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/

[squee2088]

You, sir, are a legend! Very clever

[glargod]

Made myself one, but single USB cuz I didn't had a HUB (Sad :( ... ). It took me about 2hrs, precision working (something that I never do >.> ) and the result is that on the picture. Been using a old silly Acer 383.74MB HDD from an Old IBM computer, took off the board and all the internal component and fixed with electrical tape the usb on a usb extender cable that I had. Putted all the panels on with the board so it looks like a real HDD that haven't been touched at all, and removed the sticker's on the top and putted some of the tape I used for decoration. Result? 4GB "External Hard Disk Drive" (USB in ^.^)

[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...

[phil0083]

You would have to mount the adapter outside of the drive or at least hang out the antenna side of it. If you were to put a wifi usb adapter into the metal hard drive chassis and close it up, you wouldn't be able to get a signal with it sitting right next to the router. I do think it would be wonderful to do this but metal is just too dense for radio wave to pass through it effectively.

[jamwaffles]

Would soldering/connecting the antenna to the case work?

[phil0083]

Me personally I don't think it would work because that's way too much metal to run the signal through. But hey I haven't tested that theory, so you could certainly try if you wanted to. I think your best chance would be to drill out a hole on the side or top, solder a wire to the adapter, run it out the hole and tape or glue it down to the HDD chassis. the antenna doesn't necessarily have to be standing up, it'll still perform well like that as well. Note: if your going to do this I wouldn't recommend doing it on the bottom just to hide the antenna because If you lay it on a table or even worse, lay it on something metal, then it would still be like encasing it in metal mostly and would get poor to most likely no reception

[jamwaffles]

good point. thanks, although i'm not going to try this project in the near future. doesnt stop it being good though :) james

[phil0083]

no problem, now what would be awsome is if you could drill out one of the sides for the ports and slap an Nvidia Ion board in there. Although i think the space would be to small height wise but it still would be cool none the less.

[jamwaffles]

it would be cool, even though i dont know what an Nvidia Ion is. i take it it's a tiny single board pc of some sort?

[aiden120000]

it's basically an Intel atom on a pico itx. It would easily fit inside a hollowed out hard drive

[jamwaffles]

yeah. thought it was something like that. a really cool mod would be to get an HDD, and if there wasn't enough space vertically, mould or shape some sort of metal or plastic enclosure that was the shape of the protruding components, and then paint it all black

[sspence]

Great instructable. Here is an article on making them into a raid array: http://linuxgazette.net/151/weiner.html

[beebee342]

人才啊，太浪费了

[brim5player]

you should find a way so that you can actually use the memory dfrom the harddrive instead instead of usb's so then you could have up to 400GB of memory......but all in all that is a good idea for a large amount of memory

[darkmagician66699]

(removed by author or community request)

[sbacon]

this is a wonderful instructable because it is in the true spirit of making

[MichelMoermans]

Because we can!

And because it's cool, it's a nice conversationstarter when you're working on your computer in public and you take out your hard drive usb stick. Immediatly people will go like "what's that?" "I didn't know you could plug a harddrive into a computer just like that" and so on.

Another example. Why would someone make a bender from futurama computer case. There is no point in it since it doesn't make it more practical or anything. But still thousands of people go like "man that's cool, I'm going to do that too"

And that's the spirit of instructables. Showing people how to do stuff either that are easier,cheaper or just plain cooler :D

Nothing is to crazy for instructables!

[gmgfarrand]

"WHY????!!!!!!"
You are on the wrong site for a question like that. ;)

The correct answer would be, why not?

[willrandship]

I don't even need to read the message! The comments afterwards tell me exactly what it says!

[ejms2010]

Wow how creative! but is it safer to shocks? hehe just askin' But really, creative in recylable way hi hi

[chansainlong]

Nice. rotflol..

[BoomN]

Ups.. nice example, I like it & will try next time... good job

[erickrodas]

this is a bummer man I like it :-)

[jobergy]

lol i think it is a bummer, iwas really hoping it would be a cheap fix for an external hard drive ...but no u gotta be a sneaky basterd and hide flashdirves in there lol, nice but not what i was hoping for. 

[desaad37]

a "Bummer" in America is a Bad thing. lol. Like, "I just lost $20. Bummer!"

[desaad37]

Not sure if someone has mentioned this or not, but they are coming out with 128GB USB Drives. Once their price drops, this would be a perfect plan. Maybe even cooler if there's some type of software that can RAID them all into one drive.

[jacob5680]

 Just like my 2 gig, 4 gig, and 16 gig jump drives, I'll have that 128 full within the first day. ^_^ I like to take ALL my applications with me.

[Pyro Fiend]

They are coming out with terabyte flash drives, which is freakin' incredible.

[maboesanman]

 they're coming out with 32 gb MICRO SD cards, which is even more frikin incredible

[charliehorse107]

bla bla blo blo blo who nothing to do!!! I think I can spent more free time , and do the same by not killing HDD!!!

[junits15]

umm who dosn't have ( or at least have access to) a dead HDD?

[n0mmo]

 it was a dead HDD… you can't kill something that's already dead.

[kidproquo]

you can, you just have to destroy the brain

[student.mckinney]

Aim for the spinal cord.... Shotguns are preferred.

[Father Christmas]

hmm really? i just use stale fruitcake...

[student.mckinney]

Stale fruitcake? Wow, I didn't know it got stale. Usually fruitcake doesn't expand on impact like a deer slug. You could use last year's candy corn in place of 000 buckshot, "them things is wicked." Or so they say...

[Father Christmas]

lol. You have just managed to outwit me. Congratulations.

[student.mckinney]

Were the elves on a break when you wrote that first comment? 'Cause I've always heard that they are the brains of the operation in the North Pole. All in good fun, right?

[Father Christmas]

Ah, but with only a few months left till Christmas, the elves will not start work until late November. They work better under pressure.

[student.mckinney]

And that's where the fruitcake and candy corn really comes in handy... "But boss, my little hands can't work any faster than this." "Shut up or I'll fire! I ain't afraid to get a little blood on my hands, that's why the suit's red!"

[Father Christmas]

haha You know me so well...

[xadevox]

gosh... violent christmas conversation... even for father christmas.... hahahahaha

[Father Christmas]

do you not know the true spirit of christmas? BLOODSHED!

[shostakovich]

oh good.. it's fun no nose low Power HDD drive.

[Junkyardmaster14]

nice one to blind your friends that you made a real hdd usb without using an hdd enclosure!! they will tought that you improvised and they will be amazed but inside is just a usb hub and some usb's .. but nice one there :)

[CKOD]

I bet the sound windows makes as it mounts a hub and 4 drives is lovely... :) dundunk... dundundundundunk

[Mandela]

lol !

[Lilmix]

LOL, Can hear it now... as well as being removed

[i1982]

Funny, but unusual. I prefer to use these pen drives without case. Anyway, It´s cool to geeks!

[mtu123s]

thank u nice job

[varocha]

lolol is fun but stupid same time any way thank for give a smile!

[ben_k]

This was in issue 17 of Make: magazine, except in the magazine they configured the flash drives to act as one drive.

[comkid]

That's cool.

[osama_]

I have some dead hard drives, even SD and MMC readers can be used, fantastic!

[RealMcKye]

pretty cool! love the idea, i will be trying it :P

[albest13]

(removed by author or community request)

[lucek]

yeah come on now hdds last at most 12 years if your really lucky.

[mwolfgang]

The very first words of this instructable are:
Using a dead Hard Drive

[daffster13]

So if you're using a dead hard drive then I gues it would be a "Grateful Dead Hard Drive"? Because it's being recycled. ;-P

[Tool Using Animal]

Because Hard Drive NEVER fail, and there's no possibility that someone might have a bad one handy. Not to mention anyone with an old megabyte sized HD could create a 54 Gb array with this.

[mman1506]

my friend brought in a 5 gb hardrive and it was gigactic could probably fit a terabyte in there

[noobiefied]

wut do u mean hard drives never fail? they always fail =.= i got like 50 on me just from my pops servers that are dead...

[Tool Using Animal]

Sarcasm, it is lost on you.

[noobiefied]

sarcasm is hard to detect in text

[lucek]

reminder. ' '=sarcasm in text, but this was blatant. keep in mind from the other side if something sounds like it came from a stupid monkey then 99 times out of 100 its sarcastic.

[Tool Using Animal]

Thank you, I've never been compared to stupid monkey before.

[lucek]

well your name implies a primate, or a crow.

[Tool Using Animal]

"Man is a Tool-using Animal (_Handthierendes Thier_). Weak in himself, and of small stature, he stands on a basis, at most for the flattest-soled, of some half-square foot, insecurely enough; has to straddle out his legs, lest the very wind supplant him. Feeblest of bipeds! Three quintals are a crushing load for him; the steer of the meadow tosses him aloft, like a waste rag. Nevertheless he can use Tools; can devise Tools: with these the granite mountain melts into light dust before him; he kneads glowing iron, as if it were soft paste; seas are his smooth highway, winds and fire his unwearying steeds. Nowhere do you find him without Tools; without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all."

[daffster13]

Touche`

[lucek]

interesting passage. I was just making a joke based off the 2nd and third most handy (beaky?) animals on earth.

[Swert]

It's more appropriately put that sarcasm does not carry over the internet.

[noobiefied]

not always... since text can be also in books papers etc etc. unless they use words that describe the attitude of the person saying it like a long "duhhhhhhhh"
or "of courrrrrrrse" or some other word it would be hard to detect in any kind of text as long as you are not using your ear to catch the changes in the tone of the voice :D ^.

[exoticken]

I got it, and I think it is something I may make . Thanks for the idea.

[oblivtion1]

You could add a usb wifi addapter and some jumpdrives to use with a laptop and store a bunch of info and web pages, or even some games with a couple of 8gigs!

[alex_jines]

i tought its a real hard disk drive trying to connect at usb port! its like hiding usb flash drive inside the HD. No comment.

[Foaly7]

Could you use 8 GB Flash drives and use one to do this or this, and make the other 3 it's other drives?

[bwcbwc]

Seems like it would be a neat prank to take this into the repair department of one of the big-box electronic chains and tell them your 320 GB USB drive is only giving 32 GB (or whatever size). Hilarity ensues as they try to find a replacement part from the HD manufacturer. OTOH, you run the risk that the "technicians" there will hear stuff rattling around inside it and just toss the thing before they realize there isn't a replacement. If you want decent performance out of this thing, one thing to be careful of is the speed of the USB hub. I bought one that was advertised as USB 2.0, but the ports only supported USB 1.1 speeds. With proper multiplexing a good hub should be able to ration the available 2.0 channel to provide (mostly) USB 2.0 speed to the ports.

[Nate53085]

Even better: Add a single compact flash drive since they are a pin for pin duplicate to IDE. Then bring it to the geek squad and look confused.

[sumguysr]

I really like this idea, the way I would do it is to wire the cf card header to a 2x1 digital switch chip, like maxim and 100 other companies sell. Then connect one side to the IDE port and the other to a CF/USB adapter, then connect the trigger for the switch chip to the USB power wires. There you go, IDE/USB dual interface solid state hard drive on the cheap. You don't even have to buy the chip if you sample it.

[Ahmedqatar]

Really creative .. i liked it !

[roystonlodge]

1) You can get even more capacity if you use a 7-port USB hub. 2) It's VERY easy to turn this creation into a RAID, if you use OS X. It's an option built-in to OS X's Disk Utility.

[macyrlivyed]

Very Creative........!