Hard Drive window mod.

[Zaz]

I am gonna be putting a window in my western digital 15 gig drive soon. I have noticed that on alot of drives there are two screws right in the middle, one screwing into the spindle and one a couple inches lower. My question is that of any of you who have done a HDD mod have you ever had any problem when missing those two screws after adding the window?

[ambassador]

will taking that cover off destroy the harddrive?

[wannaoc]

Ambassador yes if done wrong it can ruin it. I have done this mod a couple times, never had it work. The lights work, drive spins, but crud got on the disk and poof no drive. My advice is to do this a couple times on cheap, who cares if it works, drives. If you do this it, do it all at once. Due to various reasons it took me 2 days and just the plastic sitting on the disk screwed it up. Don't forget to cover that drive and mark the screws so you know what spot they came out of. This one of the few mods that I LOVE but cant get to work, its tuff so be ready. Good luck.

[dowmace]

I have done this mod with no probs, just make sure you do it quickly and cleanely with no dust around

[ZedBias]

I know this may sound silly but how the hell are you suppose to make sure there is no dust around??

[vonkaar]

I've done this several times and it almost always fails... however, on the 3 drives that I *have* done properly (meaning, don't do this near the sawdust collector of your local Pine-Mill), I followed the following tips:

Work in a 'cleanable' room that doesn't have carpet... bathroom, garage, dungeon... etc. Clean the outside of the HDD as best you can, place in a large (biggest you can find) ziplock bag. Clean your TOOLS as best you can, place them in the large zip-lock bag. Snap on your latex gloves (I know you have a pair laying around someplace...) Club a baby seal, if you have one. Open zip-lock and prepare to insert hands.

This next step isn't set-in-stone-necessary... but it helps. If you have two of those springy clamps from your local DIY store, have your friend clamp the on the bag after your wrists are in it, to seal off as much air as possible. Plus, it makes your hands turn white and that's COOL. Well, you don't have to get them THAT tight, but it may help ^_^. Anyway... hand-clamp-clamp-hand is the way I do it. Now that your hands look like something out of a Hallmark Sunday-Night Sci-Fi (Sponsored by the good folks at Zip-Lock), you are ready to begin.

Carefully remove the first screws from the chasis of the HDD. You *could* mark them to remember which is which, but your hands are clamped in latex and plastic. It's about right now when your nose will really start to itch and you can't do JACK about it. Sorry... Anyway, remove the outer screws. There will probably be a few screws 'hidden' under those "VOID WARRANTY" stickers. Look both ways to make sure nobody is looking, and peel off those stickers! Felt good, didn't it? DIRTY CRIMINAL!

Now, I've done this to 3 different HDDs, and only one of them required me to remove the control board. But, I guess it *could* be common... so why not? Hmm... in retrospect, maybe you should have removed that before you stuck your hands in this plastic hell. Oh well...

***BAD BAD BAD VONKAAR*** IGNORE THIS FOLLOWING STATEMENT, I SUCK*** Anyhoot, remove all the screws you see. Just go to town with your screwdriver, it's fun. *** YEAH, THAT PART. I SUCK*** The real instruction here is to ONLY REMOVE CHASIS screws. They are usually big and bulky, like a lumberjack. Read a few posts down for more details... it's not as hard as my big red warning may imply... trust me.

After the screws are gone, the seal will likely still be intact, but not for long! Flathead screwdriver... pry through the seal... OH-SO-CAREFULLY pry open the layers. If you slip and create a 3-inch scratch across the surface of your HDD, it MAY STILL WORK! But then, you might also be a tomato. Shrug... don't slip. Remove cover! Yay!

Now, if you are like me, you'll spend a few hours checking yourself out in the reflector-telescope quality mirror-finish on the platters. Once the spirit of Vanity-Smurf has left your body (dang demons!), prepare your plexi-cover. This next part is complicated... place the cover over the HDD and screw it back on. Now say another prayer (I'm listening) and hopefully it will work. As long as your screws are in the right place and you followed my ANTI-DUST guide, it should work without a hitch.

A couple of other clever things you can do:
On my brother's HDD, I painted the metal chasis of the read-write head (not the head, the little armitures that move it around) in UV-ink. Words cannot explain how awesome this looked in the dark. It looked even cooler when I put the black light on it. (I could see again!) The downside was that it was only an 800mb HDD, so it had to be retired in the end =/.

Also, I've thought about using LEDs in my plexi to give it a nice glow. I was thinking that indigo would accentuate my natural brown highlights to create a color-pattern that Martha would envy! Also, it looks wicked in a well-lit case.

That's it. If you follow my guide precisely, one day you too can be as cool as me.

[Ktulu]

That is a most excellent guide on something allot of us think would look wicked cool!
Start a new thread, copy and paste that, and have some one sticky it!

[Chris_F]

A single particle of dust could cause the read/wright head to crash.

[Zaz]

Right on. I can't wait to do it. Just have to find a real small torx bit though. There are two screws that are just smaller than the rest.

[CamH]

That is an awesome, very readable guide. I'm gonna have to try this on my old fireball. :D

[vonkaar]

Well... thanks ya'll but re-reading over it I realize that I made a big mistake in one of my steps... the part about 'remove all screws that you see' is a *huge* no-no. The screws that are holding the outer-case are the only ones you want to touch... some of the screws that face the outside are actually holding some of the INNER-workings in place, meaning... the spindle or the read-write heads. Taking the screws out would loosen them and you'll end up hating me for ruining your drive.

On most drives, the chasis screws will be pretty obvious... they sort of follow the outside of the drive like those on a VCR... but you might have one or two screws somewhere closer to the middle of the drive that fasten the lid on. There isn't *one* way to know which is which unless you have a schematic of the disk, but plans are for pansies so of course you don't!

The best suggestion I can offer is, remove all the screws that are OBVIOUSLY chasis screws. Try to pry open the seal... if it pops off, cong! If it doesn't, try and get a feel of where it is catching still and look for a screw in that direction. You aren't really in much danger for dust or demons getting in your drive until the seal is actually broken, so if you have to remove the drive from the plastic sanctuary to inspect it, go ahead... just don't rub your hands or tools in axle grease or something. It's usually not too hard to find the right screw, and there usually isn't more than one or two (or fifty HAHA, jk) 'hidden' screws. Older SCSI drives can be a real pain though.

I'm gonna edit that 'guide' to remove my little blunder (no lawsuits plz)

[thorilan]

i would do a 1 turn wrap of seran wrap on the HD in the bathroom and then put it in ziplock bag and atach vacuum to suc most of air out ( NOT ALL THE AIR!!!!!) because you dont want the wrap to actualy touch the disk

[vonkaar]

I don't like the idea of airflow over my open HDDs... stagnant air makes vonkaar happy. Airflow = possible dust being sucked in.

[Steve978]

got any pictures?

[Fushyuguru]

Heres one of my window mods. Ive done 3. This was the only one I kept, the rest were for buddies who did wanna do it themselves. All of em have been burning strong.

In all actuality its not a hard mod at all. I think people get a little worked up over it.

http://attila.stevens-tech.edu/~mswartou/lexan/6.jpg

What I do is work upside down in a closed bathroom after fogging it up for a couple minutes.

Then I place the drive in a clean ziplock and a tupperware container.

Then I work on the top, use silicone sealant around window. Clean it alot! Then while upside down again in that same pre-fogged room, put the top back on after a shot of air.

Tape it back up, and rock.

Never had one die.

Also, some new drives need the spindle screws to operate correctly. I personally only mod drives that people have modded previously. That way I know which ones are privy to the windo mod and which ones head crash from not having spindle screws.

[Zaz]

The Drive I am modding looks exactly like that one. A western digital 15 gig 5400 rpm

[ZedBias]

Originally posted by Fushyuguru
What I do is work upside down in a closed bathroom after fogging it up for a couple minutes.

What does fogging mean and what do you have to do to do it??

P.S Nice step by step vonkaar :p

[NcBaller1985]

When you take it apart do this:

Go into a bathroom and turn the shower on with hot water. Let it run with the door closed for about 5 minute. Then turn the shower off and let steam clear up.Take the drive apart in the bathroom and but the actual hardisk in a rubbermaid container or something air tight while you work on the window. Do the shower thing again when you put the drive back together.

The reason for the shower is that the humidity drops all the dust to floor....thus giving you a "dust free" work enviroment.

[McWarren]

Do you leave the windows in the bathroom open to allow the steam to clear?

[Fushyuguru]

No. Just let the steam clear itself. If you open windows, new dust-ridden air fills the bathroom.

Also, if you work upside down (ie- with the platters towards the ground), any dust left in the air will not hit the platters, or fall inside of the hd case to haunt you later on.

Make sure to losen the screws to the cover before actually opening it up. Then when putting the cover back on, put 1-2 screws in and then quickly tape around the edge to create your seal. This way the cover is open only for a short time.

Also, if you are modding a cheap old drive. Try and ebay a second one, or one with the same cover. This way you can kill one drive, mod the cover at your leasure. Then pop it onto the unopened drive in one fell swoop.