Modding HDD Window

Hello,
I want to make a window in a hard disk drive. I read the article, but I'm confused on a few things. I recently did a plexiglas project, and was wondering if a standard jigsaw could cut the metal. I'm not worrying about it being not strong enough, but if it'll damage the blade or something. The next question is how to glue the plexiglas into the metal. I read that the person in the article used some sort of a model glue. I was just wondering if there was any type of common glue that can be easily found in some store that would work.

Thanks,
Alacritous

 

sure a jigsaw will cut it but you need a medium to smooth metal blade for it. To attach it just use some kind of adhesive like goop.

 

of what i have read of hard drive windows.. you have to use a thin bit of plastic and if its to thick the drive wont spin... of 1 of the guides i have read they had to use a piece of see through plastic from a folder as everything else was to thick...

 

you could just take the metel ff and change ifor a bit of plastic so it can be as thick as you want it to be

 

You are doing this on an old disk arnt you? I dont think theres ever been a record of someone doing this with a high density mordern disk and it not breaking it after a time.

 

I read somewhere of someone doing it to a 200Gig or something and it worked perfectly. Can't remember the link now.

 

Sounds like an urban legend to me: "A friend once told me that a friend of his...". Anyway, everyone gets lucky once. Sometimes HDDs keep working after the mod for a week or so, until that stray particle finally finds a good home between the head and (a vital data carrying bit of) the drive platter. It's just a very risky mod.

 

Thats the only problem with this kind of mod is that it might work for a while but then it just dies.

 

If the top of the hdd has a screw going to the axle for the platters, than this mod won't work. If it only has screws on the edges, than it should if you don't contaminate it.

 

u can do it with any hard drive.... you only make the window where the main disks are and not where the middle screw is...

 

or you can drill a hole were the screw is?

 

i would only do a partial window where the main disks are and then put a LED on the board to light it up

 

Hello,
Sorry, kind of forgot about this post. Can you tell me where to cut? (e.x. save image and draw on paint)

Any other ideas/suggestions greatly appreciated.

Yes it's an old drive.

Please clarify, and look at the picture I am showing.

Bit too complex for me . If you want to see my work, search the forums for my name and goto the Alacritous Network Server topic.

 

I'm not really sure you should try this... Not being funny but if a few LEDs are "too complex" for you, I think you'll have trouble with this. I've seen people do it in a self-contained box especially built for the project (To stop dust) and the drive still fails. However if you want a drive to throw away after, then by all means do it

 

Well, if you were doing it to get a good job done, you could always get another, similar, dead drive that you weren't worried about and take the cover off that bit. Then, do the window on THAT cover, and any other applicable modding, and test it for airtightness. Then all you'd have to do is switch lids, still being super careful though.

 

Well I'm no where near thinking about donig it like you suggested. After I take off the top (metal plate thingy), I'm putting the actual hard drive in an air tight bag and doing that away with until it's done. I'm basically following the guide on this website, I was just asking a few questins.

Alacritous

 

i'm with the others ive never seen someone do this successfully and the bag thing might work but it didnt for mashie on the y2k bug project if i remeber correctly 2 drives died in the makeing of that mod twas a shame it didnt work though

 

Don't do it! After you do it your hdd generally only lasts for about 3 years maximum!

 

well im going to throw away my 5 year old 3 gig off brand hd but i think it can make one shot at becoming windowed

 

My 10gig fujitsu just died after a couple of months of it working perfectly.
The drive had 2 screws in the top, one for the disk axle, the other for the head. Didnt have any problems after the mod. But who knows, that may be the reason why it died in the end.

Bloody shame too, it looked awsome. Used 3mm clear acrylic for the actual window, then made an enclosure for the whole drive out of 3mm blue UV reactive acrylic.




Looked great when lit up.

Gutted.