Disk Array for Laptop USB3

[AnotherBrian]

Looking to add more disk space for zoneminder while keeping a small footprint.

Using an older dvd laptop, I swapped out the dvd for a sata drive holder - that works nice - so I have two drives in a single laptop. Long term though this is no good because as a laptop ugrade many have gone with ssd and no dvd drive.

My guess here is to use usb3 interface on the laptop with a disk array attached for 2.5 inch (small) drives. are there cheap disk arrays available with power built in? An option is a small rack and then use a power usb3 hub to connect the drives to the laptop.

any suggestions appreciated

[bbunge]

Using a laptop hard drive for an always on system is not a great idea. One way to go would be to use a ssd for the OS and an external, powered USB (desktop) drive for storage. Better yet look for a used desktop and a good WD hard drive. There are places that get PC's to recycle and a lot of those used PC's have life left in them. My current production server is a donated Dell i5 medium format with a used WD Black 1 tb drive.

[AnotherBrian]

Ya i figured using the ssd for the os. the medium formats look like they have similar disk quantity limitations.

why isn't using a laptop a good idea? I've been running for 3 years on an old dell laptop i7-3540M with 8 FHD cams recording at 5 fps. zoneminder reports a load of 7. I find the 2tb+1tb drives limiting the amount of data.

[0ddentity]

I recently bought one of these..
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Supporti ... 498&sr=8-5

Not for zm, mostly for large, occasional backups.
It's a little awkward to setup, there's no management software (all you get are LEDs to indicate health) but, if you have a stack of 2.5" drives it's a good way to combine them. There are several raid level choices.

[AnotherBrian]

gosh that is an old post.

I settled on a dell latitude e7450 i7-5600u laptop with 2tb ssd and 16gb ram with 8 network cams running 5fps at FHD.
Its been solid.

I can bounce around searching old recordings and its fast enough for me and my family.

I wouldn't mind having more disk but for the trade off with speed and size it is just fine!

[0ddentity]

Oh wow didn’t notice the date till now! First browse/post in this sub and yours was one of the first messages so I read/responded.. glad you got a working solution!