Strange Screws

S

stickyfox

David said:
Hmmmm why do you want to open the case of the drive? If you open it
outside a class 1 clean room, the drive WILL die.
Click to expand...

No matter what you do with it, the drive WILL die. It's the
unfortunate, but inevitable destiny that we all share.

I've opened hard drives again and again in very filthy rooms and
they've never shown any ill effects over the days, or in some cases
weeks, that I operated them. I do this all the time with old drives
because I can see what's happening inside the drive while I test my
control circuitry.

If I was manufacturing hundreds of thousands of drives and had to worry
about warranties and customer satisfaction, I'd be doing it in a clean
room. And I would buy a new drive before attempting to repair a damaged
one. But you definitely can operate a hard drive without the cover for
a while; probably long enough to do whatever you want if you don't
dawdle.
 
M

mc

I'm looking for a 5-point star shaped screwdriver. I bought a Seagate
....
At any decent hardware or home supply store. It's called a Torx screw.
Typically an allen wrench will work just fine in the absence of a Torx
screw driver.
Click to expand...

Don't those have 6 points?
 
J

James Sweet

David said:
Hmmmm why do you want to open the case of the drive? If you open it
outside a class 1 clean room, the drive WILL die.

Or are you talking about the drive mounting screws?
Click to expand...


From the picture, it's the screws that hold together the external case.
Probably wants to upgrade the drive or put it in a different case.
 
W

wrench

Torx screws are seldom used for no other purpose then to keep the prying eyes
of consumers from sensitive stuff. Thats why they're used in elevators.
Click to expand...

Not an accurate statement.

Torx drive screws have been used on vehicles for ten years plus. They are not
(in their standard form) an anti tamper fastener.
 
W

wrench

[I've been taking them apart to play with the magnets--- not as strong as I
expected in the newer drives]

magnets? in a hard drive?
 
J

J. Clarke

I'm looking for a 5-point star shaped screwdriver. I bought a Seagate
80GB external hard drive. Its case uses these special screws. I shot a
picture of a screw here:
http://www.gearhack.com/Forums/Tool/Screwdriver_for_5-Point_Star_Screw.files.hidden/5-point star.jpg

Does anyone know where I can find a screwdriver for these screws?
Click to expand...

No guarantee that it's the right size, (OD approx .057 in, about the same as
a T5 Torx) but search ebay for "5 pointed star screwdriver". Don't have a
recent Seagate drive on hand to try it on or I'd let you know if it fits.
You'll get a dozen or so hits from a guy named elvis fong who sells them
for Sony and Sharp PDAs. Price is about a buck plus 5 bucks or so shipping
from Hong Kong so call it 6 bucks or so total.

I ordered one a while back and he got it right out--seems to be a reliable
vendor.

Let him know that you're looking for a driver specifically for Seagate
drives and he might find one for you.
 
C

CJT

wrench said:
[I've been taking them apart to play with the magnets--- not as strong as I
expected in the newer drives]

magnets? in a hard drive?
Click to expand...
Yes. Strong ones.
 
J

J. Clarke

wrench said:
[I've been taking them apart to play with the magnets--- not as strong as
[I
expected in the newer drives]

magnets? in a hard drive?
Click to expand...

Yes, magnets in a hard drive. Part of the actuator.
 
A

Arno Wagner

Not an accurate statement. Torx drive screws have been used on
vehicles for ten years plus. They are not (in their standard form)
an anti tamper fastener.
Click to expand...

Definitely correct. For anti-tamper there is Torx with a pin
in the middle that needs a Torx driver with a hole. Standard
Torx is just very well suited for automated mounting and also
very well suited to use with a Torx bit in an electric drill.
Here you get a lot of "Spax" wood screws with Torx head.

Torx is optimised for maximum torque without damaging the
tool or screw and easier insertion than the standard 6-way
symmetric format. IMO ist qualifies as possibly the best
all around screw head format.

Arno
 
A

Arno Wagner

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage wrench said:
[I've been taking them apart to play with the magnets--- not as strong as I
expected in the newer drives]
Click to expand...
magnets? in a hard drive?
Click to expand...

Yes, a pair of very strong ones in the moving-coil assembly that
forms the head actuator motor.

Arno
 
F

Folkert Rienstra

James Sweet said:
From the picture, it's the screws that hold together the external case.
Probably wants to upgrade the drive or put it in a different case.
Click to expand...

Whoa.
Someone actually *READ* the original post and looked at the linked picture.
 
M

mm

I'd dare to guess that if this fellow doesn't recognize a Torx screw
that he isn't aware that he should never open a hard drive.

Torx screws are seldom used for no other purpose then to keep the prying
eyes of consumers from sensitive stuff.
Click to expand...

Too many maybes and negatives in this sentence for me to understand
it.
Thats why they're used in
elevators.
Click to expand...

They're also used in my car just to hold the trunk struts on. Nothing
secret about that.

Don't get me started on what I used to do to elevators..
My son has actually opened a defective laptop hard drive before and
amazingly it still functioned, for only a short time. Now its a
paperweight.

Handi
Click to expand...


Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.
 
M

mm

On 16 Jan 2006 08:17:07 -0800, "(e-mail address removed)"
I've opened hard drives again and again in very filthy rooms and
they've never shown any ill effects over the days, or in some cases
weeks, that I operated them. I do this all the time with old drives
because I can see what's happening inside the drive while I test my
control circuitry.

If I was manufacturing hundreds of thousands of drives and had to worry
about warranties and customer satisfaction, I'd be doing it in a clean
room. And I would buy a new drive before attempting to repair a damaged
one. But you definitely can operate a hard drive without the cover for
a while; probably long enough to do whatever you want if you don't
dawdle.
Click to expand...

My drive is clicking, and one important partition has a very bad
directory structure. I'm not sure I can copy over even the good
partitions before it "fails". If I open it, what would I want to do
to stop the clicking, or to keep the clicking syndrome from preventing
me from copying the data to a good drive.

(The bad partition is FAT16 (because I was still running win3.1 and
win98 and wanted both OSes to access the parttiion.)

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.
 
R

Rita Ä Berkowitz

I'm looking for a 5-point star shaped screwdriver. I bought a Seagate
80GB external hard drive. Its case uses these special screws. I shot a
picture of a screw here:
http://www.gearhack.com/Forums/Tool/Screwdriver_for_5-Point_Star_Screw.files.hidden/5-point star.jpg

Does anyone know where I can find a screwdriver for these screws?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Judging by the number of replies you got to this problem I would equate it
to the complexity of opening up a coconut, but then again, you're in the
right group! If your sole purpose is to have a tool for this type of screw
Jim has the most helpful advice.

If your goal is to get I that drive case *NOW* I would suggest you take a
flat bit screwdriver of the same width as the inner diameter of the screw in
question and put it in there and loosen it up. Yes, this works extremely
well and causes no damage to the driver or the screw. I have done this so
many times to gain access to devices that uses these types of screws.

To avoid this problem in the future use only Seagate Cheetah U320 SCSI SCA
drives!






Rita
 
I

Impmon

At any decent hardware or home supply store. It's called a Torx screw.
Typically an allen wrench will work just fine in the absence of a Torx
screw driver.
Click to expand...

Torx is 6 pointed star and won't fit 5 star screw head well. If you
force the torx to work, you're liable to strip the wrench or worse the
screw head.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

External Hard Drive Screw 15
Trick to getting screws out of 2.5 inch HDDs? 31
Drive Enclosure Kit - screwless, toolless, etc. 5
screwed over by 6 TB drives 2
six-sided star screw 4
Intel NUC Poor WiFi - External Antenna Mod 7
How to open Iomega external HD case? 2
Nexus Disctwin HDD Cooler 4

Top