DIY USB "Hard Drive"

Step 7 Button it up.

Replace the cover to the Hard Drive, and plug in!

Now you will have a "new" Flash Drive that will be sure to get some comments.

Also, there is a way, I haven't done it, but with a certain flavor of Linux, you can install Linux onto all 4 of the Flash drives in a RAID configuration, assuming you have all the same capacities.

Have fun!

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

[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

[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.

[Miles Tails Prower]

Ah, sadly you are just putting flash drives in it... I thought that the harddisk was still inside.

[larry459714]

(removed by author or community request)

[Maniacy]

Yeah you see that's not the point: It looks neat, you can't loose it and it's a conversation-starter... it has increased stability over a 'real' HD... using a real HD without a case, with exposed electronics, powering it over USB would be kinda stupid (and impossible with USBs 100mA@5V) Cool project!

[mmeeker]

i made a converter box to use an actual HD

[fogman103]

you should make an 'ible on how to make the converter box, it'd be cool.

[WhiteWolf McBride]

Um... I bought a ~terabyte~ 2.5" USB drive a few weeks ago. Never say never these days... Then again, Gates was the one that said “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” (1981) so anyone can make a mistake about technology these days. I was a tech back in the early 90's (back went kablooie from a cracked L3 and deadlifting stamp-steel PC cases) and remember when having a gigabyte SCSI was the rage. Took up full height bays, they did. I never thought I'd fill a terabyte drive in my desktop when I bought it 4 months ago, filled it in 3, now I'm looking at a 2 TB for $110. And I'll probably move to a wireless mouse and keyboard very soon as well. WhiteWolf

[larry459714]

(removed by author or community request)

[Miles Tails Prower]

Maybe! But I do not have a hard-disk... But anyway, it can have much storage space. A single flash drive is available up to 16 GB, 16 GBx4 is MASSIVE: 54 GB of storage space. Now that's what I call quantity.

[larry459714]

(removed by author or community request)

[tiermaster]

yeah.

4 x 36 = 144, so it can give you a quite 144gig harddrive.
But it wouldnt be cheap or fast.

[sensoryhouse]

hey noobs the point on this 'ible is that it looks like a bare hard drive knocking around on the desktop. it's supposed to be funny. it's meant to be a conversation starter, not a replacement for your raid setup.

[phant0m_sp00f3ra]

don't bother in explaining the magic to them, if they didn't got it the first time they won't get pass the n00blet state soon

[pembo210]

XD!!

[mukek]

LOL

[wizzywoo]

Sorry to sound noobish but wouldnt it show up as 4 usb drives not just 1 ?

[Koil_1]

This is a very good point. You can install Linux on a flash drive and boot from it. With a WiFi adapter and a couple 16 gig sticks this could be a pretty sweet way of getting in and on without getting caught. To be used for "legal stuff only" of course...

[kvswim]

Of course for legal things...Ubuntu will run off of an emulator shell in Windows but is painfully slow in the emulator....

[lukeshu]

Why Ubuntu? There are plenty of light-weight distros that run fine in an emulator. Slax, Puppy, DSL, pendrivelinux.

[klingoncowboy4]

wouldn't the metal in the case cause problems with wifi

[phil0083]

I doubt you'd be able to use this setup in a corporate setting since I would imagine you would have to have a password to get into the bios and change the boot sequence to boot from usb. but if you really wanted to get into someones personal computer (since I imagine that they most likely don't have a password set in their bios) then yea this would be totally feasible. I thought was funny, yet effective, that at my dads work all the computers there, the usb ports had been filled with epoxy resin. He worked at a bank at the time so you could see why they would do that. Then again all IT could of done was delete the drivers for the usb host controllers rendering them inoperable without ruining the usb ports and you would have needed administrative rights to reinstalling the the drivers again which most employees don't have access to. (much less know how to go about reinstalling them, lol)

[mman1506]

im not sure if the boot sequence is locked up, or if it canbe because no boot sequence no os

[phil0083]

the boot sequence will only lock up if the cmos is corrupted or there is a critical hardware failure.

[cgosh]

I read about a security test that peppered two dozen USB thumb drives (with a keylogger program that self-installed) around a bank (parking lot, smokers' area, picnic table, etc.). Nearly all of them were plugged into bank PC's, where they proceeded to upload lots of data to an internet server (especially passwords) after each user tried to see what was on them. This was a test, so no actual data was lost, but this homemade virus was easy to 'install.' I can see why a bank would simply plug the holes and be done with it. It's cheap and effective.

[bengerszewski]

you can reset the bios by removing the CMOS battery

[phil0083]

This is true. But also most cases or at least some have a slot for a lock so that you can't gain access to the hardware inside, unless you want to cut that lock.

[cincodenada]

That's true, but the tab that the lock is on is usually about a half-millimeter thick, and easily dispatchable with the most basic of wire cutters, and most certainly a small pair of tinsnips. Physical access IS root access - there is no way around it, just ways to delay it briefly.

[phil0083]

I know that, but then someone will know that computer has been compromised.

[bengerszewski]

every computer i've ever seen doesnt have a lock on it...