I just bought two maxtor's at 200 gigs a pop. My question is i want to fully take them apart & make them into totally acrylic hard drives. How does one go on doing this. I have seen the ide mod's of hd's before just wanting to know since it's sata it might be different.

You know, those drives that get that mod done to them usually only work for a bout 1 week after the mod has been done....

Not necessarily. I've read in numerous articles on modded HDDs that with a window installed they continued to work fine, despite what naysayers said. However, I would be hesitant to replace the entire cage for the drive with acrylic, as the finely tuned and machined HDDs may not respond well to any mods of that magnitude. There are some good guides online describing how to add a window to a HDD, but I'd recommend against trying such a risky mod on such nice drives.

By the way, where did you get those drives? Are they the DiamondMax 9 SATA drives? I've been trying to find a couple of those.

Yah, most people who do those mods do it with oooooold 1-2 gig drives that are obsolete.

RYU, do not do it to those sweet drives. I've got a pair of cheap Maxtor's I will trade you for those 200GB drives. Go ahead and do the mod on the cheap Maxtor's and if they both still work after 1 month, I will send both your 200GB drives back to you. If one or the other dies, I keep both 200GB drives.

ba, you might want to up the time limit a bit.the first drive i modded is still kicking and is getting ready for a new face-lift this weekend.

Ryu, just you asking that question takes gutts.
If you really wanted to do this, I would some how get a hold of a trashed drive of the same type. That way you can disassemble it and make another case for it. Useing the trashed drive as a template. Cause we all know that any contamination will destroy the new drives.
I have a window mod in store for 2 drives like that but not all the way acrylic.

GOOD LUCK!!!Let me know whats up I'd love to watch you do this. Or offer any help possible.

I think the difference here is if ya gotta ask?...ya know.
phishi, I would imagine you knew what you're up against. It can be done yes, but not everybody wins the lottery. I'm thinking a window at best. I really don't think that those 7200RPM berings would hold still very long in acryllic. Hey ya never know, somtimes you gotta bet the longshot odds!

Pisce, he wants to take all the internal components out of the metal case and place them into a complete acrylic case. I don't think you've done that mod...yet.

yeah,i know how he feels.i've pondered that one myself.1" acrylic and a router.........platter mounting and head alignment kinda rules it out.shaving the sides down though might be possible.

Thus my offer. Although I still haven't figured out how to verify.

i'm thinking you'd end up with some killer new drives.myself,now i just gotta let the paint inside the drive dry before i drill a few holes in it.

My suggestion if Ryu really wants to get an acrylic HDD is to find a cheap 10 gig or so HDD that you can get for as little as possible (while still being sure its reliable). Then, I'd install Windows (or your OS of choice) on it to make sure it's not a lemon before modding. After verifying the drive is good, I'd mod that, and only use it for your OS. That way, you're protected if your OS needs to be reformatted, or if your drive dies.

My First HDD that I modded lasted 8 months with the window. It died shortly into its eight month running with the window because the motor just quit on it. It was a 3.2GB Quantum Fireball 4500RPM drive. My second HDD that I modded only lasted about 1 1/2 months due to water condensation building up inside for some unknown reason, must not have been a perfect seal on that one. On both I took the whole top cover off and replace with plexi and used hot glue to secure it with a little strip of aluminum duct tape to seal it off. Don't mod your 200GB, you have a VERY HIGH change of screwing up, even if you know what your doing. I suggest finding a drive, such as my old Quantum Fireball, that the top platter is unused so if any dust gets on the top platter it doesn't matter. Thats the specific reason why I chose that drive due to the fact the top of the 1st of 3 platters was unused and it didn't matter if dust got onto it for not.

Yea just wanted to see if it could be done. Thanks everyone for the comments i will just try my small 10 gig hd instead for the time being. To the person who wanted to know where i bought them i went thru a big vender to buy them for 400 a drive. As you can see i don't got digital camera yet good day everyone & thanks again