internal harddrive mounting ?

Thread Starter

Mathematics!

Joined Jul 21, 2008
1,036
I have alot of sata / internal harddrives lying around.

My problem is I don't want to buy a whole computer cases to beable to mount these harddrives in my computer.

What I want is someway of mounting these harddrives into a few old computers
However I cann't find an easy way to install them in the computers.
i.e the old computer seems to be missing the harddrive mounting pieces and screws)

Note I already tried the harddrives and they work fine in this computer but I had to put them on a small shoe box to test them out. This is really a hassel I would like to beable to mount them in this old computer in some way so it will be safe from damage/movement and I can close the computer up for good.

Is their any simple cheap ways of doing this?
The drives are all 3.5'' pata or sata harddrives though the thickness varies a little bit.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
You hobby in electronics? Then you must be an amateur sheet metal worker. It comes with the territory.

With my luck, somebody else will come along and tell you where to buy the brackets without even knowing which case you have :(
 

Thread Starter

Mathematics!

Joined Jul 21, 2008
1,036
correct I never had to run into a time when I had to install harddrives into free computers that somebody gave me that have missing harddrive mounts.

The machines are
all dell machines

models 8250 , 4600c , 2350

What I am doing is installing a pci sata card in them (except for the 4600c)
and need a way to mount the 3.5inch sata HDD drives.

For the 4600c the 3.5inch sata drive seems to thick to fit into the mount. Don't know a work around for that. (As well what types of screws to use / buy)

Thanks for any help
 

Tealc

Joined Jun 30, 2011
140
I use elastic bungee cord threaded through a few holes in a 5 1/4" bay. I've also had one or two installed between holes drilled in the base of a case and the bottom of the 5 1/4" bays. Takes a few minutes to thread and secure but once in they are really secure.
 

Thread Starter

Mathematics!

Joined Jul 21, 2008
1,036
well, I might beable to make it work by using something like the above 2 posts.
But their is one computer that has all of it's bays full and I don't really want to remove any of the components.

So for that machine I don't know what to do yet.
It is dell 2350 model.

Both bays are taken up.

curious if you have pictures of the bungee corded hard drive. Does it work well no HDD damage over the years , heat dissapation problems...etc
 

Tealc

Joined Jun 30, 2011
140
Here's my current setup. A slow <600 rpm fan draws air over them.



And an old setup. No fan on this one.



They are totally stable.

Here's another one, this is not mine.



....



or..



There are literally dozens of ways to do it without buying hardware to fit them.

Bungee cord costs only a few [insert currency here].
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
I'm typing on a Dell 8250 right now, and no, you can't have my brackets!
Wonderful how long it has lasted. Not wonderful that the 5.25" brackets require a green plastic adapter on each side of a HDD or it will not "click" into place. Not wonderful that opening the case partially unplugs the IDE cables from the mother board. Still, it's running long after many others died.
 

Gdrumm

Joined Aug 29, 2008
684
Shouldn't a hard drive be grounded, with mounting screws?

For some reason, I thought it should be.

In one photo, a laptop drive is suspended in mid air.

Would that present any danger to the drive?

Gary
 

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
Shouldn't a hard drive be grounded, with mounting screws?

For some reason, I thought it should be.

In one photo, a laptop drive is suspended in mid air.

Would that present any danger to the drive?

Gary
No, usually the controller PCB is grounded to the hard drive case, which is connected to the incoming powers ground line....
 

dataman19

Joined Dec 26, 2009
135
Incidentally - the hard drive need only be grounded by one metal screw in contact with chassis ground.
..
And yes - the power connector also has a ground. But the drive case is the static grounding point and is necessary to extend drive life span - Just like a simple cheap UPS hooked up between your computer and the wall power mains will also extend hard drive life cycle (because a UPS smooths out the power drops and lows, while a surge suppressor only smooths out the spikes. Either event will cause sector errors in a hard drive if a read or write cycle is happening at the same time as the power drop out/spike event.). In Arizona we have wonderful public power grid service - we only see from 600-1400 spikes.drops outs per hour. The national average is somewhere between 1600 and 2,000.
....
About the hard drive mounting issue...
..
Am I correct - you wish to mount a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" bay? Simple... use a metal spacer. Mount the spacer to one or two sides of the drive and then mount the whole set up into a 5.25" bay.
...
Spacer????? This can be a U channel or Box channel that is the correct dimension to make up the difference between the actual drive and the bay dimension you wish to mount the drive into...
..
Incidentally, if you are having issues with Dell, Gateway, or HP computers - send me a description of the computer (Make and model) and I will see if I can get you the "correct brackets". We have boxes of stuff available for our uses.
..
Dave R. Mason
Phoenix Computer Labs
dataman19
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Confirming: The Dell 8250 green plastic mounting brackets have a stainless steel compression loop to cause case grounding on each side.

I had to look to make sure. I could have sworn the cases were floating until dataman brought that idea up.

ps, send some screws when you send brackets. Everybody that does this kind of work has a jar or a drawer full of used screws.
 

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
well, I have seen plenty of cases where the HDD is not grounded to the chassis, for instance, a lot of those 5 1/4" bay adapters for the 3 1/2" HDD are all plastic and not one piece of metal is grounding the HDD to the case, and besides, if you take a meter and check for continuity from HDD chassis to case chassis when the power plug is connected, you will see that the HDD IS already grounded...... most of the time the case just acts more like a heatsink for the HDD anyway.....
 
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