Enclosure for multiple USB 3 portable hard drive

[Girish Sharma]

I have many portable USB 3.0 hard drives (4) and I want to connect all of them at once to my PC. I have only 2 USB 3.0 ports and 1 USB 3.1 Type C port. Thus, I definitely need a powered hub. Here are my findings till now:

1. Powered USB 3.1 hubs are rare and I have not seen any supporting 4 USB 3.0 ports.
2. All physical enclosures I found are for 2.5/3.5" hard disks connecting via sata ports and not for portable usb hard drives.
3. All enclosures which support 4 disks are usb 3.0 based

Thus, anyone has any idea of either:
1. A full blown enclosure meant for portable usb hard drives with usb 3/3.1 support
2. Power usb 3.1 hub with at least 4 usb 3.0 ports.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Warning: many USB hard drives can NOT be "shucked" or taken out of their shell. That will destroy the drive, or will be useless because the drive has no SATA connection inside the enclosure.

So if you buy an enclosure for 4 x 2.5" or 4 x 3.5" SATA drives, you might not be able to use it.

A powered USB 3.0 hub connected to your USB 3.0 port is the cheapest and easiest solution to connect 4 USB drives at the same time.

 

[Girish Sharma]

Warning: many USB hard drives can NOT be "shucked" or taken out of their shell. That will destroy the drive, or will be useless because the drive has no SATA connection inside the enclosure.

So if you buy an enclosure for 4 x 2.5" or 4 x 3.5" SATA drives, you might not be able to use it.

Agreed and thus, I am looking for a usb based enclosure, if at all an enclosure is the best option.

A powered USB 3.0 hub connected to your USB 3.0 port is the cheapest and easiest solution to connect 4 USB drives at the same time.

I am aware that I need a powered hub. USB 3 to USB 3 hub is very common too. My question is particularly about if there are products from the provided 2 options.

 

[FFFF]

Option 2 exists but it's expensive:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...&cm_re=usb_3.1_hub-_-9SIAB764HW4322-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...&cm_re=usb_3.1_hub-_-9SIAB764HW4344-_-Product

Are you willing to pay this much for a USB hub?

 

[Girish Sharma]

Option 2 exists but it's expensive:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...&cm_re=usb_3.1_hub-_-9SIAB764HW4322-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...&cm_re=usb_3.1_hub-_-9SIAB764HW4344-_-Product

Are you willing to pay this much for a USB hub?

Its just 10$ per piece, right ? Thanks for the link! I will try to see if its available via local amazon or other site.

 

[FFFF]

You'll also need something like this though because ordinary USB 3.1 ports can only supply upto 15W:

https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessory/USB-31-UPD-PANEL/

 

[dlerious]

Option 2 exists but it's expensive:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...&cm_re=usb_3.1_hub-_-9SIAB764HW4322-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...&cm_re=usb_3.1_hub-_-9SIAB764HW4344-_-Product

Are you willing to pay this much for a USB hub?

Those aren't powered hubs. You want something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Anker-4-Port...qid=1492299400&sr=8-10&keywords=anker+usb+hub