Ethernet external hard drive case

Leigh,

You're probably looking for something like this device.

Western Digital's My Cloud is extremely reputable and I've never had any issues with mine.

Hope this helps,

Devin Becker
DevOps Associate @ EE

QNAP makes a line of devices ranging from double bay on up to a dozen or so for people to run their own file servers and other applications. They are pretty much the best in the business. Might be overkill if you're just wanting a backup drive or extra storage, but they are working looking into.

If you already have the drive, a one bay nas would suffice. If there's any data on it, backup the data before you put it in a nas, the nas will 'init' or reformat the drive. Do you maybe have an existing router with a free USB connection? Routers can share connected USB drives so they can be used as if they were network connected (like a nas). If so then a 'normal' 3.5" enclosure would work as well, you do need a power supply for that enclosure.

I am a real fan of Buffalo LinkStations, and you can get an enclosure without drives for about $120. Like hear on Google Express (no affiliation): https://express.google.com/u/0/product/8178603608575102969_5489269680154541400_46586

They make a wide array of products, I have three of them running now, and have been very happy with them.

But as you will see here, there are a lot of choices and a lot of opinions on which is best. I will not disagree with either of the comments above, and any one of these would make be an excellent choice as well. And Gerwin makes an excellent observation. Many routers have a USB port on them to make almost any drive appear as a NAS drive. That too is not a bad idea for a quick and easy solution. So lots to pick from here.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I should have added that I'd like to keep it a single drive bay enclosure that can handle a 6th drive. For a small businesses off site back up.

Buffalo does make a few 6 drive enclosures. They are not cheap. Here is an example:

https://www.buffalotech.com/products/terastation-5610-wsh-desktop

 This one costs around $3800.

Good find Gerwin. Synology is s great product and I have deployed several. I completely forgot about them.

i went with the Single Drive Synology DiskStation DS119j and will see how that works.

We misunderstood your '6th drive' remark, how is this a 6th of what exactly? Knowing you just wanted a single bay NAS device would have giving you quite some more suggestions I thinks. But if you're happy with that Synology device then please close the question, marking helpful comments if needed and selecting your last comment as answer.

Gerwin,  I did not understand that either. I assumed he meant 6 drive device too.

it was a mistake on the 6th drive. it was a late typo.  I apologize for that.

IN that case, a bunch of us gave you choices early on before that sad typo. You should close the question and assign some points to people you believe were helpful.  Thanks