Using old HDD for back up but how

Coveredinbees!!!!

I have some PCs in my loft that have disc drives of various sizes which I was thinking of using as cheap (ie free) back up storage for my data. I was thinking of buying caddies for each drive but since I can buy a 1 TB hard drive £40 that option seems a bit pointless.

I have 1 complete working unit with XP running on it, I could put all the disc drives into the one case and use that to copy everything on to but I would like to be able to have a system that doesn't need a monitor and keyboard etc attached to use. Is there a cheap and simple way of doing this? The data doesn't need to be on the network or anything as I just want it as back up storage.

benje302

Take a look here

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2693213/its-cheap-and-easy-to-make-your-own-portable-hard-drive-from-an-old-pc-drive.html

Hope it helps

Ben

spud17

We don't know your technical ability.
If your old pc can boot from usb, and you can set that up, have a look at NAS4Free. It's FREE as name suggests.
Using your old pc, you install a small 'embedded' operating system to a 1GB (min) flash drive which 'manages' any drive(s) you've fitted into the box.
No peripherals are needed because everything is controlled via your everyday browser.
It's daunting when you start, but it does become a lot easier.
Lots of 'how to' guides.
e.g. http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=documentation:setup_and_user_guide