On 5/08/2005 9:19 AM, "Martin Hill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> G'day everyone, > Just wondering if anyone has come across a multiple bay Firewire enclosure > with the ability to connect four or so 3.5" PATA IDE hard disks to a Mac > using Firewire without having to buy more than the one Firewire enclosure? > > We're after capacity, not speed (or *extreme* RAID reliability) so we're not > looking for an expensive, high performance IDE RAID box, just a box to allow > us to hook a number of IDE drives up to a Mac on our home network for backup > and *slow* online access. > > I've found this 4-bay 5.25" Firewire 800 case for US$228 and Firewire 400 > case for US$168: http://www.galaxyhp.com/Storage/ext_cases.html#B > > And this 4-bay 5.25" Firewire 400 case for US$199: > http://www.tallyns.com/Hard_Drive_Enclosures/CS_4Bay_FW.htm > (the pictures are of a SCSI version which isn't an encouraging sign!) > > But it would be nice to have a slightly smaller unit designed just for 3.5" > drives (but not essential). We already have a 300GB 3.5" PATA hard disk > which we're using as a backup drive and would like to put it and a few other > PATA IDE drive chambers that are floating around our house into online use > without costing an arm and a leg. If something similar turns out too > expensive over here, we'll probably just buy separate external Firewire > enclosures for each drive. (Now if I had an old PowerMac G4 lying around > with a bunch of spare bays and got a cheap IDE card, that might be another > (though bulky!) solution. > > Thanks for any suggestions. > > -Mart > Hi Martin There is quite a good range called the SOHO Tank Series. You can get them with either 1, 2 or 4 bays and it connects either via Firewire400 or Firewore800. They use a "drive tray" that you can slide in and out, so if you want to add them later you can do. Then you can also have spare sleds as well and mix and match as you need. They also have different models, one that takes PATA IDE drives and the second that takes SerialATA drives. You can also lock them so people can't take the drives out. Pricing varies. They are quite good units. I used to have one, but I liked the Sarotech cases better so sold it off to a client. Let me know if you want more info and I'll forward it through to you. (About to head out, but I'll email it later this afternoon if you did want pricing and more info.) Hope that helps! Enjoy! Kind Regards Daniel --- Daniel Kerr MacWizardry Phone: 0414 795 960 Email: <danielATmacwizardryDOTcomDOTau> Web: <http://www.macwizardry.com.au> **For everything Macintosh**
