Found a new unique (and in my opinion very cool) use for broken hard drives today at work, and a rather artistic one at that! WARNING: The procedure described below will void your warranty and potentially be dangerous if you don’t observe basic electrical safety precautions (i.e. don’t do it if this concerns you!).
1. Remove the top casing of the drive using an appropriate screw driver (some have nasty nonstandard screws which need special tools).
2. Plug a power cord from the PSU into the exposed hard drive leaving the IDE cable out.
3. Turn on the computer – you should see the hard drive immediately spin up and the read/write head(s) start oscillating back and forward over the silver platter(s).
4. Select any number of colored marker pens and gently draw on the platter making pretty patterns!
It’s all very mindless really but fun nevertheless! If you’re interested in what all the different bits and pieces inside the drive are doing take a look at this article on the excellent howstuffworks.com.
N.B. This is the last post I’ll write as a teenager as tomorrow I hit the ripe old age of 20 which is seriously worrying! Whether this will feel any different only time will tell!
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