Converging Paradigms: Breaking and Entering

Friday, September 14, 2012

Breaking and Entering

Hey Everyone,

So this week I was helping by discarding their unwanted electronics while removing any of their data from different sources. One of these such sources was a 500GB Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 2.0 external Hard Drive (WD5000HU1). So as I begin to get things setup, I noticed......no power! So, I reach out to them and they proceed to explain that during their move it has been LOST!!!! This basically makes the external hard drive a Electronic waste paperweight, which of course everyone should have on their home and office desks. So, after some quick research I found out that you can easily pick up a new power supply for $10-$15. However, I didn't feel like spending the money just to erase the data SO, this was going to be my next small project. For anyone facing this situation and they really like their external drive I recommend either purchasing the power cord or later on they could purchase a SATA to USB external enclosure to put the hard drive in. That being said, for those who either need a last resort or a taste of destructive fun, I decided to dig in to take this item apart.

So this model doesn't have any external screws holding the chassis together, it is just plastic tabs concealed by the cover. I took a small Flat-Head screwdriver and slowly pried open the small plastic interior section as shown, and moved to the top and bottom of the device. I completed one side of the device, then finished the other side.

Once I had the two pieces separated, I then slid them apart while occasional needing to seperate them when they catch.

Looking at the bottom of the hard drive I found the PowerBoard that connected to the hard drive allowing the device to connect through USB, and removed the two screws.

After the PowerBoard is removed, I then removed the interior plastic cover by swinging it around the hard drive like a door until it detatched from the drive. I then removed four screws holding the hard drive to the metal bracket.

And here are all the parts disassembled.

So, now I can place the SATA drive in a external enclosure or in a system and erase all the data as needed. My plan is to install this drive as storage for my new Windows 8 system but, maybe I'll end utilizing it some other way. In any case, I had fun tearing things apart and as always Be Blessed!

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Tech Tip Of The Week

This week's tech tip is about charging your laptop or other battery relying devices like cell phones.

Some people may be surprised by the price of laptop and mobile device batteries. Typically, I purchase batteries for around $120+ for the laptops in my office. The tech tip is about making your battery life last as long as it can.

Batteries on average are only built to last 3-5 years depending on type and situation, and most batteries only come with a 1-year warranty because of how majority of users improperly charge and use battery powered devices.

It is extremely important in the life of a battery to let it lose it's charge completely before recharging the battery, and it's best practice to charge it fully. In essence, a battery has a type of memory that if you start charging while you still have half a battery left then it starts to thing that that time period is all the battery can sustain. Keep in mind this is about frequent usage not, a one time or here and there occurances. On top of properly charging the battery, a big key to battery life is to never leave the device plugged into power if it has a full charge. I can't tell you the number of devices that I've come into contact with that because it was constantly left plugged into power it no longer functions away from it. You see this a lot with GPS systems, cordless home phones, handheld games, as well as laptops and mobile phones.

Tech Tool Of The Week

This weeks tool is a program called PDQ Deploy, created by AdminArsenal. This tool allows users, and professionals automatically deploy software to systems as desired. While a videop tutorial would be best, check out their info at http://www.adminarsenal.com/home.

I can't be more pleased with this software and it's support. I was able to deploy a software patch to every computer in our organization (about 450+) over wired and wireless networks as well as deploy office in under 20 minutes to hundreds of systems. The possibilites are endless with this software and has truly been a blessing to make me more efficient in my work.