HArd Drive Mod

[bLyZr]

Ok, Linear has done a HD mod, putting an acrylic case(window) on the HD...

I read that just the pressure of the air coming in when you take the top case off will be enough to move the arm just enough for it to go through BIOS and then fail....

What's the best way to go around this..?

also im gonna put red led's in to light it up,



Help = Grateful

thx
bLyZr

I just don't see that happening.

I took the top off of an IBM 'Deathstar' and it worked w/ it off or on. I'm not sure what they mean by air pressure moving the arm, that would take quite a bit I would think.

[Cruez]

Its the dust that I would worry about... minute pieces in the wrong place could cause the drive to fail...

[linear1]

Best way around it is not to use too big a drive. Dig up an old 3GB or thereabouts, and the tolerances are much less exact that on a 40GB or other new drive.

One day, a web server at work (running FreeBSD) started to throw a bunch of disk errors. So we backed up the files, brought it down, and popped out the hard drive. When we opened the hard drive case up to see what sort of craziness was going on, there was a pile of metal dust inside from where the head had crashed the top platter and dug a groove. The drive worked long enough for us to get the data off though, we didn't lose anything. That was maybe a 3GB drive. They're relatively rugged.

My pal mashie modded a couple of 40GB drives for one of his projects, and broke them both.

[bLyZr]

So it is possible?!?!

clikzor to see the lighted HD mod
(http://www.mashie.org/casemods/y2k04.html)

[bLyZr]

Linear i have seen your mod...
You are linear right? (linear.org...)

You succesfully got that one working.

If you posted a link to the working MOD, why are you asking if it can be done?

The drives survived the stunt, passed both formatting and a surface check without issues

EDIT - After reading further I found this . . .

Everything worked fine except the two modded hard drives. They had died completely and would only be recognized randomly by BIOS and the arms just moving back and forward trying to find the start track... I got the system up and running fine using an old 10GB HDD. I have a theory why the drives worked at first right after the mod but not later on. After some surfing around I learned that no modern drive with 40GB platters had been windowed successfully. The high density with the combination of a removed screw from the centre of the platters was probably enough to get them un centered enough to make the head loose it's track after a very short usage...

So it can be done, it's just not going to work for very long.

[bLyZr]

Well Rick,

The drive worked long enough for us to get the data off though, we didn't lose anything. That was maybe a 3GB drive. They're relatively rugged.

I was wondering whether that was the same HD that was modded.

-edit

That was Mashie who's HD's went through BIOS and then failed, not linear

[linear1]

Your first pic is mashie's (doesn't work), your second pic is mine (does work).

Here's some more:
holodeck2 did it first: http://bp6.com/pics/holodeck2/reviews/hd%20mod/hd.htm
Joe B. http://iris.nyit.edu/~jbarodin/photos/hdd_led_mod.jpg
Tony: http://www.hitechmods.com/modules.ph...owcontent&id=5
taribo: http://www.hddmod.home.ro/
micheal jose: http://mikejose.tripod.com/HDD.html
princess die: http://home.comcast.net/~mod/plexi/drivemods.htm

and I may have missed a few others.

[bLyZr]

Will it be hard to do lighted one like Joe B?

And should I put the LED inside the actual case (internal) or external? Will the LED (foreign Material) affect the HD at all?

bLyZr