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Hard Drive Window

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-you-shouldn't dept.

Xx Shinwa xX writes "This guy has done what was thought to be impossible: he has opened his hard drive and installed a clear acrylic window. And it still works. I would love to try this, if I had the guts."

10 of 380 comments (clear)

  1. Yippy-Skippy. by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was impressed with this, until I read the following:
    This is the unmodified hard drive, a Western Digital 3 GB drive (Caviar 33100) made in 1997.
    I hate to be a buzzkill, but BFD. I regularly disassembled these drives for data recovery purposes back in the salad days, when I was a carefree computer repair technician. We had an excellent level of success with any drive smaller than 4 GB, and one 2 GB drive, on which I replaced the head assembly for data recovery purposes, happily ran for over two years after the surgery.

    I thought this mod was going to be performed on a contemporary drive, which would have been duly impressive. Heck...perform this mod successfully on a drive as big as 30 GB, and I'll tip my hat. But 3 GB? Sorry, but no.
    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  2. this is news? by davez0r · · Score: 4, Informative

    i thought this had been done before...and indeed it has

    http://www.overclockers.com/tips821/

    from 2002

    and that was just the first result on google for "hard drive window"

  3. This is news? by DaHat · · Score: 4, Informative

    People have been doing it for years, just do a Google search for "hard drive window" or better yet an images search for the same string.

    --
    Help Brendan pay off his student loans
  4. Re:People have done this for years!! by Janitha · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have to agree, this has been done over and over and over again. I saw a windowed hard disk in TXGF Austin 2004 and many tutorials online (just google now)

  5. Re:People have done this for years!! by tgd · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, its not news, its one of four Slashdot front page stories copied from Digg.

    And like the last one (which I pointed out and got moderated as a troll), it wasn't one of the good ones.

    There are definitely better ones that could've gotten onto here for the sake of those who don't read both sites, there's some great scuba photography linked on there and a very funny 720p vs 1080i thing.

  6. I did this a while ago... by impactdni · · Score: 3, Informative

    I did this a while ago... Worked nicely... Quite nice for a PVR box (watch the needle go to town on the platters) - http://www.absoluteinsight.net/68

  7. HDD would never work in a vacuum.... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 4, Informative

    The heads actually "float" above the platters on a tiny layer of air. Remove the air, and the heads would never lift off the surface, and would be destroyed in seconds.

    --
    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  8. What are the odds... by digid · · Score: 3, Informative

    What are the odds that an old story be posted on the front page of digg and slashdot on the same day. The only difference between Digg and Slashdot mirroring each other now is that the so called "digg effect"(I wonder where they got that name) didn't even put a scratch in their server. 5 minutes after it hit the front page of slashdot grand daddy "slashdot effect" finished the job.

  9. "dupe" from slashdot by somethinghollow · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Incredible Invisible Case

    Another hit from'02.

  10. Re:Usefool by ReallyNiceGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

    The size does not matter. Actually, a laser chip is really small. But the fact that it is infrared and tightly focused creates a hazard if you stare at it. I believe that lasers used in CD players are class IIIC, meaning safe for handling, but not for staring. At around 1mW, it is quite powerfull to actually burn your retina.