How do I attach more hard drives to my hardware RAID card?

Question

I have an Adaptec RAID 5805 with a total of 8 SATA hard drives attached.

There are two "mSASx4 (SFF-8087) to SATA (4)" cables plugged in:

and attached to each of the 8 ends, is a SATA hard drive. And now, there's no space for new drives.

How do I attach, for example 8 more SATA hard drives?

What do I have to buy? What are my options?

At the moment, the hard drives are just mounted in the computer, but I'm up for buying an enclosure (or whatever), if that's what it takes.

If you need more information, ask and I'll respond promptly.

Edit: From the Adaptec link in my question: "Up to 256 SATA or SAS devices using SAS expanders". So this is possible somehow..

Answer 1

Adding a second RAID card is your only option since you already have 8 drives connected to the existing one.

Answer 2

You can also get NAS or SAN storage devices.

Answer 3

Well as the Adaptec documentation say you use a SAS expander. Think of it as a port multiplier - you plug in one cable to your adapter, one to the SAS expander and then multiple hard drives to the expander.

See also http://www.sasexpanders.com/