Setting up 5 2.5" PATA drives for FreeNAS raid - internal or external?

[jxauxtx]

Hi all.

I'm a FreeNAS Noob, but eager to learn more soon. I have very limited resources, but was given 5 identical 80GB 5400RPM 2.5" ATA drives. Did I mention they were free and I'm trying to do this all for free?

I have an old PC I can dedicate and have my boot flashdrive all ready to go. If I mount these internally, I only have 2 IDE connectors and they're for 3.5" drives. What kind of card and enclosure would I need to make this internal? I have 2 5.25" bays and 2 3.5" bays available.

Also, would I be able to use external USB to IDE enclosures? My main interest is for an ESXi home lab.

Thanks in advance!

Joe

 

[travalon]

I am running 2x250 ide in usb enclosures and they work fine. I tried to run them off the ide socket on the board and it didn't work.I was told freenas doesnt support it. My enclosures are sabrent. I also had a couple on ide to sata adapters and they worked as well. If you go for a raid card make sure it's compatible.the one i bought wasn't.