[asterisk-users] No-mobo PC for USB Drives Enclosure?

[Steve Totaro]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 10:22 PM, Matthew Rubenstein <email at mattruby.com> wrote:
>         I have over a half-dozen different SATA hard drives, each with
>  different data (configs, voiceprompts, voicemail, CDRs, AGIs) for each
>  one's different user groups and applications. Each one's load on the
>  Asterisk server is small enough that one server can host them all,
>  accessed easily over USB.
>
>         But right now, each one is in its own external USB enclosure on a
>  powered USB hub. I want to combine them all into a single large
>  enclosure. I tried to use a single PC chassis, leaving the USB hub
>  inside with the drives screwed into it, and powered from the PC power
>  supply as internal drives on the proper drive power output plugs. But
>  without a PC motherboard plugged into the power supply, too, the power
>  supply won't start up to power the drives.
>
>         I don't want to add a motherboard: that costs money, and sucks power,
>  and is totally unnecessary. I just want to make this gutted PC chassis
>  power my drives only, and have them connect to the complete PC sitting
>  next to it via the single USB cable coming out of the drive chassis. How
>  do I do that?
>
>         Is it possible to use the extra, unused floppy power plugs to power
>  more hard drives, with an adapter? Is it possible to split the existing
>  hard drive power plugs to each power multiple drives? How many drives
>  can I split each power plug into? The power supply is a cheap 300W unit,
>  and the drives draw max under 9W each:
>  http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=311 . So can I power
>  25-30 of these drives, or at least 10?
>  --
>
>  (C) Matthew Rubenstein
>

Is the reason for separate drives security or something else?  How
much data will the max size drive hold?

Maybe a few of these could solve your problem?
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206821004&adid=17070&dcaid=17070

Looking for a JBOD SATA enclosure with six slots but they are way expensive.

Thanks,
Steve Totaro