well. While you can't power down individual drives you could pull the ones that you're not using or only using occasionally. They are all hot swappable (as long as they are not mounted to your desktop at the time!). I'm not sure how loud my unit is as it lives in my server room and everything else drowns it out :) Depending in which model you get there may or may not be a tray involved with the drives .. mine has trays but i think some other 8 bay models are trayless now (my 4 bay is trayless).

P.S. I have had one issue with my TR8M ... occasionally I've had drives that showed up as failed but it turned out that they actually just became disconnected (rattling loose over time and vibrating slightly out of the socket connection at the back). Since then I've just made sure that once a month or so I open the front door and make sure that all the drives are still seated adequately and it hasn't happened since.

Thanks John. Are you happy with it? Is the fan loud?

I have 2 HDs already to put in something, plus possibly 2 or 4 more, depending on what i do. i'd like to have 1 consolidated box for them instead of more individual or dual externals.

I'm very happy with it. It's connected with eSATA to my Mac mini, and 7 of the 8 bays are filled.

The fan isn't exactly quiet, and it has an obscene blue LED on it. Mines in a cabinet, so I don't really care - but you could certainly replace the fan with any 120mm fan.

This is what I have - it's been discontinued, but gives you an idea:
TowerRAID TR8M-B - 8 Bay SATA to eSATA (Port Multiplier) JBOD / RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5 Enclosure (Black) (http://www.sansdigital.com/towerraid/tr8mb.html)

Also if you're planning to run it over eSata (which I recommend) make sure that you get an eSata card that supports port multipliers. I have a pair of the newer tech PCIe RAID cards.

Computer Accessories by NewerTech® - MAXPower eSATA 6G PCIe Card (http://www.newertech.com/products/pcieraidesata.php)

thanks guys! I'm going to map out what i have then make a decision. Seems like the right idea to have 1 unit and maybe upgrade some other hds. never ends :)

thanks guys! I'm going to map out what i have then make a decision. Seems like the right idea to have 1 unit and maybe upgrade some other hds. never ends :)

I hear ya there ;) I have all 12 bays populated in my setups ;) 20.5TB of usable storage.

I hear ya there ;) I have all 12 bays populated in my setups ;) 20.5TB of usable storage.

wow! i'm closer to 12 or 13. the biggest issue i face is this damned new HD camcorder I bought! lol the mts files aren't huge per say, but clipwrapping them to prores and of course they are huge. using those to edit is one thing, but then it's the storage of the mts files. might also buy an external blu ray.

plus, my own photographs take up over 350 GBs in my AP library on my main HD. I need to get that off and maybe put an SSD drive as my boot so my 90 MPro is bit zippier.

The good thing is that i have enough drives for backup. I need new HDs for client work as well.

Yep video stuff does suck up a ton of space, especially like you said if you're storing multiple copies of it. Depending on what you do with the video afterwards too you might need to archive a lot of the original footage as well as the prores versions ... it eats up space like no tomorrow :) As for longer term archival and offsite backups ... that's whole different discussion!

I hear ya there ;) I have all 12 bays populated in my setups ;) 20.5TB of usable storage.

Good grief!!! :) It just struck home here as to how much space that actually is!!

Does that amount of space include backups as well??

Good grief!!! :) It just struck home here as to how much space that actually is!!

Does that amount of space include backups as well??

Yes I use that space for both working files and for backups. It's not all in one single RAID, it's a pair of them (1 x 8 drives, 1 x 4 drives).

I'm very happy with it. It's connected with eSATA to my Mac mini, and 7 of the 8 bays are filled.

The fan isn't exactly quiet, and it has an obscene blue LED on it. Mines in a cabinet, so I don't really care - but you could certainly replace the fan with any 120mm fan.

This is what I have - it's been discontinued, but gives you an idea:
TowerRAID TR8M-B - 8 Bay SATA to eSATA (Port Multiplier) JBOD / RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5 Enclosure (Black) (http://www.sansdigital.com/towerraid/tr8mb.html)

just wanted to say thanks John - received mine today. Easy peasy installing everything.
fan is loud for me....will buy as quiet 120mm as I can find fan the next time i'm out. it's not Powermac MDD dually loud ;) but loud enough to annoy me. :)

thanks!

just wanted to say thanks John - received mine today. Easy peasy installing everything.
fan is loud for me....will buy as quiet 120mm as I can find fan the next time i'm out. it's not Powermac MDD dually loud ;) but loud enough to annoy me. :)

thanks!

Glad you're happy with it.

Another thing to consider is the fan on the power supply. You can likely find a quieter, more efficient one for that as well. Not sure if it's 80mm or smaller.

Glad you're happy with it.

Another thing to consider is the fan on the power supply. You can likely find a quieter, more efficient one for that as well. Not sure if it's 80mm or smaller.

great idea. i'll check the specs. either that or i'll try to find a space to tuck it away where i won't hear it :)