Hard Drive Crazy, 7 drives one tower.
 

Ok so I am a bit of a data whore. I have 1 main server however I had issues with it a few years ago, and no longer use it for data archival, I use my main PC for data archival as well as a local network media server. About 6 months ago, I had run out of storage space and grabbed a spare drive from the computer shop and was simply too lazy to install it correctly so I ran sata cable and power cable to it on the floor and plugged it in. Then about 4 months ago, I did the same thing, then a month ago, I needed to remove the ram and video card, so I had to pull one of the drive cages out, and figured I already had 2 drives on the ground what does another 2 mean. Then a week ago, I added yet another drive and decided enough was enough, it was time to pull all the drives and make a cage big enough for all of them as well as do a bit of case modification so that they all can fit in the tower together as well as keep them all cool.

In total there are 7 HD's totaling 6tb of data, with 2, 92mm fans and an 80mm fan cooling the entire mess.
5 of the drives are SATA, 2 are IDE and one SATA DVD Burner.
The power supply is a 750w Antec which handles the load very well.
Dual Network cards, One for internal traffic and one for Web access.
CPU is an E8400 overclocked to 3.5ghz.
Video card is an Nvidia DX11 5600 or 5700 GT I can't remember.

The rest I'll explain as I go.

First up the MESS. I told ya I got lazy about it. I have a 1 year old daughter that takes up all my energy.


http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/1.JPG

Believe it or not, everything in that pic is running.

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/2.JPG

Yes I really did need to do something about the mess.

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/3.JPG

Ok so this is the test setup. I took 4 very large stainless steel hose clamps, straightened them out and drilled 32 perfectly even holes in them. So I have room for 1 more drive.

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/4.JPG

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/5.JPG

The worm drive screws turned out to make great feet for the stand.

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/6.JPG

I have no idea who Murrey is.

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/7.JPG

The old cages had been in there for a while, and really needed to be cleaned.
http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/8.JPG

This is one of the OEM ones that came with the case, nice but too small.
http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/9.JPG

I was going to use the old cages however I did not like the way they stacked together and they would not all fit in the case. Which I wanted to make sure happened.
http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/10.JPG

All 7 drives, there are a pair of 2 TB drives and the rest vary in size down to 300gb. Most the space is for TV / Movies and Music.

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/11.JPG

All Stacked up.
http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/12.JPG

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/13.JPG

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/14.JPG

The first Test fit inside the case. I had to do a bit of trimming and removing the old drive cage shelf, but worked out well.
http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/15.JPG

The stock fan intakes just did not work for me, so I had to build a new fan system for the drives.
http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/16.JPG

The bottom one was using old plumbers strap and worked fairly well, the top 2 I used lock wire. The top ones look cleaner, however the bottom is much easier to install and remove as it mounts to the existing drive screws.
http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/17.JPG

http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/18.JPG

I don't have the fully completed installed pics yet as I want to do much more cleaning, before I post those. So maybe in another 6 months, I'll get it all properly cleaned up and post the rest. LOL.

Hope you enjoyed my hard drive madness.

P.S. The only time I could find to do this, was by getting up at 3:30am and working on it until 8:30am before Arianna woke up. Then it took me 2 days to find the time to edit the pics and write this post in between naps and getting the wife to watch her.
http://captfiero.com/harddrivecrazy/19.JPG

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85GT Soon to be 87GT,93 Eldorado 4.9, 5spd Dual O2 Custom Chip, Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything Capt Fiero --- My Over View Cadero Pics Yellow 88GT 5spd Full Poly Suspension, Lowered 1/2" in front, Corner Carver.
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thats awesome !!

great diy !

Thanks. Had to make a minor tweak but the post is back up.

LOL i have the same scorpio case.. They are beasts..

that's actually a really sneaky way to stack drives, nice DIY!

Wow... The before mess is crazy... I bet the wife is also glad you got around to cleaning it haha. Overall a sweet diy! I think the stacked hds turned out awesome.
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Why don't u just ditch the small drives and just get bigger ones? If it's just data a simple copy over and you're done.

He has a 1 year old, every dollar counts.

He's buying additional drives each time though. I'm not saying replace them all. Just swap out the old ones as he picks up a new one. As well the older drives are probably nearing their end of life.

The way you built your computer bears a striking similarity to the way you built your car :p

Nicely done!

Setup reminds me of the fractal R2 case.

http://www.sweclockers.com/imagebank...ractal1001.jpg

HA HA, I've never met you, but I remember the build thread for your Fiero from a few years back, and that's exactly what I was thinking as I scrolled through your pics here

have u tried using externals lol? even major youtubers dont go all out like that. Nice setup though.

Have you considered a docking bay? Highly doubt you need to simultaneously access data from all 7 drives unless you are running some insane Raid setup.

http://img.ncix.com/images/44833_4.jpg

Much easier when you buy newer HDDs too.

that is a great idea but dude you need to clean that mess up especially with a 1 year old baby! there must be a crap load of dust around there! I hope you don't bring your baby around that area!

just get two 3TB drives :troll:

Looks noisy as heck with all those hdds, but good job nonetheless :)

The diy rack is pretty good...but damnn....your place looks so dirty
it reminds me of some abandoned industrial building

that is gross. clean your house.

LOL, at some of the comments. I'll try to address some of the replies.

I am buying pretty much the biggest drives I can get, at 2tb each, and adding them in. The way I have the file files sorted is, TV shows on one drive, Movies on another, Kids shows on another, music on another, "my documents" on another, with the yet again, the OS on another. Then all the drives except the OS are shared across the network so anyone in the house can stream it to their TV via Media PC, XBOX or PS3. Works out really great.

So docking stations don't work for me as I do access all the drives on a regular basis.

Now as to the mess, Thank Fully my one year old never gets around it. As the "mess" is only allowed in one place, My Garage. Yep I have my computers out in the garage, the same place I do all my work on my car. The baby area is kept very clean, vacuumed 2-3 times a week, dust free and no computer gear for her to get into. However my garage well its a garage, a clean perfect garage just means that there's not enough work going on. LOL, but on the other side, I admit that its a mess and the point of this entire task is cleaning up. I should have most of the wires sorted out and removed over the next few days. I have also taken my compressor and blown out all the dust out of everything.

^ thank god! good work! lol

You got a thanks because you were fully aware of the wire mess. Looking at it made me eyes itch.

nice DIY.. the first pic is truly scary.. haha

I highly suggest that you go to a RAID setup though, so you don't lose anything.. Hard drives DO have a limited life span...

That's some porn stash.