HDD window?

[magick_man]

i was wondering how hard would it be to put a plexi window on your hdd?
i mean does the drive need to be opened in a clean box or something?
i am sure putting the window in wouldnt be too hard but not f*****g the hdd would be the hard part.
if anyone has done this ir seen it somewhere please share cuz i want to do it.

thanks in advance, ~Magick_Man~

[dead_man311]

Here's (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=289795&highlight=Hard+Drive) a guide and some pictures of some window hard drives. good luck with it

[sautegod]

I've heard about it and I've seen it but there is no way I'm trying it!

[OLMI]

It looks awesome when you're done, but it is such a dangerous mod. It's very easy to kill your hd while doing something like that. Good luck if you decide to. hehe

[stikphysh]

i agree with olmi.... it does look cool, and its possible to do it without killing your hard drive while your working on it.

there is a reason hard drives are only built in clean rooms. the read heads are VERY close to the platters... the distance is supposedly less than a spec of dust. i imagine as you get dust on your platters (as is guarunteed to happen unless you work in a clean room) the drive wont last too long. i was concidering doing this with a small old hard drive, like an old 10 gig or something, that doesnt store anything important though. that way you get the looks, but still have a stable machine

[Lord_Zoltan]

i just found a 300meg hard drive, ancient haha, doesnt even work so im modding it :P It could look cool :P Especially after it goes in the fishtank :P

LOL

Zoltan

[OLMI]

Hey, that's a good idea. If you mess up the hard drive, oh well, but if you don't, you can still look at the neato head moving around :D

[stikphysh]

there ya go... put some LEDs or somethin in it too!

[DaWiper]

I tried it with a old 2gb seagate. The hd survived, but I don't have the nerve to try it with a new disk. It's amazing how fast those heads move...
(It was just to see if I could pull it off, not to make it pretty)
http://tjukkband.no/tomjor/hdwindow.jpg

I removed the case cover. and put the hd in a antistatic bag.
Then I cut away as much as possible of the cover.
Made a quick'n dirty window of some spare 5mm polycarbonate(similar to lexan)
Used a glue gun to attach/seal the window to the cover.
Remeber to clean the cover for metal dust... or else... :D

[stikphysh]

yeah... its cool to watch it move... whats really fun is take an old hard drive, pull the cover off, hook it up to an AT power supply, turn it on, then drop stuff on the platters... screws go flying. screw drivers grinding on platers are loud :attn:

[Caeberos]

I am pretty sure the mod is not possible on newer hardrives, as in anything larger than 10 gigs. I mean you can try it, but I am not to optimistic about the sucess rate.

[DaWiper]

I am pretty sure the mod is not possible on newer hardrives, as in anything larger than 10 gigs. I mean you can try it, but I am not to optimistic about the sucess rate.
I'm pretty sure it is possible! The only rule that applies is to NOT get dust or anything inside the hd during modification. But it is a high-risk mod to do. In fact I can't think of any other visual mod with higher risk.

[stikphysh]

I'm pretty sure it is possible! The only rule that applies is to NOT get dust or anything inside the hd during modification. But it is a high-risk mod to do. In fact I can't think of any other visual mod with higher risk.

well, trying to superglue your eyelid to the transformer in your new powersupply might be higher risk. but yeah, your pretty much right on that. it is possible. different hard drives are different though. some have a flat top you can just replace, others you actually have to cut the top and add the window. i also wonder about those little vent deals they have in the drives... what happens if you dont have those in there?

[Salami_Joe]

well, trying to superglue your eyelid to the transformer in your new powersupply might be higher risk. but yeah, your pretty much right on that. it is possible.

Oh god, i can see the stories being posted now... "I tried the supperglue-your-eyelid-to-the-transformer mod and i was in a comma for a year but got great results!" :rolleyes:

[DaWiper]

well, trying to superglue your eyelid to the transformer in your new powersupply might be higher risk. but yeah, your pretty much right on that. it is possible. different hard drives are different though. some have a flat top you can just replace, others you actually have to cut the top and add the window. i also wonder about those little vent deals they have in the drives... what happens if you dont have those in there?

If you have to remove the vent when you cut the hole for the window, just make a new one and seal it off with sticker of some kind that is flexible enough to bend with the pressure.
The hd-pic I posted, I didn't bother about making a new vent, cuz..I don't care...

[ponkan pinoy]

I read an article some time back, I don't remember where, though. Anyway, this guy windowed his HD as per the instructions you usually find, but did this thing towards the end. Since the plexi (or maybe it was lexan, I'm not sure) tends to hold an electrostatic charge, he'd lower the cover, then wipe away the dust that got attracted off of the HD and onto the window. He repeated this several times, until he was satisfied.... That would definitely lower the risk of messing your hard drive up, and it got me thinking: does anyone know of a (relatively) simple way to cause a charge to build up? I'm thinking mostly about something based on electronics, or at least more automatic than rubbing amber :). You could use that to "vacuum" the dust off the platters before putting the cover on the mod. You'd need to know which charge to use, though....

[jabaro]

yeah... its cool to watch it move... whats really fun is take an old hard drive, pull the cover off, hook it up to an AT power supply, turn it on, then drop stuff on the platters... screws go flying. screw drivers grinding on platers are loud

Bad ideas...

[Electron Chaser]

Definately use a old drive and slap it in a free bay. Way too risky to try with a something you want to keep around for a while. That is unless your garage happens to double as a white room.

[alpha_gamer]

Holy crap! That's my thread!

It really isn't too hard, if you keep it relatively clean it will work out fine. I put a piece of plastic wrap over the HDD while I was modding the top and the HDD works perfectly right now. I just bought a new 80 gig Caviar so I'm probably going to window my old 20 gig Maxtor.

[DaWiper]

I know that somepeople use the bathroom to open/close the hd. They start up the shower with ho****er for some minutes to make a high level of humidity. That makes all/most of the dust to drop to the floor. Then they open the hd and remove the cover. They still use a plastic bag(non-static) to store the rest of the hd in while working on the window.
The key here is to wait until the humidity levels are close to normal BEFORE doing anything.
Never tried this, but some have with success.

[stikphysh]

i can see how all these ideas could work, but just know you are putting your drive at a relatively high risk of failure and you will void the warrenty. if you are willing to accept that, go for it! it always looks cool.

[clocker2]

If you go to the trouble, and....
If you manage to pull it off without killing your drive...
Where do you put it to show off the work?

[Mr.Guvernment]

a good suggestion is when you remove the HD case - make sure you do it in a washroom and havea hot shower running - this will case the dust to be settled - then turn off the hot water and quickly put the covre on - another way to do it, is ina plastic bac that you know is clean inside. :)

[Mr.Guvernment]

If you go to the trouble, and....
If you manage to pull it off without killing your drive...
Where do you put it to show off the work?

You put a window in the top of your case :D


My thread i started a while back on the same issue

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=173553

the site i originally found a picture of one

http://www.hitechmods.com

but seems gone now

CDROM drive one

http://www.hitechmods.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album07&id=tinaeric1&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

[Mr.Guvernment]

here u go!!

how to do the mod

http://www.hitechmods.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=5

[magick_man]

If you go to the trouble, and....
If you manage to pull it off without killing your drive...
Where do you put it to show off the work?
mount it on the side of your case straight up and down, see uber leet illustration

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!! !!
!! !!
!! !!
!! !!!!!!!! !!
!! !!!!!!!! !!
!! !!!!!!!! !!
!! !!!!!!!! !!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so you can look in the side of your case and see it spinning away.

*EDIT* well when i posted the reply it took the spaces out of my pic so what ever, i think you get the point though

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^ or do that :)

i figure put it in the 5 ' drive bay with a braket and cut a window on top either way will work)

[MyPCAlexi]

i understand now why they build them in clean rooms. BUT nothing would be kewler than doing that to a 40 gb (primary) hdd and setting up some Blue LED's wired inside the window to flash whenever the drive was in use (the hdd light). that would be by far the kewlest thing to look at. it would also be the most risky and pain in the ass thing to do. i would never do it, but hey maybe one of you guys are crazy enough :-P also it would be better to see a how to or tutorial over it :-P

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^^^ seeing my old thread revised i am tempted to try this mod on one of my 250g Serial ATA drives - only cost $130 so we will see - depends how easily the case cover comes off.


As for a tutorial check the link i posted one shows how to do it, it is really very simple.

[jabaro]

seeing my old thread revised i am tempted to try this mod on one of my 250g Serial ATA drives - only cost $130 so we will see

Only $130.... That an expensive experiment.

[Mr.Guvernment]

lol

well considering regular cost of the drives :) and i justify it by saying - i could of gone out to the bar and spent that in a night, but instead i did not go out this weekend so yeah :)


lol

[Quailane]

well considering regular cost of the drives and i justify it by saying - i could of gone out to the bar and spent that in a night, but instead i did not go out this weekend so yeah

Just be prepared to not go to a bar after that mod.

[Mr B]

This is one of the things on my "To do:" list...

I'm going to attack it in a slightly different manner though, one I'm frankly surprised no one else has mentioned....

I've got a 20GB Maxtor that I plan on doing this to, and a dead 10 gig Maxtor that is the exact same in construction (same chassis, same cover, different internals).

As the 10 gigger is dead, I've no problem opening it up and taking my time doing the window. When it's ready to go, it'll just be a straight cover swap, with the working 20GB drive.

Find a dead drive that is a match for the one you plan to mod, and do the cover on that....makes a lot of sense to me. Then you've only got the good drive open once, and briefly at that. That would greatly lower the chance of ca-ca getting in there while you've got it open.

My $.02

[jabaro]

Find a dead drive that is a match for the one you plan to mod, and do the cover on that....makes a lot of sense to me. Then you've only got the good drive open once, and briefly at that. That would greatly lower the chance of ca-ca getting in there while you've got it open.

Great Idea.

[Mark620]

I have done two <1gb drives.

http://users.domaindlx.com/Mark620/Dscf0431.jpg

http://users.domaindlx.com/Mark620/Dscf0434A.jpg

[Hamspiced]

it seems liek itd be nice just to get a cheap 1gb or a ****ty generic drive and do it just to do the mod, who cares if you cant use the drive....

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^ but be so nice to watch the heads running all over the drive :D

[DaWiper]

^^ but be so nice to watch the heads running all over the drive :D

Agree!. It must be one of the fastest moving mechanical devices I can think of.
You might say: Yeah right! What about a engine?
Well, a engine goes only one way while the head moves back and forth in a split second. It does so for several years without any maintenance (ok,ok, maybe not the IBM "deathstar").... Anyway, amazing device!