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Open runnning hard drive

video Open runnning hard drive

Ever wondered what was going on inside a working hard drive? Ever wonder how sensitive they are?

23 comments

Apr 11, 2012. 6:38 AMsuvslg says:

Nice video, but not really a great idea to open up a good new hdd. offcourse can enjoy if having a HDD with bad sectors or the drive which may fail shortly. The debris in the air is going to damage the Heads and the Voice Coils.. But anyway a nice video.

Nov 8, 2009. 7:48 PMcomputer_guy says:

I hope that was a cheap or old hard drive...

Mar 31, 2008. 9:18 AM

LinuxH4x0r says:

Sweet! my hard drive was making that same noise! Now I might know what it is! I was considering removing the cover from one and replacing it with glass

Apr 29, 2009. 5:26 PMfreqnout says:

My hard drive is making the same noise and I want to know if there is anything I can do to recover my data?

Apr 1, 2008. 3:15 PMtech-king says:

there is a specific way to do that (case modder secret). im working on a few case mods. if i make a hdd window, i can post an ible

Apr 1, 2008. 4:29 PM

LinuxH4x0r says:

sweet! can't wait!

Mar 31, 2008. 1:53 PM

ac1D says:

i seen this in a computer shop, they had installed a fan on it alo

Mar 31, 2008. 11:27 AMbranedge (author) says:

That would be cool...maybe i can do that next.

Mar 31, 2008. 10:01 AMgamer says:

nice!!! i love how much courage you have, cause i wouldn't open mine when it is running...

Mar 31, 2008. 11:27 AMbranedge (author) says:

thanks...now you don't have to.

Apr 14, 2009. 7:47 AMarirang777 says:

yes, me neither. Now I feel some kind of relief. Thanks Branedge.!

Dec 21, 2008. 4:51 PMAnonyMouse69 says:

hard drives are not completely airtight. ever notice that hole in the cover, with the sticker that says "DO NOT COVER THIS HOLE"? well that hole lets the hard drive breathe, it has a filter under the hole to keep out any dust and lets the air expand inside the drive when it heats up and safely escape. so, the drive is not filled with super clean LAB air, eventually it will have the same air thats inside your computer case due to it breathing.

Nov 6, 2008. 10:27 AMoldsnake says:

Now I wonder if i could switch the plates with other HDDS to recover old files or just to reuse it....

Sep 27, 2008. 7:59 AMNT86 says:

ive always wanted to see what happened when u wrecked a drive in use, thanks for doin this thats awesome!!

Apr 11, 2008. 1:32 PM

dkfa says:

I cant seem to pop the cover off...am I doing it wrong or is there a special hard drive that you used.

Apr 12, 2008. 12:52 PMbranedge (author) says:

if you haven't check under the label of the hard drive there are usually 2 screws under the label. there is also sometimes some tape (silver or black) taping the cover on. may try prying in off with a small flat head screw driver to see where it's hanging. let me know if this doesn't help.

Apr 5, 2008. 5:07 PMlamptablechair says:

Wow! that was cool. Keep the magnets from the old hdd after its unusable. I am told that they are very powerful, and could come in handy for some future project.

Apr 5, 2008. 7:53 PMHammyHavoc says:

They're extremely powerful AND extremely rare earth magnets. They're usable in many things, perhaps even some throwies for the creative amongst us?

Mar 31, 2008. 10:07 AMmrmath says:

I'm going to assume it was one they didn't care about. I wouldn't open a 40 gig drive, but I've got quite a few older less than 1 gig drives I can't think of what to do with besides something like this. Or maybe that wind thing.

Mar 31, 2008. 5:32 PMcomputerwiz_222 says:

Those older drives arent even worth the IDE channel they are connected, nore the electricity they waste lol...

Mar 31, 2008. 12:00 PM

Weissensteinburg says:

Cool! Did the error show up because of the sharpie?

Mar 31, 2008. 12:15 PMbranedge (author) says:

yea, I must admit i do not have a lot of patience..so after the drive was still functioning fine after 10 minutes or so i decided to "help" it out a little. guess i could find another take it apart and see how long it would last. I have a feeling it would last a while untouched.

Mar 31, 2008. 1:45 PMtech-king says:

maybe yes maybe no. the quality of the air in hard drive plants is cleaner than an er. a microscopic spec of dust could cause the wand to hit the platter, ruining the wand or platter.