The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/FallenCrab on 2025-07-23 07:37:28.
Hi, I'm pretty new to data hoarding but today I'm here because of my dad who has tons of photos and videos scattered all over the place... old ext. harddrive, new ext. harddrive and handful of flashdrives and SD cards, etc. and none of those things are backed up in any way.
My original idea was simply buying him extra ext. harddrives, literally taping two together and having him dump the photos/videos to both for redundancy... guess what... he's not doing it because "it wastes space = money" and "he didn't lose any photos/videos yet so it's unlikely it will happen in the future"... flawless logic.
So my current idea, that I need help with, is simply a (small) case with a bunch of HDDs inside all connected together in RAID with only one port out and showing as one storage unit in the PC for simplicity. It would be offline and turned off most of the time except roughly monthly photo/video dump and some photo title/description property editing. Speed is not a priority and there's no need for internet connection, Bluetooth, etc. The problem is that I have no idea how to actually put it together... whether I need some server level bullshit, old PC parts or just some small control board powered through USB with a bunch of ports.
Bear in mind, my dad is clueless when it comes to PC and all related tech and he's also cheap af so cloud and NAS are not an option... hell, if the solution is any more complicated than plugging the cable in, dragging a folder from one window to the other, leaving his laptop to go do something else and then unplugging it when it's done, he's simply not gonna do that.
Thanks for any help or advice.