The X-treme Hard Drive Mod

Hard Drive Modding To The X-treme

Well this is my newest mod...I have both these hard drives done and mounted in my case so that you can see the platter spinning and the spindle moving. This is really cool cause the spindle moves faster than your eyes almost. The next thing to do is install an LED to match the neon in my case.
This is, I think, the coolest mod I've done. I have a Lian Li PC65 USB case and it has a big window in the side and I have both drives mounted so that they face outward and you can watch till your hearts content. I will have pictures of them in the case later...right now this picture is of one finished and one not yet started. And last but not least...I would suggest to any of you thinking about doing this to NOT DO IT...email me or something if you want to do it. It is rather difficult and if you don't do it right you lose your HD. Enjoy!

you have more cahonas than me i was scared that i would ruin my drive...why not fill us in on how you did it?

That's sexy.
Nice job!!! Have you considered putting those in a clear case?

Edit: ON second thought, that's AMAZING!!! Did you cut off the metal on top? How about an outline of what you did. (I'm not stupid enough to try anything like that with my skill level, I'm just curious).

woahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
i love hdd mods!!!!
altho id be well to afraid to get dust in there...
even like a spec of dust could ruin a hdd..
so i wish you luck!

IMO you should have a 3rd drive for backup incase those drives mess up

good job!!

Well alright I will post the process....but keep in mind that this is by request only and if someone decides to try it I can not be held responsible for your mistakes...This is a long post and I did it as a new thread so that you who requested to see it would know that I posted it...

Okay so with that out of the way...If anybody reads this and thinks that I would be worthy of posting it on the overclockers page or on a mod page then LET ME KNOW. I would love to do this and I have PICTURES of every step. Just let me know...thanks.

Here's what you will need:
a) "star" bit
b) plastic wrap...Reynolds Wrap or something like that.
c) double sided tape
d) epoxy
e) a sharp knife (X-acto or something)
f) the ever popular Dremel with cutting wheels.
g) scotch tape or something of that nature.
h) a steady hand, and some luck

1. First of all you need the little "star" bit to unscrew those screws from the hard drive. I had one in my PC toolkit. I have no clue where you can buy them.

2. This is a little strange but it works....don't take the drive cover off yet...go in your bathroom and turn the shower on real hot and let it run with the door closed. This is to super-humidify the room and thus pull all the dust in the air down to the floor. Just make sure that there aren't any little droplets of water flying around everywhere and you'll be alright.

3. Have that piece of plastic wrap standing by, and take the cover off and immediately put the plastic wrap over the open area of the drive. This is to keep the dust out (of course).

4. Now set the drive in a safe place and take the cover from the drive and figure what the best cut would be and cut away with your Dremel.

5. After you have made your cuts be sure to sand the edges down and get all those little pieces of metal out of there and then clean it well.

6. Trace and cut out a piece of plexi glass that is just slightly larger than the area you want to cover.

7. If you wish you can smooth the edges of your plexi so it will sit better. Now put the plexi in and glue the plexi into the cover of the HDD. I used epoxy...just make sure it will stick.

8. Now...if you mounted the window on the inside of the cover then you will have to raise the level of the cover somewhat so the plexi won't touch the spindle. I used double sided tape...with the foamish stuff in the middle. to make a make-shift "gasket" around the edge of the HDD cover.

9. Going back into your humidified bathroom...carefully take the plastic wrap off the HDD and carefully put the HDD cover back on.

10. Make sure to not screw the screws in really tightly or else your "gasket" won't raise the cover level enough and thats BAD.

11. Finally use your scotch tape and tape the edges up. This is to cover the area of the cover that you opened up...so that dust and things can't fly in there and find their way to your platter.

Thats it...you should have a great looking, working hard drive. It is really the coolest thing to watch. And maybe if I end up posting this on a website, I will tell you how to do an LED inside.

So what do you think? Do you think I should apply to post this on the www.overclockers.com website? You think it would be worthwhile? Any opinions are appreciated.

Show us the pics!!!! Nice mod.

How long ago did you do this? I am wondering about the longevity issues. It sounds like you did a very good job trying to keep dust out but..........I am cheap and expect hard drives to last forever!!!!


Does sound like a very cool mod: pics would be good!

Very cool mod, worth a shot at some point. Must be an experienced modder to try that one, my luck I would end up with a very expensive paper weight.

J

thats pimp, i got ahold of some old 2 gig hd's, man i opened them up and tore the heck outta the disks inside doing it too, but i never knew the discs were metal. are they all metal discs?

You should definetly go for the front page... What have ya got to lose?

Very nice mod

Wow. Wild is the thing that first came to my mind, crazy being the second. What a tempting mod to do. Would you mind posting a pic of the case with the drives installed?

Just for the record, don't go to your local hardware store asking for 'star' bits Ask them for a Torx bit.

I didn't mean to sound overly suck-uppish, but thanks for posting what you did.
Definitely submit it to Joe. Good luck!

AntiHeiss said:

1. First of all you need the little "star" bit to unscrew those screws from the hard drive. I had one in my PC toolkit. I have no clue where you can buy them.

Click to expand...

I believe they are Torx screws, and can be undone w/ a torx bit for a screwdriver like we all have in our "rip our computer apart" cases (you all have those, right)? You can also buy torx drivers at a place like Canadian Tire or a like store if you're south of our border.

Originally posted by -=HN=- Wild9
thats pimp, i got ahold of some old 2 gig hd's, man i opened them up and tore the heck outta the disks inside doing it too, but i never knew the discs were metal. are they all metal discs?

Click to expand...

I believe that the discs inside the HD itself are ceramic, like AMD processors are made out of, just w/ a special magnetic-type coating on them.

Heh heh heh, this really gives me an idea..heh heh...with all this EL cable and EL sheet i have...heh heh...just what I need...more ideas....i'll be back..heh heh

BTW..nice job on the mod, its nice to know there are people out there that are just as nuts as I am...

super sweet. gotta dig around for my ol 3-7g hdd

My only question is if you are opening the HDD in a very humid room is there not a concern of condensation building up inside the casing, since it was in a humid room that you opened up the casing.

Don't take this the wrong way, it is a FREAKING COOL mod.

BTW where are the pics!!!!! MORE PICS!!!!!!

nice english skillz in that first sentence eh?

awsome.
ill try it on my 500mb hd.

at the risk of damage....

i think it'd be nice to take a marker (that glows under blacklight) and attempt to "light up" the dots inside the platter (not the actual platter, the inside part) as well as the arm. then stick the thing together under a blacklight and see how that'd look.

yeah, yeah, i know it's adding more risk of geting dust or something in it to mess it up, but it'd be slick if it worked.

SteenkyBastage said:

at the risk of damage....

i think it'd be nice to take a marker (that glows under blacklight) and attempt to "light up" the dots inside the platter (not the actual platter, the inside part) as well as the arm. then stick the thing together under a blacklight and see how that'd look.

yeah, yeah, i know it's adding more risk of geting dust or something in it to mess it up, but it'd be slick if it worked.

Click to expand...

Just don't use a that new 120 GB SCSI from your RAID 0 array.
I've got an old 200 MB HD that I'd love to take apart. I might even try that mad mod if I get enough experience elsewhere to feel confident about it.

It would be really cool if you could find a minature neon light, that didn't screw up the HDD, and mount it inside the HDD with window mod and wire it so it pulls power from the HDD's power connector.

~Vash~