DIY USB "Hard Drive"

Using a dead Hard Drive, a 4-port USB hub, and a few Flash Drives, we will kill some time and get a few laughs from anyone seeing you use this.

**NOTE**
You guys can see MAKE magazine's rip-off article of my project at:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/03/weekend_project_flash_memory_hard_d_1.html

Thanks for the credit MAKE, I really appreciate it....

Step 1 Find a candidate.

Any Hard Drive should do..

Comments

[Quazaka]

I must say that this comes out very cool, here is mine :P

[frenzy]

have great news!

This posting has won today's "I Made It" Challenge. For winning you will receive a 3 month pro membership!

Thanks for using instructables!

http://www.instructables.com/community/June-is-I-Made-It-Challenge-Month-Win-a-Pro-Mem/

[porschedude]

I can see some fun with this one, what if you used the normal connection to the HD and made a cable to adapt the IDE Data Cable end and power connector to a USB. Most people would think it was no big deal since we have seen adapters for a lot of things, but the more geek the person is, they are going to wonder what it is...LOL

[skeetshooter11]

i painted mine in a painted cardboard holder

[sokamiwohali]

hahaha...you had me going there for a second...i thought you jerry-rigged the HDD just the way it was by just soldering a few wires from the USB Cable into the HDD...i sure didnt see the USB hub and flash drives coming...Great Instructable!!

[daguilar4]

ha this is to cool but I do have to lol @ everyone getting all tec and not seeing it as a working joke lol, I can see all the Baristas at starbucks freaking at the portable hd lol, how bout a hd in a pepsi can lol just saying

[gmgfarrand]

Thought about using a can... It needs to be more structurally sound...

[MadScientist101]

Why do you use USB drives, would it not be possible to run the actual hard drive?awsome idea anyway though!

[seerixprojex]

USB doesn't supply enough power to run a 3.5 inch drive, but it would for a laptop (2.5") drive in most cases. But a DIY for that would be a little pointless because you can get a 2.5" enclosure packaged and ready to go for around $10 these days. Good question though!

[chevy62]

couldn't you use a normal 20gb hard drive and figure way to use that 20gb as a flash drive so you can have that as a portable 20gb flash drive

[seerixprojex]

There is one thing you could do, you could get one of those USB drive adapters that uses an AC adapter to supply the power needed to spin up a 3.5 inch drive.

[chevy62]

i need a link to do it i am not sure what you are saying but i also do know what you mean if you get what i am trying to say

[seerixprojex]

I know exactly what you mean. Here is a link to one of many brands available. This one might be a little expensive ($35) because it is so universal, meaning it supports so many types of drives. So keep in mind that this is not the cheapest method to accomplish making a spare 3.5 inch drive into a portable USB drive. A basic external USB enclosure is way cheaper, I've seen them on sale for $10. But what's nice about this device is you can use it to connect many types of drives via USB without the enclosure.

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php

[riekard]

so...does anyone know where to get dirt cheap flash drives???

[bendog38]

CVS

[rebelgrunt]

ebay???

[Theadamjacob]

Ebay

[shenzer]

nowdays flash drives are 4gb for 10 so its pretty cheap

[uberdum05]

Ebay or dealextreme :)

[menababu]

most of time i get good deal from buy.com
check out here http://www.ezbz.in//2t8

[kenith1999]

Staples is offering 4 gig drives this week for $6.95 each

[nabukadnazar]

in china :)

[irishjim68]

Wal Mart

[TSC]

Walmart does not sell flash drives cheap! Microcenter  is way cheaper!

[neivadan]

ya i know u can get em at staples,future shop,best buy,u can even make ur own.

[riekard]

cool, but i wanna try and make my own, how would i go about it?? what do i need?

[Nxtfari]

um, thats what the instructions are for

[riekard]

...this build doesnt mention anthing about makin your own flash drives

[Nxtfari]

Oh, sorry, I thought you said you wanted to make the USB Hard Drive. To make your own flash drive would be pretty hard. I mean, Its got over 100 pieces that have to be soldered together perfectly on a circuit board. You'd be better off buying one. They're like $10 for a pack of three.

[willrandship]

Go to sciplus.com and you can get some incredibly cheap 512MB ones.

[flame boyyyy]

512 is as much as my old desktops ram size and it is pretty slow dont go with 512 man.

[hightekrednek2396]

512 wont get you very far with any thing i got a 4gb microsd and other accesories came withit at target

[lperkins]

With most flavours of Linux actually, although the difficulty varies quite a lot. And they don't all *need* to be the same size, but you might lose access to some capacity if they're not.

[supercrazytutorials]

hye i was learned that if u  expose a gard drive to air it wil be dameged! how did u open it and then it worked?

[lperkins]

If you open a hard drive outside of a class three clean room, you'll get dust in it, which will cause it to wear out faster. It will still work just fine for quite a while usually though. Opening them up and replacing parts is one method for recovering data off of failing drives.

[sbacon]

the drive is already dead

[castothomas]

as long as you don't touch the disks, the drive will be just fine. whoever told you about the air damaging the drive if opened simply didn't want you to do it, or forgotten to mention dust particles in the air. have a good one.

[tyler9613]

Honestly, it would help if you read (or reread) the 'ible.

He is not using the hard drive. He is merely using the HDD enclosure to house a hub with USB flash drives in it.

[Tapeplayer]

yes tyler9613 is right. He is only using the HDD case for the enclosure.

[alpe_97]

I bought one two days ago. I'm excited!