hackjob cleanroom

[Keatah]

I’m looking to install a clear window on a hard disk, something like the raptors from wd. And here is my plan. I was thinking of making my own cleanroom by putting an electrostatic air cleaner and our brand new unopened(never used to clean floors) vacuum cleaner with hepa filter in a closet lined with plastic garbage bages (unused too). I could dress up in a rain poncho thingy and put a bag on my hair to keep particles from drifting off. And I would work with the drive upside down, so that nothing would settle on the platters. And of course, I would work with the drive held overhead. I would tend to think that this would suffice for an impromptu cleanroom setup? yes?

[+batari]

That will do a very poor job as a clean room. If you're going to put a clear window on a drive, do it outside. Air quality studies show that it's about 5 times cleaner outside than any room in a house, and a makeshift filtering system isn't going to help very much, and will most likely just stir up years of accumulated dust.

 

No matter how you do it, be sure not to put anything important on the drive.

[frank_c]

why build an entire room?

 

Edited February 14, 2009 by frank_c

[Keatah]

Cool little box there, sort of like the biohazard stuff in expoeriment labs I want one!! But -- lining the room with plastic is easy, and takes a moment. Maybe I'll do two of them, one outside in the garage or field on a non-windy day right after a rainstorm, and one inside. and see how long they last.

 

I wonder if at a time in the past, they made hard disks that were low-density enough to be able to work in the open air? Something like maybe a 5-megger 12" diameter perhaps? Not the insane gigabits-per-sq/inch we have today.

[+remowilliams]

I wonder if at a time in the past, they made hard disks that were low-density enough to be able to work in the open air?

In the distant past sure, it's just the way they were built and the relatively low tolerances and densities involved. Today, you'll just be ruining the integrity (if not the unit entirely) by opening up a HD an playing with it.

[shadow460]

I opened up a HD once. I thought it was non working but it turned out that the mobo was at fault. I threw the drive out before I figured this out, though. Crud. I wonder if it would have worked had I re assembled it? It was a 20 GB Samsung model.

Rest In Pieces.