I am not a server guy. I have few external hard disks lying around. Googling around I found those are SAS drives. I want to convert it into an external hard drive for personal use (I'm planning to connect it to the router that has USB 3.0 ). How to connect these drives to the router through USB or ethernet? Any help would be welcome. The hard disk is in the image.
How to use a SAS drive as an external hard disk
external hard drivehard drivesasusb
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Your USB interface is going to be a bottleneck. You can daisy chain up to 128 devices with USB, though, you'll need to use powered drives of powered hubs.
If it's just a matter of space, it could work. You could probably use a pair of 8/9 port hubs, or chain up USB drives like so
+----+
USB Hub 1 | +--------->Powered hub 1
4x ports | |
unpowered | +---------> Powered hub 2
<------------------------------+ |
USB to PC | +----------> Powered hub 3
| |
| +----------> Powered hub 4
+----+
Or split it in half with 2 powered hubs hanging off an unpowered one.
I'd take note of the USB drive's power usage (If it's a 2.5 inch drive) and the power supply capacity of the powered hubs. If the powered hubs aren't giving enough power for the drives you are using, you may need to split off some drives into another powered hub. If you're using drives with a separate power supply, you cannot worry about power supply from the hubs.
I've done some back of the envelope calculations based off hardware I have - I have a Toshiba Canavio HDD that's rated for 5V/1A and my Belkin USB hub has a 2.6A power supply. If I wanted to play it safe, I'd have at most 2 self-powered USB drives per powered hub, maybe 3-4 if I felt adventurous. I'd test to make sure this actually works with all 4 drives plugged in, and while loading all 4 drives simultaneously.
On Windows, I would probably consider the matter of running out of drive letters, but it's only 16 drives.
I'd add this is a pretty horrid set up. You're going to have speed constrained to the USB ports you use, you're going to have a spider's mess of cables, troubleshooting will be a pain, since you have multiple points of failure and so on.
Best Answer
I came across two SAS to USB adapters that seem to have the necessary SAS controller as well as physical connectors; however the cost is going to be prohibitive for many.
Ebay $600 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Reader-Cable-SAS-to-USB-3-0-Adapter-Universal-Converter/192743009670?hash=item2ce060ed86:g:VeIAAOSwcOZcAV3g:rk:1:pf:0
Other ?$ https://letmelinkusb.com/sas-to-usb-converter/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6eh9kgaWy0