External USB 3.0 vs Internal SATA II ???

iko22 said:

So, what I did was to buy a 5.25" Bay Internal HDD Hot Swap Caddie for my computer. I can now easily swap out HDD and install different HDD according to my personal needs.

Thanks for the idea; one of those would allow a single SATA connection to serve for an unlimited number of HDDs.

I have looked at those before and considered their advantages; in my case, I would have to either ditch one of my DVD/optical drives or finagle some way around it.
On a quick thinking about this, I have a closet-full of old desktops and towers; I may investigate the feasibility of annexing one of these beside my machine; I have one old monster that has three optical drive bays and eight HDD slots.

Which particular brand and model of Hot Swap Caddie are you using?

I am using ICY DOCK Duo Hot Swap drive caddie, which has one 3.5" and one 2.5" HDD/SSD bays. It is a good sturdy design. The power switch and the HDD eject buttons are separate, which means I can keep the HDD inside the caddie with the power off, if need be.

Here: https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-DuoS.../dp/B007Q4EZEA

Nasty7 said:

I'm not real computer savvy but I would be more worried about exceeding the power usage on this thing.

That is a very good point and well taken; on this machine, I have upgraded the power supply to a 750-Watt Corsair (if I am remembering the name correctly).

Lady Fitzgerald said:

When ever you add a drive to your computer, you should budget for three drives: one for the computer, one for an onsite backup, and one for an offsite backup.

I totally agree and that reasoning brings about another theory that I just recently read posted on DPR(Digital Photography Review).
After I thought about the guy's post, it did make a head-full of sense.
He said that one should avoid buying multiple HDDs of same-brand/same-model at the same time and putting them into service at the same time.
His reasoning (and it makes good sense to me) was that HDDs are very much like headlights and when one fails, the other(s) are not far behind.

Of course, I hadn't yet read that advice when I came into some rare unexpected money and bought my three WD-Blue 2TB HDDs --- all at the same time from the same place.

But then, in real world use, these three HDDs, although same/same, unlike headlights which when one is ON both are ON, will have a very differing history of use; one is in action almost constantly, one is powered ON whenever I think that it is time for a back-up, and the third may not get put into action once a month.

I have no explainable reason to back up my preference and very little experience with other brands; but, when I shop for HDDs, I only ever look at WD brand.
I am however bewildered by WDs overwhelming selection of Colors and have not yet been able to make any sense between how they differ.

iko22 said:

I am using ICY DOCK Duo Hot Swap drive caddie, The power switch and the HDD eject buttons are separate, which means I can keep the HDD inside the caddie with the power off, if need be.

Thanks; and thanks for mentioning the independent power/eject feature; I may not have thought of that until I found out that the one I ended up with lacked it.

Update on the situation = This is what I did:
I got this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002PX9BX2...v_ov_lig_dp_it

I got the 6-port PCI version; found a brand-new-in-sealed-box on EBay for $15 delivered.

I got two of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L9R3AKA...v_ov_lig_dp_it

I also got a better made version from China/EBay for $1.90 delivered, just to check the quality for another project; I will be using the China versions on the next project = 5 for the price of 2 with 74c to spare.
The reason I went ahead and also got the Amazon ones is because they got here in two days instead of four weeks.
To make the connection between the all-together-made 20-inch extensions, and to make the whole mess plenty long enough, I used a six-inch SATA power splitter and two 18-inch SATA data cables inside the box.
Never doing this before, I was a wee bit concerned that having so many extra SATA data and power connections might impede transfer speeds and integrity; however, after quite a bit of use, I have not noticed any difference whatsoever between these outside-mounted SATA-card drives and the two internally mounted motherboard-connected ones.

I built this:





That is a piece of aluminum angle that I salvaged out from under a 57-foot spread-axle trailer that sort of got twisted -- the trailer, not the angle; hence, a few odd holes here and there. Cost = Free
Those HDD screws are household electrical switch-plate screws = a standard HDD screw was too short by the thickness of the angle; I searched the place over and the only screws I could come up with were these.

I got two WD RE WD2000FYYZ 2TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive
that have been mounted on the homemade hard-drive rail since the pictures were taken.
These two are brand-new/old stock that came with a so-called 5-year warranty from invoice date from the seller --- not from WD.

The two brand-new/old stock
NEW WESTERN DIGITAL AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB 64MB SATA 3.5" INTERNAL HARD DRIVE
that you see in the pictures have been relocated to two of these and will serve as back-ups to the two described above:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We currently have six of the Inateck enclosures and I will buy nothing else until something far better comes along; I have been using these since I first discovered that I could put a real HDD in an external box; if my first ones were trucks, they would have over a million miles on them.

I have these and four other externals connected to a Plugable 7 port USB 3.0 hub - 25W Powered USB HUB.

I also highly recommend the Plugable 7-port hub; however, as best I can tell, they are no longer available new; I got mine New/Open Box for $15.

I had similar speed/connection concerns having so many ext. HDDs connected via a single 3.0-USB rear port via the 7-port hub; however, in use, I cannot tell any difference from the HDDs being single-cable connected.


In case anyone is wondering, I have a five-port 3.0 USB card in the bottom/rear card slots, plus a four-port 3.0 USB hub residing in the front floppy-disk hole.


As for the six-port Vantec SATA card: as delivered, only four ports can be in use at any given time, the ports being chosen via moving around little jumpers on the card.
My plan is, with a bit of soldering and good old country-boy engineering, to incorporate two 4-pole/double throw toggle-switches, conveniently mounted, so I can quickly/easily put the remaining two ports in action --- this experiment may or may not work, but it looks good in my mind.

Sorry for so long and thanks for reading.