Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive screws

[Dale]

Dale wrote:
> Howdy,
>
> I know this sounds like a silly question and I never thought I would
> have to ask such a basic question like this.  I bought a external hard
> drive enclosure and was trying to install a hard drive I had laying
> around.  The screws that come with the enclosure doesn't fit.  The
> screws have a coarse thread and it seems the drive case has fine
> threads.  It's the only screws that come with it so it has to be for
> that purpose.  Anyway, I dug around my screw bin and found a few
> screws that fit better but still not quite right.  I went to ebay and
> typed in 100 hard drive screws.  I want to buy a bag of them to have
> around when I need them.  It's amazing what I got for results.  Some
> list a brand they fit.  Some say laptop, few mention a desktop
> system.  Looking at pics, some seem to be coarse thread, some sort of
> fine thread.  Some standard, some metric.  Some are phillips head and
> some look like allen type or star type heads.  I'm sitting here
> wondering, is this nuts or what?  Pardon the pun there.  It's just
> crazy.  lol
>
> Is there not a standard sized screw that should fit all 3.5" and even
> 2.5" drives??  Whether they are spinning rust, SSD or the outdated
> floppy drives.  Are they THAT different or are the pictures
> misleading?  If there is a standard or does WD take one size screw
> while Seagate takes another and Toshiba yet another?  If someone has
> found a size that fits them all, could you please share the sizes or a
> link so I can have something to go by?  I already have a few hundred
> screws that don't fit.  I really don't need yet another 100 to add to
> the don't fit anything pile. 
>
> What happened to the simple days where things would just fit like they
> should??  ^_O
>
> Thanks for any hints.
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-) 
>
> P. S. The enclosure I got is a eSATA or USB type.  I use the eSATA
> connector.  Found it on Amazon and it's a Rosewill.  The enclosure not
> long ago was about $60 each.  I got two for $54 with free shipping. 
> It has a temp controlled fan too.  I bought other USB only enclosures
> that wasn't worth the shipping much less the cost of the item.  I
> think I had one that worked fairly well but was really slow.  Maybe it
> was USB2 but I suspect it was defaulting to USB1.  A few others failed
> after a short time, I suspect USB issues myself.  I still need to run
> up on a good deal on a PMR type 8TB drive, designed for 24/7 use.  I
> need to expand /home.  It's at 70% right now.  o_O


I wanted to update with some info. I ordered one bag of screws, threads
weren't right.  I then ordered a different size and got them today.  I
tested them on a few hard drives I had laying around, some old and some
fairly new ones.  Those fit.  I could screw them in with my fingers so
the threads seem to be dead on.  The size I bought was 6-32UNC x 1/8". 
I'm not sure what the UNC means or if it matters.  The one I bought that
did NOT fit, it didn't give a screw size but mentioned both SDD and HDD
and laptop, if that helps anyone any searching. 

BTW, I paid about $10 for 100 screws. Sort of pricey I think but it was
the best deal I could find.  I'll likely drop and lose half of those.  LOL 

Dale

:-)  :-)