Thread: What is the best route to expand storage?

Alright, I just filled up my second 2TB external. The reason why I use externals to begin with is I use a laptop instead of a desktop. Now, I am trying to avoid getting a stack of externals to keep track of but I am really not sure of what route to go into. So basically, I was wondering what route the people of TI think I should take?
The reason why I am asking is I have a problem with compromise and I was gonna build a tower server, but I was about to blow 2k on it, and that would of wiped out my savings. So I want to go a different route :laugh:.

Well externals are pretty much your only option with a laptop, but if your problem is you don't want multiple external drives, you could always get an enclosure and put your own internal drives into it. Newegg sells enclosures that will hold up to five HDs in one unit.

Newegg.com - External Enclosure, External Hard Drive Enclosure, USB External Enclosure, Multimedia External Enclosure

And if you want your hard drives somewhere else in your house besides next to your computer you could go with a network attached storage option, but those tend to be more on the expensive side, but same story, you can get units that hold multiple hard drives and put your own drives into them.

Newegg.com - Network Attached Storage, NAS, Network Storage, Network Storage Devices, Network Storage Hard Drive, Shared Network Storage

yea dude what you can dude externals are the way to go waht you can do is buy a dock from newegg that u can pop any hard drive into with no encloser thats what i do.. i have a couple of 2tb hard drives and i just put them in the dock and its good to go.. make sure its with e-sata if you have a port it makes life alot eiser

I recently ran into the same problem. I'm running out of space quick and I was looking for a better option than external hd's. I've been looking at external enclosures that hold multiple HD's. So far I'm thinking that's the way to go.

You could buy one of the new Atom D510 deskboard mATX, and make a small desktop/NAS
Gigabyte D510UD M-ITX Motherboard [GA-D510UD] - $119.00 : PC Case Gear
you can plug 6 2TB hard drives in it.

If you plan to create a tower server later you can use a solution that helps in that direction.

You can buy one of these, a hard drive dock with connectors appropriate for your computer, and buy regular SATA hard drives as you need them. You can reuse the same disks later in your tower server.

Ever consider cloud computing? There are some services out there that will save all your data on their servers and you can extract them whenever you want. I think most operate on a monthly subscription.

I agree with others on here I would go with a NAS.

They can be a bit expensive but if you are willing to spend a bit they would be a great solution.

I'm asking Santa for this one
Newegg.com - Seagate ST320005MNA10G-RK 2TB BlackArmor NAS 110

:D

It's pretty simple. The best one depends on your personal preference.


Internal hard drive is obviously less portable, the second cheapest per GB, and quick to access data.

Blank DVDs are the cheapest per GB, obviously a bigger deal to read/write information, and less convienent.

External HDDs are same as internal, but obviously more convenient and portable.

USB flash is the most expensive, obviously compact and portable


SSD are fast (the benchmark tests show read speds of approximately twice your average 7200 RPM SATA), and very expensive.