Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

[DeathCrush]

Avast, me mateys! Tis' be about time that a pirate mod be made!

Actually there may already be some out there, I just never looked very hard :). Either or this past semester at college, my roommates and I really got ourselves into a pirate mood. Seriously, we were playing pirate music and pirate-based computer games for quite a while. Since the summer was coming up as well as the third and final installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (which by the way I saw opening night and thought was excellent :)) I decided it would be time for a pirate computer mod to be done.

Due to limited time this summer I had to do something small so I came up with the idea of a harddrive enclosure made out of a small pirate treasure chest to hold all of my pirate stuff I have (mainly my Monkey Island games as well as my piratey music - gotta love it:)). I found some cool treasure chests over at www.deadmentellnotales.com (http://www.deadmentellnotales.com/page/DM/PROD/TCW/TCw1br) that looked like they would do the trick just fine (that and they were pretty low priced too :))
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate01a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate11.jpg
As you can see here, the treasure chest isn't very roomy inside so I have to mount the drive in at an angle although it is still upright itself so I shouldn't have a problem with the drive platter getting unbalanced resulting in I/O failures.

Fortunately the guts I am using take their power straight from the 5V line from the USB to power everything which means less cutting holes but I still had the problem of where to conceal the actual USB connector.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate03a.jpg
For that, my friend bought me a little POTC locket thing that would be perfect to hide a USB behind.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate05.jpg
Sorry Jack, but your picture had to come out

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate06.jpg
I dremeled out a hole with the cutting wheel to fit the USB connector inside it. Took a while and ultimately had some non-straight edges but the USB connector covers it up pretty well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate08.jpg
Next step was to cut the same hole into the chest and dremel the edges around it to compensate for the roundness of the locket.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate09a.jpg
Here is the final result all Gorilla Glued into place.

Unfortunately that is all I have right now as I have to wait for some other parts to come in the mail. Mainly the USB wire that goes from the drive to the side of the chest. Unfortunately again because of the small space I have to work with I had to "special order" a right angle USB adapter that would fit http://www.ntcdistributing.com/images/UHR2-AAR02-24large.jpg I'm going to have to trim away some of the plastic on the mounts where the screws are to get it to fit, however that shouldn't prove to be too hard.

Also I plan on getting some gold mylar cable sleeving from cableorganizer.com. That will give the USB cable that is used to connect the drive to the back of my computer that "gold pirate treasure" feel to it. :)

That's all that I have right now. It's not much, but I didn't feel like waiting until the end of this week to post everything :) ARR! Give me feedback on what you guys think so far!

[Bucko]

That looks cool!

If you made a cover over the drive, you could still use the chest to store things in too.

+rep

[DeathCrush]

I was actually thinking about that as well, at least use it to store the USB cable while traveling - still working on what to cover it with though. Anyone have any ideas? I suppose I could use something like a thin sheet of aluminium.

[Bucko]

I'd go with a small wooden drop in tray, similar to some jewellery boxes.

[AKA_RA]

nice. makes me want to do something with my external drive. in fact, i looks like the IDE to USB converter in there is the same as mine, lol.

+rep

[simon275]

Remember hard drives generate heat so it will need some ventilation or some kind of heat sink in the box. Nice mod though I love the locket usb plug cover.

+rep

[xmastree]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate11.jpg
As you can see here, the treasure chest isn't very roomy inside so I have to mount the drive in at an angleThat's with the interface already connected, right?
It should be possible to use a short length (couple of inches or so) or 40 way IDE cable and mount the adaptor remotely. Then you could possible mount the drive flat leaving a lot more room for pieces of eight.

You really ought to make it look like it's got treasure in it.

[DeathCrush]

I would, but unfortunately I'm using a 50pin laptop drive and so far I have not been able to find a 50pin IDE cable (not even sure it's possible to buy one) I would be willing to make my own from parts but I haven't even been able to find anything.

[Computer-Geek]

would u be able to use this (http://www.ameri-rack.com/APA-JMRER1.htm) ??

[DeathCrush]

would u be able to use this (http://www.ameri-rack.com/APA-JMRER1.htm) ??

That's actually for a laptop cdrom, although I did think about getting it and making my own cable. That may be a bit too much work however, I might just stick with my original idea.

[Eclecticos]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate05.jpg
Sorry Jack, but your picture had to come out


Now that's Funny!
I have a treasure chest also. Never thought of modding it.

[chaksq]

Cool mod!

I'm a little confused about the HD though. Laptop HDs (2.5") are 44 pins. SCSI HDs use 50pins. Are you sure the drive is not SCSI, there may be SCSI laptop sized drives.

[DeathCrush]

Cool mod!

I'm a little confused about the HD though. Laptop HDs (2.5") are 44 pins. SCSI HDs use 50pins. Are you sure the drive is not SCSI, there may be SCSI laptop sized drives.

Ohh, it is an IDE drive, I took it out of my laptop when I put a faster drive in it. I thought all laptop drives were 50 pins because all of the 2.5" to 3.5" adapters say 50-to-40 pins (because of the power pins and hdd light pins that are on the little adapter board) Either or, I still haven't been able to find a 50 or a 44 pin cable that would work. It's alright though, the way I have it now should work just fine.

By the way, thanks for all of the comments so far guys! Hopefully I will get the rest of the parts in by the end of the week and have it all done by the weekend. Arr, stay tuned mateys!

[Greco101]

Thats an expensive usb cover (http://cgi.ebay.com/POTC-locket-Orlando-Bloom-as-Will-Turner_W0QQitemZ270125063962QQihZ017QQcategoryZ197 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

looks awesome though! It makes me want to make something similar for a "Pirates of the Burning Sea" theme (game coming out soon)

[DeathCrush]

Thats an expensive usb cover (http://cgi.ebay.com/POTC-locket-Orlando-Bloom-as-Will-Turner_W0QQitemZ270125063962QQihZ017QQcategoryZ197 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

looks awesome though! It makes me want to make something similar for a "Pirates of the Burning Sea" theme (game coming out soon)

Wow, my friend got mine for $0.50, looks like someone is heavily over charging for that thing :eek: (mine came with a cooler chain too :p)

My roommates and I saw Pirates of the Burning Sea a while back also, looks like it's going to be pretty cool :up:

[Luke122]

Yeah man, good call on the "pirate" theme. :D
I'm suprised that there arent more cool pirate mods out there!

[doesi87]

Very nice idea. It will look great sitting on a desk or on a shelf.

For the heat problem: I built a gameboy-HDD at the moment and did some heat-testing shortly ago. It is also a 2.5 HDD and has about 5 mm space around it. After one hour of copying it was about 35°C. /95°F and it has only a few little vents on the bottom side. So I think the heat will be not that much of a problem with these notebook HDD's.

And I like Bucko's idea of a wooden tray in the same style as the chest if possible.

[DeathCrush]

Yea I was checking the drive inside my laptop to see the temp on it and it doesn't get too hot (especially figuring that inside a laptop will actually have less air space around it).

If anything I might put on some of the BFG stick on heatsinks that i have used in the past, they always seemed to work pretty well. Thanks for the comments!

[DeathCrush]

Ahoy, me mateys!!! Just a quick update here to help keep all of you seafaring bilge rats content and not thinking of mutiny!

Haha, man I'm really getting into the pirate talk thing again. Anyways, I just received my gold cable sleeving in the mail from cableorganizer.com and felt like sharing. I figured I would put it around the USB cable that the computer uses to connect to the device - thought it might make it look more piratey :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate12.jpg
Here is what it will look like when everything is all connected up. It looks pretty cool. Arr, better than just a solid color wire me thinks!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate13.jpg
I was/am unsure of how to terminate the ends however. I want it to look piratey but be effective at the same time so that it doesn't fray over time. Right now I just shrink wrapped it in place. If anyone has any ideas, please voice them.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate14.jpg
I have a 6 foot cable here and ordered just 6 feet of cable sleeving. That was fine and all until I realized that when the sleeving is widened out to fit a wire through it, it shortens in length just a bit. Unfortunately now my sleeving is about 6 inches too short. No worries though, I figure I'll just use this as the end that I connect to the back of the computer with since no one will see it anyways.

And that's it for now again. All I am waiting on is the right angle USB adapter for inside the chest. Hopefully it will be in tomorrow or the day after so I can finish this thing.

On an off topic note, I went and saw Pirates 3 again for a second time last night :) It was even better the second time around. So as your Captain, I suggest if you haven't seen it yet, go! And better yet, go twice, it will make more sense the second time around! ARRR! :)

[Darth Invader]

I liked the idea... Really an ideal box to save a hd with valuable data!
However this box for being wooden, is not it going to heat very and do it to pledge HD? Or do you intend to add fans to assist in the refrigeration?

Hugs, and I'm observing!

Darth

[DeathCrush]

I was wondering about that, we were discussing on the heat issue earlier. I will probably end up putting some stick on heatsinks on the drive to aid in the cooling that I have used in the past that work well.

[xmastree]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate12.jpg
Here is what it will look like when everything is all connected up. It looks pretty cool.
Cool, yes. But that wire doesn't look piratey at all. It's too shiny and high tech. It ought to be a rusty anchor chain, or a rope.

Could you find some three stranded rope, with the strands about the size of the cable? You might be able to unravel one strand and 'weave' the usb cable back in its place. Then paint it up to look old and scabby.

Or, I remember seeing some rope with a woven out wrapped round a central core. Remove the core and pass the outer over the cable like you did with the stainless.

Then, for the ends, whip them (http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/sar/nsm-msn/images/pi_chap_5y_e.gif).

[DeathCrush]

Arr! Tis' be completed! The USB cable came in today so I was able to finish everything this afternoon. Here are the final pictures:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate15.jpg
All closed up and ready to go (fitting enough, the POTC At World's End soundtrack is sitting behind it :)). It looks like a regular pirate treasure chest but...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate16.jpg
...on the inside is a harddrive, ARR!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate17.jpg
Just a quick closeup of the POTC locket that covers the USB connector.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/pirate18.jpg
A final picture showing the chest. Arr!

All in all, this was a fun little project. Its main purpose is just going to be to store all of my piratey stuff such as pirate music and my Monkey Island games. Don't worry though, nothing was "pirated" everything is legal that will be in this :)

Since I'm running (and have been running since I was a kid) Linux, I am going to make an ext3 partition to store everything on it. Not that anyone really cares, just figured I would share.

If anyone has any questions or comments or whatever, feel free to post them. Constructive criticism is always allowed. I actually did get a little metal skull and cross swords pendant that I plan on putting on the other side of the chest to help balance the two sides out, so I will be sure to add the pictures when I get it done.

[NocturnaL]

Although i hate pirates, i must admit this is a cool mod. I like the idea you have for the input. (Ninjas ftw)

[psychowit]

nice :D Won't it overheat though???

[simon275]

Question

nice :D Won't it overheat though???

Answer

I was wondering about that, we were discussing on the heat issue earlier. I will probably end up putting some stick on heatsinks on the drive to aid in the cooling that I have used in the past that work well.

[DeathCrush]

Haha, thank you simon, you're one step ahead of me :) As far as those heatsinks go, I still have yet to put them on (actually I haven't even bought them yet) BUT at the same time, the drive hasn't overheated or anything. So who knows if I will or not.

[XxRiddleOutxX]

im just saying. wont it get hot in there?