How To Take Your Computer Hard Drive Apart Complete guide to destroying/looking inside your hard drive

[tansqrx 0]

I have seen several posts on Xisto asking how to take an old hard drive apart. Your reasons for destroying a drive may vary. For instance you may just be curious or perhaps you are after the extremely powerful Neodymium (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet) magnets inside. If you have never played with really strong magnets before, the process of getting the magnets out of the hard drive is worth it alone. As a standard note, the magnets really are strong and will attract each other at long distances. Smashing your fingers is not really a concern; the real concern is flying magnet shrapnel. The alloy that makes Neodymium magnets is brittle and pieces can fly off of the magnet if they are struck hard.

 

Warning! Taking the cover off of your hard drive will certainly void any warranty and will most certainly kill the drive. Common dust in the air can wreck the drive if it gets between the head and platter. There have been several successful mods of hard drives to replace the cover with clear plastic but donât count on it working (http://www.grynx.com/projects/plexiglas-harddrive-window/) (http://www.ehow.com/tech/). I suggest only doing this on known dead hard drives. This article only covers traditional mechanical hard drives. The newer flash drives can be taken apart but there isnât anything cool in them.

 

A few weeks ago I had a family member come to me to fix their dead Seagate external hard drive. They already removed it from the case but didnât have a SATA connector on their own computer. I hooked it up to my computer and started my work. After 15 minutes of working with the BIOS, which the BIOS would not even see the drive, I tried the last ditch effort of throwing the hard drive in the freezer. While the drive was chilling, I tried to explain the inner workings of a hard drive and why it would fail. The point was not getting across so I went to my spare parts stash and pulled out an old drive to dissect. The family memberâs drive sadly never did make itâ¦

 

Figure 1 - Hard Drive Top View

Figure 2 - Hard Drive Bottom View

Figure 3 - Hard Drive Side View

Figure 1 - Hard Drive Top View, Figure 2 - Hard Drive Bottom View, and Figure 3 - Hard Drive Side View shows the hard drive before it has been opened. The victim in this case is an 80 GB Hitachi Deskstar. You may know it from its more common name of the âIBM Deathstarâ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deskstar) of which I was the unlucky owner of several of these POSes.

 

The cover of the drive (the shiny metallic surface with the sticker on it) can be taken off by removing the screws. In most cases the screwdriver needed to fit the screws will not be in your standard tool box. This leaves you with three options: screwdriver, drill bit, or special tool.

 

Figure 4 - Screw Locations

Figure 5 - Screw Locations Highlighted

The first task is determining where the screws are. Figure 4 - Screw Locations show the obvious screws that have already been removed which are highlighted in Figure 5 - Screw Locations Highlighted. What you may miss the first time are the hidden screws.

 

Figure 6 - Hidden Screw Holding the Cover

Figure 6 - Hidden Screw Holding the Cover shows that even though all the visible screws have been taken out something is still holding the cover on.

 

Figure 7 - Hidden Screw Location Highlighted

Almost all hard drive manufacturers hide one or multiple screws in a location that makes it obvious the screw has been tampered with. The screws are usually under the paper label which has to be torn to revel the hidden screw. This prevents you from returning a hard drive that you opened first to take a look at. As stated previously, taking the cover off of your hard drive will void any warranty and this is one way the manufacturers can tell.

 

A quick way of finding these screws is to feel across the label until you find an indention. Use your flat head screwdriver to peel back the label which will hopefully show the hidden screw. Keep looking until you have felt across all of the label or tape.

 

Screwdriver Method

 

Needed: flat blade screwdriver, hammer

 

If you donât have anything other than a screw driver and hammer then this will be your only option. This is the least desirable of the three options as it will end up with the most damage to the drive. I donât have any pictures of this method because I have the tools and I didnât want to destroy the drive. Some drive platters are made of silicon or glass so any sharp blows my shatter the platter into hundreds of very sharp pieces so be careful.

 

Take a flat head screwdriver and wedge it between the cover and the main hard drive body (the black part in my case). The cover and screws are usually made of a soft metal such as aluminum so they can be bent easily. If you have a hammer, tap the screwdriver until you get a good gap between the cover and the drive body. From here just use brute strength to either snap the screws or bend the cover enough that it tears. After the initial gap has been created, slide the screwdriver close to one of the screws and then exert force. Once one screw has been popped, move on to the next one until all the screws have been removed. Because of using a lot of force, there may be a fair amount of damage to the drive when you are finished.

 

Drill Bit Method

 

Needed: drill bit set, handheld power drill or a drill press

 

Figure 8 - Drill Bit

This a much better choice for removing the screws as it doesnât completely destroy the hard drive cover in the process. The downside is that it does require a few tools that should be in any household tool box.

 

Figure 9 - Drill Bit in Drill

First, select a drill bit that completely covers the screw head as shown in Figure 8 - Drill Bit. You want the bit to be slightly larger than the head but not too big as this will take some of the cover with the hole and make the cut harder. Next load the bit into your handheld power drill, shown in Figure 9 - Drill Bit in Drill. If you have a workshop then a drill press makes this much easier.

 

Figure 10 - Drilling the Screw Head Off

Position the bit directly over the screw head and start drilling as shown in Figure 10 - Drilling the Screw Head Off. The objective is to drill out only the screw head and not go any deeper. With the head gone, the cover can lift off of the peg that is left. Repeat for all visible and hidden screw heads.

 

Using a drill bit to cut off a screw head is not limited to just hard drives. Any time you find yourself with a stuck screw you can use this method. I have used this for removing rivets to fixing a muffler bracket on my truck.

[tansqrx 0]

Special Tool Method

 

Needed: proper screw head tool, handheld power drill (may be optional)

 

You may notice that the hard drive screws are not simple straight or Phillips head screws. For that fact, they are usually not common hex or Torx head screws. This is just another way of keeping you out of the drive and voiding your warranty. The screws on this particular hard drive are size 8 Torx head screws as shown in Figure 11 â Torx (T8) Bit.

 

Figure 11 â Torx (T8) Bit

Torx (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx) bits are fairly common and have a star pattern at their end. You can go to most hardware stores and get T10, T15, T20, and T25 size Torx screw drivers or bit but anything smaller than T10 is rare.

 

Figure 12 - Security Bit Case

Figure 13 - Security Bits

Just so happens I had a T8 bit in a security bit collection as shown in Figure 12 - Security Bit Case and Figure 13 - Security Bits. I picked this security bit set up from Harbor Freight (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) some time ago because I saw the value of having it around and knew I would need it latter. Other bits in this set are of interest to computer users as it also has Torx security bits which are sometimes seen on the back of computer cases. The most notable example of this is old Packard Bell cases which would not let you open them without a secret (security Torx) bit.

 

Having this security bit set may not be enough for your particular hard drive. The last Western Digital drive that I opened had a metric hex cap that I could not find a match for. I have several standard and metric Allen wrenches but never found the right size. If you canât find a bit then you will have to fall back to the drill bit method above.

 

With any of the above methods you may have to use a knife to cut additional tape or labels as shown in Figure 14 - Cut Additional Tape. In my case there was some aluminum tape above the IDE connector that I needed to cut.

 

Figure 14 - Cut Additional Tape

Inside the Drive

 

Once you have the hard drive cover off you will notice something similar to Figure 15 - Hard Drive Cover Off.

 

Figure 15 - Hard Drive Cover Off

Traditional hard drives (not flash drives) have a rotating disk on a spindle called the platter. The platter spins at a constant speed, usually 7200 RPM. There may be more than one platter for different capacities and models. An arm extends over the platter which is called the head and at the end of the arm is the pickup that reads the data. Hard drives work similar to a record player but he âgroovesâ are too small to see and the needle can go anywhere. The head needs to move very fast so powerful magnets acts as a linear actuator at the opposite end of the arm.

 

Figure 16 - Hard Drive Components

You should notice that traditional hard drives are mechanical in nature and as such have a mechanical delay reading data. If one read access data on the very inner part of the platter and then the next read is on the far outside of the platter, there will be a delay because the arm has to move from the inside to the outside of the platter. This is what makes the characteristic clicking sound when a hard drive is in use. Also because we are dealing with a mechanical device, you should expect mechanical failures. Just as you wouldnât expect the brakes on your car to last forever, you should expect a mechanical hard drive to last either.

 

Figure 17 - Close-up of Magnet

Figure 18 - Close-up of Platter

If you would like to take the magnets out, place a flat head screwdriver under the magnets and pry them upwards as shown in Figure 19 - Taking the Magnets Out.

 

Figure 19 - Taking the Magnets Out

There is usually no clean way of taking the magnets out and you will break stuff getting them out.

 

Hopefully this will give you enough information to at least attempt taking your hard drive apart. If you have a dead drive lying around and you have never done this, I would highly recommend it. Not only is it educational, you will get an appreciation to why traditional hard drives act the way they do. And ohh yea, you get a couple of really cool magnets too.

 

P.S. Sorry for the two part post but there was an error returned the first time due to the number of images.

[zenia 0]

This is an interesting topic. The pictures make the story very clear.

The disadvantages of taking a hard disk apart seem to be bigger than the advantages.

The risk of breaking a platter seems to be pretty big. And the particles of the magnet and a broken platter seem to be dangerous and seem to be able to cause health problems.

The disadvantage of loosing the warranty doesn't exist with an old hard disk.

The advantage seems to be to calm down the curiosity.
And owning one or more what is told to be very strong magnets can be fun. Although the magnets don't seem to be very strong what the material concerns, according to the manual.

This seems hardly a big enough reward for all the trouble and the risks that seem to be involved in this process.
Edited May 28, 2012 by moderator (see edit history)

[yordan 10]

Maybe the topic title is not fully correct.

Usually, when people say "Hard drive", people mean the whole attachment, without unsealing the box.

Your topic seems devoted to explain how to remove the magnetic platter for teaching purposes. Of course, this completely destroys the disk.

The head flies at about 0.4 down to 0.2 micrometers above the platter ; at this distance, any dust will lead to a crash, exactly like an airplane touching an obstacle. Usually these operations are made in a dustless room in the factory.

Same thing if you remove the magnet, which is part of the actuator, all the initial position settings will be lost, the magnetic head will never be able to find it's navigating position.

So, the topic title should probably better be "How to break a used hard drive in order to see it's physical components".

[wutske 0]

Indeed, a clear warning notice on top would be very nice, people, this will kill your drive.Anyway, would have been nice if the guide would go any further, this guide just explains how to remove the cover. Removing the platters is extremely hard, even with extreme brute force it was impossible to do for me (read: hammer, axe, throwing, beating with rocks, throwing from 2nd floor, ...)

[Soviet Rathe 1]

Wow this was really cool to read, the pictures are cool, I think it's just amazing how a hard drive works so much like an old-time record player.I want to try this one day, but then again I hope I'm not unfortunate enough to have a hard drive fail on me :3

[wutske 0]

Wow this was really cool to read, the pictures are cool, I think it's just amazing how a hard drive works so much like an old-time record player.I want to try this one day, but then again I hope I'm not unfortunate enough to have a hard drive fail on me :3

You think ? It has no resemblance at all . The disk is magnetic (instead of plastic and grooved), the head is hovering over the surface (there's no needle touching the disk), the data on the disk is binary (instead of analog data) and most of all, the stack of disks is rotating at something between 4300rpm and 15000rpm (whereas record players only reached 66rpm (?) ) .

[yordan 10]

(whereas record players only reached 66rpm (?) ) .

Precisely 78 rpm's for the very-very old platters, 33 and 45 rpm's for the standard records.

[wutske 0]

Precisely 78 rpm's for the very-very old platters, 33 and 45 rpm's for the standard records.

Aha, I knew I was wrong , I guess I'm too young to know

[yordan 10]

Aha, I knew I was wrong , I guess I'm too young to know

I think that 50 years ago disappeared the last players able to play the old 78 rpm platters. The standard players (before the CD players) had two speeds, and you had to manually choose the speed : 33 rpms if you wantet to play a so-called long-player plates, the wide ones, and choose 45 rpms for the small platters, the ones with a single song on each side And, yes, you had to manually swap the platter in order to ear the songs on the other side.

[tansqrx 0]

Maybe the topic title is not fully correct.

Usually, when people say "Hard drive", people mean the whole attachment, without unsealing the box.

Your topic seems devoted to explain how to remove the magnetic platter for teaching purposes. Of course, this completely destroys the disk.

The head flies at about 0.4 down to 0.2 micrometers above the platter ; at this distance, any dust will lead to a crash, exactly like an airplane touching an obstacle. Usually these operations are made in a dustless room in the factory.

Same thing if you remove the magnet, which is part of the actuator, all the initial position settings will be lost, the magnetic head will never be able to find it's navigating position.

So, the topic title should probably better be "How to break a used hard drive in order to see it's physical components".

I believe your concerns were addressed in the second paragraph, lol.

 

Warning! Taking the cover off of your hard drive will certainly void any warranty and will most certainly kill the drive. Common dust in the air can wreck the drive if it gets between the head and platter...

I've never had the chance to take the platters apart. The only time I really tried, the platters were made out of silicon and shattered almost instantly.

[levimage 0]

I've seen some old school hard drives that were the size of 1 foot square with many platters. It looked like an old phonograph with mirror like disks.

[yordan 10]

I've seen some old school hard drives that were the size of 1 foot square with many platters. It looked like an old phonograph with mirror like disks.

Mirror-like disks? These are already new generation disks. The regular disks, made from gamma iron magnetic oxyde, were dark-brown.

[tansqrx 0]

Mirror-like disks? These are already new generation disks. The regular disks, made from gamma iron magnetic oxyde, were dark-brown.

Can you explain what you mean by the older platters being brownish?

This is a personal story which makes me wonder what you mean. When I was a child I used to walk to my grandparents house across the road. They were somewhat of packrats and had all kinds of weird things hung up all around their property. I remember always seeing this silver, flat disk about a foot in diameter, with an inch hole in it hanging on a barn wall. There wasnât just one but many of them all over the place and they had been there for as long as I can remember. I must have been 8 or 9 at the time and asked my father what they were and he told me computer parts. Since this was the late 1980âs and I only recently learned what a computer was I thought this was really weird especially since my grandfather had nothing to do with computers and was essentially just a retired farmer.

Over the years I never asked any questions until I saw a picture of an early hard drive in college. It had huge platters and I instantly remembered the silver plate on the side of the barn. This is when everything snapped together. Over the years I remember my parents mentioning that my grandfather used to work at Sperry Corporation and he would always bring home damaged parts. I guess my father was right and it really was part of a computer.

My question is how early were the brown platters? I still have one of those big hard drive platters at my momâs house and it isnât brown but looks exactly like a modern silver hard drive but ten time bigger and thicker. I know it has to be from at least the late 1970âs if not earlier. Are you talking about the 1960âs era platters or something entirely different?

[yordan 10]

Can you explain what you mean by the older platters being brownish?
This is a personal story which makes me wonder what you mean.
My question is how early were the brown platters? I still have one of those big hard drive platters at my mom's house and it isn't brown

You can see a brown disk at the rear part of this wikipedia image : http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
Or go to the english wikipedia main page and look for "Disk storage"
As you can see see, the disks are rather brown, with a very big hole (two or three inches hole) .Their color is due to the gamma-iron-dioxide. They were obtained by means of a layer of magnetic material, which was polished until becoming very thin. These disks were used until the years 80's.
The modern disks are done differently, starting from nothing on a very clean substrate, and then growing a thin iron layer, or chromium-cobalt or a iron-terbium-gadolinium layer.