Hard Drives ?

I need to disassemble the plates in a Seagate(Barracuda) 4.5mb drive.
I hav everything tore down heres a pic, cuda drive (http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c242/xeroinfinity/11X17RW24/cudadriv.jpg)

The center part look as if it unscrews but it doesnt either way you try and turn it.
I figured they might be pressed together,
just wondering if anyone had taken one apart or even know where to look for this kinda thing.
Not something everyone might do, but I'm a geek :lol:

Oh ya, I'm going to use the plates for a telescope .
Thier reflective qualities are much greater than conventional mirrors and that makes good telescope images.


Thankx !!

Ok that might be the strangest thing i ever heard on a comp forum. I know platters have a mirror finish but I never heard of them having good optical properties.:dunno:


Anyway I did not take any Seagates apart recently so I could not tell you off the top of my head the exact procedure. But IMO even if hey are perfect mirrors they are quite small at 4ish in so their light gathering capabilities will not be that great. I think you would get far better results with a nice second hand Orion with a 12-16 in mirror. I heard you can find great deals on a standard equatorial mount Newtonian Orion (even with a tracker) in the classifieds.

Yes each platter is 3 5/8 ", but all 11 would make a large mirror for free. I plan on laying 10 in a circle type pattern, then I'll make pieces so I can make them all adjustable to get the focal lengths corrected.

I already hav a telescope with a 10" mirror. Its a dinosaur tho , I just finished rebiulding I had to get the mirrors resilvered, that was pricey!

I cannt see deep field nebulas but it works pretty good for what I hav in it.
I know it all sounds complicated but its really not. If Galileo made a telescope in the 1600's , I sure as hell can make one now :lol:

thankx for your input Neutrino !

Yes each platter is 3 5/8 ", but all 11 would make a large mirror for free. I plan on laying 10 in a circle type pattern, then I'll make pieces so I can make them all adjustable to get the focal lengths corrected.

I already hav a telescope with a 10" mirror. Its a dinosaur tho , I just finished rebiulding I had to get the mirrors resilvered, that was pricey!

I cannt see deep field nebulas but it works pretty good for what I hav in it.
I know it all sounds complicated but its really not. If Galileo made a telescope in the 1600's , I sure as hell can make one now :lol:

thankx for your input Neutrino !


Wow i did not think of that, using a bunch of platters, that will make one big mirror. Setting the focus on all those separate platters will be a nightmare I imagine, but anyway good luck with that project and start posting some build pictures because I want to see this contraption.

Wow i did not think of that, using a bunch of platters, that will make one big mirror. Setting the focus on all those separate platters will be a nightmare I imagine, but anyway good luck with that project and start posting some build pictures because I want to see this contraption.


I think Nasa is biulding one with several mirrors. Though, mine wont be as big or as good, but mines for real cheap.

I think focusing will be a problem, but fabricating the parts that go under the platters will also be challenging.

I did figure out how the driv platers came apart.
The center shaft pushed out with an armature that make the drive spin(kinda neat) and then pounded of another ring and it all fell apart.
Heres a pic HD Apart (http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c242/xeroinfinity/11X17RW24/HDapart.jpg)

If I do decied to do this I'll keep posting my progress.
It might be a while tho, I tend to start projects and then I hav like 10 things I'm working on at one time :banghead

It will be one hideous contraption :lol: