HDD Full Cover Window Mod

    They said it couldn't be done.... SO of course I had to try it... and guess what? IT WORKED!  Well, I have decided to attempt to replace the cover of a hard drive with Plexi glass, to show the spinning and movements etc.  Oh, and you can click the pics to see a BIG picture.

    The victim is an old Western Digital Caviar HDD 1281.9 MB

    Ok course it has Torx screws in it, No big deal!

    We don't want the drive platters to get dusty do we?  Have to store it in a DUST FREE environment!

    So I went and bought two pieces of 8x10 plexi, 1/8 inch thick.

    Well it turns out I did not really need two pieces, I got three pieces out of one.  The idea I came up with was layers of Plexi, because if you look at the inside cover it is cut out, for the various parts of the drive... and I am re-using the original screws, so I am using layer 1 as the bottom layer which will hold the cover on when all layers are glued together....

    Here are pics of layer one after an hour of so of fiddling around with it.

    Ok, that fits fine on the drive (tested it of course)... on to layer 2, cut for platter and arm.

    Next will be gluing them together, with of course WELDBOND!

    Best adhesive in the world, dries crystal clear and you will see in the finished product.  Next comes actually gluing them together, used a cheapie paint brush top apply, the glue has the consistency of Elmer's School Glue... here are pics with clamps in place.  I put the screws in, to make sure the holes lined up, takes approx 1 hour to dry, I realize now I need to buy more Spring clamps...

    Now layer 3, top layer... I did a little Creative etching also before holes for screws.

    Ok, now I made a mistake... sort of my fault, I guess I should have been paying better attention, I was supposed to buy CLEAR silicone caulk, but someone stuck a WHITE tube in with the clear stuff, and OF COURSE I grabbed the white!  And this fact I didn't realize until I opened the tube.  So I used it anyway, it doesn't look that bad and when it fully dries I will shave the bumps/ridges down a little bit.  Normally on HDD's the blow hole/breather hole is on the top, but this was in the side so I put the hole in the same place this time also.  You really can't see the hole but if you look close you can...  But here are pics assembled and caulked, let it dry for a while and then POWER it up and see!!!

     HAHAHAHAHA I did it!  Here is POST shot, recognizing drive...

    and here is Windows Disk MGMT shot, with drive reading as HEALTHY!

    Here is short video of the drive in action and a group of pics taken later after I cleaned the drive up, trimmed caulk etc...

    OK.. and that's that for that!

    I will be doing another, bigger drive mod soon, now I know exactly how to do it!

HAPPY MODDING!

- Guide written by Dracos

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