Looking for a device that connects multiple usb2 hdds in series ?

[vhelp]

I've been meaning to ask this a long time now. But I'm now working on my 5th 1tb hdd, doing a lot of capturing to them, and editing these in a timeline is getting harder to do because I have to disconnet and reconnect the ones I need, I can't seem to get a good working system of events going in my process, so I have a need to improve upon the accessing of these 1TB drives somehow.

Is there anything out there that accepts a series of usb2 hdds?

Please don't mention anything about RAID. I have no interest in that format, thank you.

-vhelp 5360

[yoda313]

THis may be oversimplistic but what about a powered usb hub? Just make sure it is powered and leave all the usb drives plugged in both power wise and usb wise. It should be the same as if they were all internal.

[vhelp]

The smart thing to have done would have been to get the same make model hdd, but that is not always practcle in everyones case. Plus pricing at the time of need. I just picked up another one yesterday.

issue #1, So far I have three different power plug types, and they all don't seem to fit in the all the units. If I could just be fortunate enough to always the buy the same brand model it would be that much simipler. Still, I could get a powered 7 port for the time being. But then we come across issue #2 below.

issue #2, is the drive letter assignment. Not sure how that would affect the arrange if I have them all connected at the time time to one hub. I have manaually configured the drive to always be "G" and if I connect another drive at the same time, we have a problem because now the drive letters have to considered. I use avisynth scripting to open and deal with my videos. If I have these scripts expecting a specific drive letter, "G" for instance, then things could go wrong with it looks for a file and can't find it. So it does get tricky depending on one's setup and processes.

I was remembering the first time I heard (read) the passge for usb: can daisy chaing up to 127 devices. I thought at the time, but who would ever have a need to do this, then I thought maybe for harddrives, but that was just a quick thought and I put it out of my mind since years ago. But you would figure they had that one realized and covered long long ago, but what ? they haven't ? Sooner or later I suspect that this will be addressed because external hdds are becoming the norm today and there are many uses for it.

Thank you.

-vhelp 5361

[redwudz]

While you might be able to plug in 127 HDDs to a USB interface, the PC would probably grind to a halt trying to manage them. SATA or PATA and their separate controllers do a much better job of multiple drive management. But what you have in mind should work as you aren't likely to use all the drives at once.

But I think you will have to live with changing the drive letters or just let the OS assign them. But try it first and see if it will work as is. But I doubt it.

A powered hub probably won't make much difference as the larger 3.5 drives need external power. USB is limited to 500MA per port, not usually enough for a 3.5 drive. I think you just need a power strip with a a bunch of individual drive power supplies plugged in.

[RabidDog]

Or You could get a set of enclosures that take more than one drive. I have an Icybox http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/external_cases.php?we_objectID=5236 that takes two drives and maybe they do a four drive version. STill leaves the drive letter problem but thats what variables are for in scripts.
Might be a good idea to wait until they bring out usb3.0 version or maybe connect using ESATA in future? As Usb2.0 is about 1/3 or 1/6th the speed of Internal disks.
The claims made for early products? spread Jam on your CD and still play it (LOL)!