HDD window?

magick_man · Jun 12, 2004

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 · Jun 12, 2004

Here's a guide and some pictures of some window hard drives. good luck with it

sautegod · Jun 12, 2004

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

OLMI · Jun 12, 2004

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 · Jun 12, 2004

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 · Jun 12, 2004

i just found a 300meg hard drive, ancient haha, doesnt even work so im modding it

It could look cool

Especially after it goes in the fishtank

LOL

Zoltan

OLMI · Jun 12, 2004

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

stikphysh · Jun 12, 2004

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

DaWiper · Jun 12, 2004

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)

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...

stikphysh · Jun 12, 2004

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 · Jun 12, 2004

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 · Jun 13, 2004

Caeberos said:
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 · Jun 13, 2004

DaWiper said:
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 · Jun 13, 2004

stikphysh said:
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!"

DaWiper · Jun 14, 2004

stikphysh said:
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 · Jun 14, 2004

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 · Jul 26, 2004

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 · Jul 26, 2004

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 · Jul 27, 2004

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 · Jul 27, 2004

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.

HDD window?

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