I currently have a router connected (via ethernet) headless Pi4 running samba and dlna which is attached via USB 3.0 to an external 6TB seagate drive that has it's own power supply. It's pretty basic but it does exactly what I need - primarily a data backup site, with wired/wireless support for NAS and video streaming to devices around the home.
Im close to maxing out my drive, so I would like switch to an expandable RAID 6 drive which I can attach to my Pi, but i'm having trouble finding out how to do this in terms of what kind of hardware I should be looking at. I'm really looking for the basics - what's the best foundation to build a massive drive over time? Can I use some sort of rack to do this? The important points are:
Low power draw - I want to run the drive and Pi 24/7.
Performace doesn't need to be amazing - all data will be accessed over ethernet tcp/ip so bandwidth can be limited.
USB 3.0 is required, but a backup connection to the drive like sata would be a bonus.
Full size HDD drive support
Expandable - I'm currently looking at 4 drives, I will probably need to upgrade to 8 or 16 bays eventually.
Future-proof - I was currently thinking of getting something like this NAS enclosure, but feel like it's too restrictive and I want to be able to replace individual aspects which might become outdated or defective - The raid controller, the disks, the server, and all connections to each.
Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, i've been searching online but I really don't even know what i'm looking for! Thanks!