3.5" HDD Secret Safe

This little project was one that resulted in me not having the right parts.
I was attempting to make a "USB HDD" by shoving a USB Hub and Flash drive together inside a gutted out HDD. But the hub didn't fit... so I was left with an empty shell.

This HDD swings open on a single screw, and can house tons of objects. If you have parts lying around you house, nobody would suspect a thing. You can even close it up, and insert it into a PC drive bay, the PC won't detect it, it will just slide and lock into place, close up your PC case and BAM, you have extra security.

Lets get started.

Step 1 Find a suitable HDD

I used a broken 40gb Maxtor drive I had lying in my parts bin.

Make sure you have the right screw driver for the job.
Mine was held together by 6 torx screws, and one smaller sized torx that was a pain to get out.

Heres what mine looked like before I gutted it:

Comments

[jimbo-g]

You could shear the thread off of one of the bolts and use as a drop in pin to hold the cover in place. or maybe carefully remove the thread leaving a few turns at the top of the shank so to open it you can just unscrew with a thumbnail

[hemmikarl]

"BE CAREFUL. DO NOT leave them near CRT Monitors, you will completely DESTROY them." That is actually not correct... the magnets magnetise the crt tube and the electron beam deflects due to the incorrect magnetic field in the screen but many screens hava a feature that takes all the charge out of the crt tube and that usually fixes them.

[creat0r]

is that why when magnets rolled against the side of my laptop screen went black? and then it came out normal? :P

[Kingsley721]

Of course, its a simple degauss feature, but just for safeties sake, I don't want any problems, haha.

[aj0my0lizard]

nice save

[geckomage]

If you want some criticism.. here it is. you did a good job :) nice, simple, straight forward, provided all the steps in enough detail that even someone who had no idea what harddrives were could do this project. keep up the good work.

[jimmyz311]

should ad a magnet and a piece of thin steel to the inside top of the lid, so that when turned closed, it stays together better.

[Furball_Fidelis]

yea..but i'd be careful if you put your wallet in there if you did that..the magnet might erase your credit and debit cards...

neat instructable though....too bad I don't have any old HDDs to use..

[geckomage]

he removed the magnets <3

[mithandir]

And then cut the heads off of the missing screws. Then glue the screw heads onto the top cover over the holes. That way it would not be obvious that screw are missing.

[Kingsley721]

Just thought I'd share another use for it... Candy dish! I poured a whole bag of M&M's in there... yum..

[Zanaji]

This is awesome :)

[flame boyyyy]

ya know if someone breaks in your house then they would see the hdd (asuming it works) and take it....getting a better prize ....Your wallet......lol

[buckminsterfullerene]

You know those magnets you found? Well, im collecting them so eventually i can use them to let me climb up smooth metal surfaces. i have 8 and i need about 20... just one can hold up my entire toolbox and i also need 6 more hard drives

[Fieldownage]

 You have to post a video of you climbing on metal surfaces when you get to do so...

[grue]

they tried on mythbusters, it failed

[Andy-K]

You could just buy a few broken hard drives on e-bay. They always have deals on those, and they are usually pretty cheap. I like the idea though.

[buckminsterfullerene]

oh, yeah, i already bought a bunch of powerful NIB magnets from someplace online. Im currently working on them. They total in 600 lbs of holding force, just enough to safely hold up 150 lbs of human meat. :P   (600/4 = 150)

[BigMikeDog]

thats a good idea but the problem is moving them up the wall you would have to pull with 600lbs of forse to get them off un less you used an elactromagnit but i dont know how much they ca hold but its a good idea that you got

[arduinoe]

got to your local dodgy computer shop, somewhere small will have boxes of dead hard drives.

[sleep_deprived]

You should cut the heads from the remaining screws and glue them in place.  This way when someone looks at the drive, it appears to be completely intact.  Just an idea.

[junits15]

just a little help, the plates are called platters, and the arm is called the read write head.

[Supersnail]

The arm is actually called the actuator arm. The heads reside on the slider at the end of the arm.

Don't know why, but just thinking about it makes me hungry for Corned Beef and Cabbage.

[junits15]

lol!

[Nykus79]

Nice idea... but hard drive is value more than wallet. they could just grab hard drive. Then found your wallet in it

[sayoian99]

I have the SAME exact drive!hmm.
^-

[noobererer]

ME TOO! its not in use but its on the desk right beside me lol

[sayoian99]

mine was in a really bad old Dell which pissed me off a LOT...

[noobererer]

lol nice...i took mine outta of really old pc lol, and Dells really blow...they use like the cheapest parts for the computers and sell them like 3x's as much as it cost to make em

[fordman15243]

I actually have a kickass Dell computer... (yes it has ALOT of ram that I added after i bought it and so on) but it has held up for me very well.

[noobererer]

yea they have some good computers but ive had 2 like 500-700 $ dell computers and they both crapped out on me, and they also werent even very good to begin with

[fordman15243]

ours was around 500 and one gig of ram then we added three more and it worked like a dream, and it's a gaming PC so it has all fast replacements parts, it's awesome!

[sayoian99]

I have a Compaq but it has not really failed me yet...I need more RAM cuz all i have is 1gb w/ just 2 slots...I want at least 2 or 4.....but i dont have the money,and neither do my parents...

[noobererer]

go to newegg and u can buy 2 sticks of ram that is 4gb itself and its like $50-$60 i think...the brand is G-skill and my uncle sometimes uses that and says that its a good brand...heres some links

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231207
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145

and there are many more like that...i find buying online is alot cheaper than in stores :P

[sayoian99]

no,litterally we only have $40 until mom's next payday and dad gets a job.(bad economy pulled him out....)

[noobererer]

ouch...yea my dad also got laid off awhile ago so he was off for like a month then went into steel working

[sayoian99]

well my dad was the one who got laid off and he was the one getting more money...so now,i have a seperation on my hands and never enough EXTRA money....it sucks...

[sayoian99]

i think that's what we're going for,but its hard for him...

[fordman15243]

wow... im sorry.... maybe you can get a part time job or something to help with expenses while your dad searches for a job.

[sayoian99]

he is...