Repurpose an old hard drive as a new project case

Today I finally got around to doing something with a really nice Seagate 3TB hard drive that went toes up. Normally, you'd RMA that bad boy and get a fresh piece of kit. However, mine must have come from an external enclosure (something I do on occasion because they're cheaper than bare drives, however that makes sense), and Seagate won't RMA it directly.

Not wanting my data floating around a dump somewhere (who remembers what they filled 3TB with???), I disassembled it for destruction. As I was doing so, I was keeping an eye on spare parts and cool things to keep.

Taking apart the drive itself is pretty easy. All you need is a T8 screwdriver or bit.

There's seven screws on the top of the drive, one hidden behind the label. After that, the top pops right off and you can begin tearing apart the insides. You'll need a T6 screwdriver for most of the internal screws.

Once you take apart the inside components you're left with a pile of largely useless parts, the hard drive platters, and an empty case with the SATA interface components.

 

You think you're badass having old CDs as coasters? I use hard drive platters. It separates the nerds from the rest as to who can identify them. :) I suppose they'd be good as a wind chime too.

Anywho, I took the logic board off too. My empty hard drive was now destined to become a small project case for something in the future. Then I began to wonder, could I use that logic board's power interface to get enough juice to run an Arduino?

The power cable has 5 volts and 12 volts on the rail as well as ground, labeled as COM here. 

So I soldered a couple of test leads onto the back side of the power rail, plugged it into a trust external USB enclosure, and flicked the switch and prayed.

 

Much to my surprise, the USB enclosure didn't short out, the lights in the house didn't explode, and the hand of God didn't bitch slap me across the face. What I had, according to my multimeter, was a steady 4.78v on the 5v side and 12.35v on the 12v side. 

Attaching the 12v lines to the input on an Arduino (a Ruggeduino, just in case) and wahla! I've got a blinking pin 13 led. 

  

There's even a nice little hole from the bottom of the hard drive to the inside (where I'm pointing) to allow the power and whatever input/output I need for the project.

This is a Pro Micro Arduino clone, with its headers, to show the scale and space available in the hard drive shell. There's more than enough room to let me work wires in and get the case closed.

Now I can Arduino-ize my computer, without needing to find a seperate power source or line from the power supply. I can just plug it in.

And the case itself should provide a solid, rugged, and reliable operating environment for some future project.