Project: Hard Drive PC

While waiting for parts to arrive and new ideas to sprout up on my CLOWNED project, I've started another. I'm building a custom case made of Hard Drives. All of the HD's are DEAD. Many are 2GB and below, 1 is the 120GB HD I had in Air Force One that died. My teachers were happy to unload the mounting piles of dead HD's they had and I was happy to take 'em. To start, see the 2 boxes worth of dead HD's I've gotten.

I'm taking off all of the covers on these drives to expose the platters. Some of the screws didn't want to come out so I used my dremel to cut a slit into it making each one removable with a flat head.

Here's some samples of the covers off.

First I laid them all next to eachother to align the holes already on the bottom.

I'm creating my own brackets to join all of the drives together. This piece used to be the vent of an old PSU. As of now, there will be six HD's for each panel platters facing out with plexi covering them.

Then I used some mesh to join them all together.

Lastly I screwed on the first sheet of plexi. I'll need to buy more for the rest of the case.

heh..this is gonna be an intersting case....i love the idea

heh... sounds like your kind of project, TGS. Looking forward to this one.

Reminds me of the case fan mod.

interesting...don't think it will look anything other than novel, unique idea

that’s one way to recycle :rolleyes: only thing I would do different is make the disks alternate in a pattern one up one down then up again but I'm obsessive compulsive so don’t take it to heart :D

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only thing I would do different is make the disks alternate in a pattern one up one down then up again

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I think it looks best the way it is-a pattern would be too obvious. This is a great idea, I can't wait to see this finished.

-Dave

I bet that thing'll way a ton when it's finished!

Looks great so far.

That one with multiple platters would make a good clock

And why bother with all the fiddly brackets? Wouldn't it be easier and neater just to screw them all to the perspex sheet?

Gonna power them up? If you could repeatedly reset them, the heads would all dance...

Hey, Dave, what about all those magnets? Bwahahahaha...

They are DEAD. They don't spin at all

Just because they don't "function" doesn't mean they won't spin. have you tried connecting them directly to power just to make them spin? Either way, project looks hopeful.

The head or the platter are the parts most likely to die on a HD, not the motors, so try powering some up and see what happens. You could hook the power up to a transistor, and the HD indicator from your motherboard to the Base; so when your computer accesess your HD, all your HD's go crazy!

You'll probably want to install a switch too cos the novelty will wear off after about 10 seconds. Great for LAN partys, if you ever drag the case there ;)

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Hey, Dave, what about all those magnets? Bwahahahaha...

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Meh...you guys calmed me down. I don't jump the gun so much with the "Get that Phone away from my computer! Don't you know there's a teeny-tiny MAGNET in that?!?! Dear god man/woman!" ;)

-Dave

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Originally Posted by tybrenis

Just because they don't "function" doesn't mean they won't spin. have you tried connecting them directly to power just to make them spin? Either way, project looks hopeful.

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I have a 2Gb Western Dightal HDD lying somewhere around, and I think I may have killed it (Pentium1 + Windows 95 + Bios Defaults + Auto Sleep Mode = Death), it DOES spin but makes some harsh noises and I dont think the computer still can access files in it (it makes harsh noises and the bios detects it, but nothing more, it wont boot W95), I may transform it in a clock if it still happen to spin without much noise :D

Thanks alot for that link xmastree!!! :D

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Originally Posted by DaveW

The head or the platter are the parts most likely to die on a HD, not the motors, so try powering some up and see what happens. You could hook the power up to a transistor, and the HD indicator from your motherboard to the Base; so when your computer accesess your HD, all your HD's go crazy!

You'll probably want to install a switch too cos the novelty will wear off after about 10 seconds. Great for LAN partys, if you ever drag the case there ;)



Meh...you guys calmed me down. I don't jump the gun so much with the "Get that Phone away from my computer! Don't you know there's a teeny-tiny MAGNET in that?!?! Dear god man/woman!" ;)

-Dave

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Another good idea on what to do with an hard disk! Interesting idea! :D

Here is an interesting idea. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I can't find a really cheap 6 inch HD.

http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/hd...hdspeakers.htm

I fixed the HD's

I finished the second side.

And I have two done.

Next I have to make them connect somehow....maybe with mesh. Then I'll mount at least two drives to the top.

I liked the random look myself, but this is still going to look really good.

Wow dude, this come is really going to weight a lot ;) Nice job!

To put them together, I would make two little "L" shaped piece of acrylic. Just cut a strip the size you want, and then bend it using a heatgun. Then, either glue it to each joint you want using a solvent glue, like IPS weld-on, or just drill a hole through each side and put a screw/bolt in there.

I'm just trying to get an idea of what the case may look with the top on. Nothing has been connected just yet. With the top drives sitting on the ends of the side drives I'll lose at least an inch, so I'll have to connect them at a lower point.

Pretty crazy, TGS. Definately your style. I like it.

Any Plans for the front panel?

-Dave

Still looking into that...

I decided to use mesh to connct the sides to the top. This is not final. I may change it.

And it's all connected. The top glass looks blurry because I haven't removed the protective film yet.

I have this tiny micro ATX I may use to wrap the HD's around. That way I'll have support and already made I/O ports.

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you got dead mobos hanging on the wall, and a computer made from hard disks...
Barking! :)

Mad????

I know this is a work in progress, and that you won't be done until it looks right, but I can't help thinking that this mod looks really messy somehow. Idk how to put my finger on it. It just looks like something isn't right about it.

I'm sure you'll figure it out.

It's the three pieces of plexi. I'm working on getting just one curved piece.

I laid the drives on top of the case to get an idea of the width required. As you can see the drives aren't as long as the case is wide. If I do go with the case for mounting the drives, then what sould be in this gap? Should I maybe paint it Silver or chrome to match?

You could cut some PCBs to fill it in. I think you could get power to the HDDs and have the heads move and stuff. Did you ever check out the link I gave?

Here it is again so you don't have to look.
http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/hd...hdspeakers.htm

I repositioned the HD's on top so that they are side-by-side just as Boddaker @ Gruntville thought of. Luckily I still had one drive left for the top. Now there are 4 on top instead of the previous 3; In total there are 16 drives on the case, thus far.

I set one of the sides next to the case so you can see how it'll look when complete.

Looks kick-ass. Definately a unique mod.

-Dave

TGS, instead of the exposed mesh on the corners, why not use IDE cable? Alternating between the light grey and the black IDE's between there would make a nice striped pattern, and add to the effect.

Cool unique mod mate, i like it, it kinda looks "Mad Max-ish", like a pc all made from junk but works perfectly inside. COOL.

An idea...why stop at HD's, id get loads of old pc spares to fill the gaps like circuit boards BIG old capacitors poking out here n there. It'l look wicked looking a bit battered.

I'll be watching this one

Lookin' good! At the end though, I want to see what it weighs. Before this is done you have to put this sucker on the scale... :p :p

I maked off the sides so I could make some cuts. The screws will go from the inside throght the mesh and then into to the mounting holes on the drives. This way they'll be securely attached to the sides.

After I attached the sides I set up the top to connect those drives too.

Then I screwed on the nuts and cut off the excess.

The top and sides are attached. :D

Now to plan the front. I'm using 2 drives side-by-side at the bottom. I will also be disguising the power button.

I was worried because I had run out of useable dead drives, when I found an old box!

That's gotta be really friggin' heavy with all those HDs on it.

mind sending me the tops to all those HD's you opened?

PM me your address, I'll see how many haven't already been put out in the trash.