Storage (or 'how to make Telf giggle excitedly and dance around like a schoolgirl in 20 easy steps')

I mentioned before about my problems with storage space, and this week I finally decided that I needed to sort out some kind of a solution, since I was having to uninstall games to make room for new downloads. Hence, vaguely in the style of Andy's 'step by step' posts, I present

How to make Telf giggle excitedly and dance around like a schoolgirl in 20 easy steps:

1: Buy new hard drive.

2: Buy fancy external enclosure for new hard drive (and it's future siblings):


3: Remove rubber bands from cabling inside enclosure and instantly regret it, as a million feet of unleashed cabling takes up all the space in the room:


4: Examine metallic 'wings' quizzically.

5: Search fruitlessly for instructions.

6: Carefully attach 'wings' to hard drive using screws provided and guesswork:


7: Remove wings and reattach them the right way round.

8: Attach hard drive inside enclosure using screws provided:


9: Realise that putting the hard drive at the top will mean attaching subsequent hard drives becomes much more difficult.

10: Unscrew hard drive and reattach at base of case:


11: Attach power and SATA data cables.

12: Buy cheap and nasty RAID controller card from Hong Kong:


13: Insert controller card and connect to enclosure with eSATA cable.

14: Power on enclosure and computer.

15: Install drivers.

16: Spend 6 hours trying to get Windows to recognise that the drive exists.

17: Throw cheap and nasty RAID controller card from Hong Kong in the bin:


18: Buy new RAID controller card for 5 times as much from company in UK.

19: Install new RAID controller card and connect eSATA cable.

20: Watch with delight as Windows beeps appreciatively and begins formatting process:


So, clearly not finished yet, but looking a lot more hopeful than it was a couple of days ago. I shall keep my fingers crossed. The enclosure from Starmount has five slots, so hopefully I'll be able to add up to 5TB, which should do me for the next year at least. Also I should mention Starmount's awesome delivery time. I ordered the enclosure and (second) controller card from them, separately, at lunchtimes at work, and in both cases, they arrived before 9am the next morning. So, top marks to them and Royal Mail for that.