-- Lit Hard Drive Window
-- 05.01.2003
-- By:
BigRed (guest writer)
-- Page: 1 2
***Note: Attempting the following
mod will void warranties and quite possibly ruin your hard drive. We
are not responsible if anything detrimental occurs to you or your
hardware.
Well kids, here is the mod you have not yet seen posted on GT -- The
Hard Drive window mod. I will take you through the steps so that you
can mod your own hard drive and make it look real slick for those
LAN-Parties.
Needed Materials:
- Lexan or Plexi sheet, at least 3.5"x6"
- Old Hard Drive
- Wires/Solder
- LED or 12V Lamp to light the hard drive (if you want it lit that is).
- Heat shrink
- Silicone sealant/shoe goo/ household goop/contact cement
- Saran Wrap
Tools you will need to do this mod:
- Dremel or something else to cut the hole in the hard drive casing
- Philips or Torx screwdriver to get the hard drive open
- Power supply to test.
All of the stuff you see listed here I had lying
around the house, if you don't have it handy, it shouldn't be too hard
to find. I completed this mod for about $3 worth of equipment and only
took about 2 hours of time.
Before we start, let's go over some of the basics
though. By doing this mod, you may kill your hard drive. If you don't
want to risk killing the hard drive, don't do it! You also must
understand that you cannot let any dust/water/dirt come in contact
with the drive heads or platters. If something hits the head it will
probably kill your hard drive.
Now let's get on to business. First find a suitable
hard drive to mod. I will be using a Quantum Maverick 540MB Hard drive
from my first ever computer. Here is what it looks like originally:
Ok, so let's take out the screws and pop
the cover off. I was lucky in that my hard drive used Philips heads.
Once you pop it open, you will see something similar to this:
As you can see, I wrapped it in Saran
wrap right after I took the cover off. This is to prevent any dust
from settling on the drive.
I took out the trusty Dremel with some
regular cutting discs (I went through about 7 of them) and cut a hole
in the shape of the outline on the cover of the drive. I then sanded
down the edges with just a regular sanding bit from my Dremel kit.
I was fairly pleased with the cut. Next,
I had a sheet of 15"x15" Lexan that is about 1/8" thick. I found this
to be the perfect size to stick on the top. I didn't use the Dremel
for this, I actually used a pair of Tin Snips, they cut through the
Lexan rather easily, without cracking it. If you are using Plexi, or
Acrylic sheeting, I suggest you use the Dremel with cutting bits, as
it cracks less than Lexan. When I was done cutting with the Tin Snips,
I took out the Dremel, again with the sanding disc and smoothed out
the edges:
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