Why So Expensive For Multi Hdd Bay?

I have about 10 external hard drives just sitting around. Whenever I need to see what's in them (because I often forget even when labelled), it's such a hassle to turn off the computer, unplug the sata cables to free it up and plug in 2 external drives (because I can only plug in an additional 2 drives apart from the main drive in the computer), then turn on the computer and wait for everything to load, then turn it off again, unplug the drives, connect 2 new drives, turn on computer, wait for it to load, and I have to keep doing this for all 10 drives.

Why don't they have an external drive bay that can hold 4-8 or even 10 drives and then whenever I need to access them, I can just turn on one switch and access whichever of the 10 drives I want to access?

I don't want them to be in RAID or anything. All the multi drive bays I've seen for sale are like $300 for a 4 bay drive but I think it's that expensive because it does RAID function.

I've seen dual bay hdd that sit vertically and you just drop hard drives in and out, but those are really cheap and doesn't seem to work well after a short time. I don't like the idea of treating hard drives with precious data like nintendo cartridges that you can just drop in and out.

The only solution I have come up with for all my external hard drives is to simply buy an external enclosure for EACH hard drive. Then all I have to do is plug in the usb cable when I want to access whichever drive. No disconnecting cables, screws, bolts, and shutting off PC/reloading and waiting. The cheapest external hard drive enclosures I can find are about $20 each so that would still cost me $100 for 5 cases or $200 for 10 cases (one external enclosure for each hard drive).

I was just wondering why they couldn't just make a 5 bay, 8 bay hard drive enclosure all in one and a much cheaper price? After all, they are just some metal framework and sata cables to connect via usb to desktop right? Why $300-$500 for 4 bay drives?



Thanks

 

Here are two 4 bay enclosures for a $90 & $100 respectively.
https://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-P...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7EB6NH57RTPFE8G01P6G
https://www.amazon.com/Vortex-MB174...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7EB6NH57RTPFE8G01P6G

This what I have for $10.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sabrent-...-Drive-Enclosure-Black-EC-UK30/50362591#about

 

Here's one for $70US:

https://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-B...r=1-6&keywords=4+bay+2.5+hard+drive+enclosure

 

I beg to differ. Those are called "docking stations" and I have had this one I've used regularly for several years now. I have several friends and colleagues who own and are happy with theirs too. These are MUCH BETTER than enclosures, IMO, because you can just insert and pull a drive just like you do a memory stick in a USB port. You say you don't like the idea of drop in and drop out, but that's the beauty of them. You don't have to disassemble any case to use them. Note you don't actually "drop" the drives in, you insert them and the shape of the docking station case forces the drive into proper alignment for the connectors. So not only is there no disassembly required, there is no worry of shorting anything out or damaging a connector.

I note mine even supports eSATA connections which are much more reliable than USB.

I might suggest you attempt to consolidate the data on all those drives into 2 large (1 as backup of the other) drives, then "wipe" the other drives and send them to an electronics recycling center (some will even pay you precious metals recycling rates).

 

It is hard to want when you want so much for so little. The solution you're looking for would be to use an old PC or build a cheap one and make it a file server. Still to connect 10 drives at once is going to cost you. Say you get a motherboard with 6 sata controllers (possible), take 1 for the OS drive, then you have 5, then get a PCI sata card (usually 4 ports usable), still need one more PCI card for that last drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...6124070&cm_re=sata_pci-_-16-124-070-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...5287006&cm_re=sata_pci-_-15-287-006-_-Product
no raid.

Or consolidate the data to a few drives, use the old drives to build a freeNAS, copy the data to the freeNAS, then add the old drives in.

 

Yeah! And what happens when you go cheap? You get your money's worth.

 

@Digerati,

I read the description of the Docking Station you linked to and also read some of the reviews. Two of the reviews state it's USB 3.0 only — no eSATA. Where is the eSATA connection on this?

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Wow, that's good to see some of those for $99 (4 bay enclosures). That's a lot more like it.
I'm not sure why the other ones I kept seeing were all $300 for 4 bay enclosures (maybe because they were for RAID setup?).

In any case, I have already purchased 4 external enclosures for now. I'll just protect each HDD in their own enclosure and just plug it in the computer whenever I need to access them individually. Cost me $80 (4x$20 each). I'll definitely look into that 4 bay enclosure, but sadly I'm still on USB 2.0 speed, and I don't have 3.0 speed capability...

 

There are several very similar models, some with eSATA, some with Firewire, etc. If you scroll down on that page through the link above, you will see it says under Product Features, "eSATA interface".

So when researching reviews, make sure the exact model number is correct.

ST0005U