Apple Disk II floppy drive reincarnated as a USB hard disk enclosure

While walking the corridors to my university office, I ran into a treasure trove, piled in the hallway as discarded old junk. One of the gems was an Apple Disk II floppy drive. I seized it, nostalgia pulsing in me, and lovingly breathed life back into it. It is again a disk drive of sorts. The transformation into a USB enclosure was very simple, but still a somewhat lengthy process.

Step 1 Gut it.

This was a broken unit, but I still felt awful gutting it. Once I started, I felt nostalgic again when I read the date on the circuit board, and that made me feel better. Unfortunately, I didn't photograph the demolition process, so use your imagination here. (Here's a link to one with the case open.) What's shown is the box open, gutted, and a portion of the bottom aluminum cut off to give us more space. I had to cut that portion of aluminum off because it was raised and held the stepper motor that spun floppy disks. The two leads you see are from the original red activity ("in use") LED on the bottom left corner of the front of the unit.

You want to remove everything, but very carefully. There are a lot of re-usable components here, including creative decorations for some of your other projects. We want to preserve the floppy drive door action mechanism as much as possible. Luckily, that's easy. But unfortunately, I didn't photograph it and can't find a suitable image on the net. You will find it in successive steps, though already attached.

Comments

[leather]

where did you get the 4 inch ide extension?

[Crucio]

I got it from a place called Atlantic ComputerTech.
In retrospect, I'd advise a 5" cable or even 6" as 4" is a little tight.

[lemonie]

Nice! Is the drive screwed-down or otherwise fixed in place? L

[Crucio]

Thanks! No, but it's kept from moving about by the door and cables. I keep mine in the house, so it doesn't need anything more. But if you will be transporting yours regularly, you should consider securing it better. And perhaps using a 2.5" drive, since those are much more rugged.

[lemonie]

OK. I like the "Drive 1" label, I don't suppose there was a "Drive 2"? L

[Crucio]

I assume you mean in the hallway. Nope, just this one drive. I wish there was more, though. The boxes are really sturdy, and so if you have two or three, you can use them as platform bases for, say, a printer or monitor.

[lemonie]

I think they were originally intended to prop the monitor? L

[gmjhowe]

Yes, i love this idea! We did something similar at work. The enclosure is maybe just big enough to fit in a two drive raid.

[Crucio]

There's plenty of room if you're willing to sacrifice the door. In that case, you can ditch most of the aluminum cage entirely, and get even more room. A really nice alternative mod for this case could include a 2.5" HDD and a slim profile trayless sliding DVD burner. The USB->IDE/SATA adapter I'm using supports the simultaneous use of both IDE and SATA, so no extra hardware is needed.

[cflowers]

Very nice instructable! I featured it on The Daily Hack. Keep up the great work!

[Crucio]

Thanks for the honor!