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Plexiglass and a Spare Hard Drive
What do you get when you cross some plexiglass,
a hard drive and some time on your hands? A see through hard drive! At
least that's what llungster recently did. Unfortunately he hasn't had
time to write up a full article on it but he did take some pictures so
here are some of them and his descriptions. Enjoy
1. Original Hard Drive Cover
This is the plate as I removed it. It was held by
just 4 screws at the corners. This particular drive used standard Philips
screws.
2. Original Maxtor Back Plate
The same as above picture but this was scanned in
instead of a digital pix.
3. The Drive Covered in Plastic
As soon as I removed the cover plate on the drive
I used some plastic kitchen wrap to wrap up the drive. I figured the plastic
wrap was quite clean since it was in its original role and not likely
to have dust on it. THe drive platter is actually very shiny, not dark
like it looks in the picture.
4. Back of Cover
This is the inside of the cover plate, before I
cut into it. The grey stuff is gasket material. The round part is just
a dimple in the plate; don't know what it does.
5. Start Cutting
The blue line is the line I drew to guide my cut.
I used a drill to make a hole large enough to insert the nibbling tool.
The nibbling tool take small bites out and it's just a matter or walking
it along the line. The block of wood under the cover protects the workbench
during drilling. I work from the inside of the plate so that any burrs
in the metal are on the outside. This ensured that I wouldn't have metal
possibly sticking into the disk cavity and risk hitting the spinning disk.
Eventually I used a dremel to file down the burrs on the outside.
6. Halfway Through Cutting
Still nibbling along.
7. Almost Done Cutting
The center portion is hanging by a thread, so to
speak
8. Final Cutout
Finished nibbling the plate. I tried to peal off
the original Maxtor decal on what's left of the cover plate but it kind
of left a mess.
9. Cover with Plexiglass
A bit hard to see but the plexiglass is glued onto
the new cover plate with epoxy. Prior to the glue job, I spray painted
the cover plate to try and hide the mess from the decal removal. It didn't
work out that well. I should have used some goo-be-gone and done a clean
job. Oh well, that's why this is just a research project !
10. Reassembled Drive
Perspective view of new cover onto drive. Aside
from the epoxy, the plexiglass also is held in place with a bead of clear
caulk around the outside. This helps seal the unit from air/dust leaks
11. Another view of the drive
Thanks for dropping and enjoy. Have any comments
or questions? Please
post them in our forums.
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