Need advice on my NAS storage - the wires everywhere bit

[Cake]

Hello DIY'ers

Searched google to see whats out there to help me, but I couldn't find anyone else with my problem.
My NAS is growing, and from the beginning I opted for just 1 usb external drives, mostly 2TB WD.
Now there are 5 plugged into a powered usb hub, I may have another 5 in a couple years time.

The advice I need is how to tidy it up? Has anyone seen a open bay type rack just for USB drives and other odd stuff like usb hub? The odd stuff like the pi type device and usb hub could be just taped to the rack (double sided tape) I guess.
My only idea is to make something myself with some acrylic sheets from a hobby place.

Right now its all in a heap. Looks like a Christmas tree when the lights to the room are off. lol
I know the proper way is internal drives, raid, .... I am sure I am not going to go that route now that I am so far off that path.

 

[L&LD]

Do these drives have a single instance of important data? Or are they backing up each other?

It is never too late to do this properly. And here, that means NAS.

You can try to diy but with juggling that many drives (and the guessed at 10TB of data), I think you will begin loosing data sooner rather than later (if you haven't already lost some that you may not even know about).

 

[Cake]

Thanks, I was thinking about carefully dis-assembly them, and putting them in a rack like this. This is for my DIY Network Attached Storage, just not a dedicated one. I use Samba and NFS on them. They are controlled by a headless low powered arm device.
They do not back up each other nor are they in any kind raid config. They are in sleep "heads parked" mode 60% of the time. My strategy for backup is offline, manually backing up using dd, and imaging the entire device. I know there are more standard ways, My reasons are, I live in a lightning prone place, I get lightning strikes nearby multiple times a year (I have three burned out Ethernet ports on various devices in the last couple years because of not using a (shielded and twisted) cat5 cable in cable runs, the power grid freq goes way undervolt, and other "strange" happenings also with the new ransom-ware everywhere it seems , I prefer off-line backup just in case. Power consumption is a top priority for me too.
I was hoping somebody knows of a cd like rack, or perhaps a lego kit? I have only found a couple things in my searches and they involve a 3d printer.

 

[sfx2000]

I like the Dell 4364D's - they're stackable... and dirt cheap on the eBay...

It's not a 19" rack solution, but for many, good enough...

 

[KenZ71]

Legos aint cheap anymore. By the time you buy whatever rack system you have in mind you will be only a few $$ away from one of these which would let you do it right.

As for backup - you could add a hot swap drive caddy like this - watch for them ebay to save a few $$

I've had good luck taking USB drives apart, but make sure you have a good & recent backup before starting.

 

[stevech]

Legos aint cheap anymore. By the time you buy whatever rack system you have in mind you will be only a few $$ away from one of these which would let you do it right.

As for backup - you could add a hot swap drive caddy like this - watch for them ebay to save a few $$

I've had good luck taking USB drives apart, but make sure you have a good & recent backup before starting.

The drive caddy... referenced above... how would you connect that to a NAS? I see only USB3 and (dying away) eSATA.
eSATA is not SATA. Voltages and cables differ.
Not sure NAS OS will support eSATA whereas USB3 is pluggable without reboot of NAS.

 

[Cake]

Maybe I'll just buy a roll of double sided foam tape, tape it all together, then tape the whole thing to the wall. (edit: with zip ties) Tacky is usually not my thing though.lol
Further on this... why is it hard to find a ups just for low powered devices. I thought about using one of those battery banks for a phone with micro usb, but not sure if it would work as a ups. Any entrepreneurs out there? Could make a killing on fleabay.

 

[Cake]

The drive caddy... referenced above... how would you connect that to a NAS? I see only USB3 and (dying away) eSATA.
eSATA is not SATA. Voltages and cables differ.
Not sure NAS OS will support eSATA whereas USB3 is pluggable without reboot of NAS.

I did not see esata or usb ports on it myself. Still though its not what I am after, looking for a Hillbilly solution, but a caddy, or tower case is the proper solution I suppose.

 

[stevech]

I did not see esata or usb ports on it myself. Still though its not what I am after, looking for a Hillbilly solution, but a caddy, or tower case is the proper solution I suppose.

It's all about the OS functionality and utilities. Not about cases, nuts and bolts. It's an intellectual activity.

Item 1 in a NAS is how to back it up.
Either a 2nd like kind or rsync server, or as may SOHO/home users do, a big fat USB3 drive plugged in.
Indispensable.

RAID is not a backup. Don't learn by hindsight of this fact.

 

[sfx2000]

Item 1 in a NAS is how to back it up.

For the WIN - absolutely - back the *ss of the NAS, if one wants a mnemonic to remember...

 

[Cake]

ok
Thank you for the replies. Learned a new word today too Mnemonic.

 

[stevech]

Backup. PC, NAS, phone
3-2-1 strategy no matter what USB3 drives or cloud (the latter is not recommended by me).

RAID is not a backup.

• Have at least three copies of your data.
• Store the copies on two different media.
• Keep one backup copy offsite.