Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Strange Screws

M

mm

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm looking for a 5-point star shaped screwdriver. I bought a Seagate
80GB external hard drive. Its case uses these special screws. I shot a
picture of a screw here:
http://www.gearhack.com/Forums/Tool/Screwdriver_for_5-Point_Star_Screw.files.hidden/5-point star.jpg

Does anyone know where I can find a screwdriver for these screws?
Thanks.

The tips that others have recommended were not available to the
public, or at least not at a sufficiently low price, for quite a
while after the screws came out. The same process will happen again
and again.

So.... Buy your self some left-handed drill bits and drill out the
screws. You can do the same with right-handed drill bits, but it
takes a lot more time. With LH, the bit acts as a screwdriver all the
while it is drilling, and the receiving threads are usually good when
you're done.

Replace with other screws.

There is one general tool vendor on the net that has LH screwdrivers,
and the very big hardware store in Dallas (Eliot's, I think) had them
when I was there.

(It's fun to ask for them at big box stores, and even most hardware
stores. They think it's a joke, like left-handed poker chips.


Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.
 
R

Rob B

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rob B said:
none of those torx drivers in the link show a 5 pointer ? even the one that
says textron applications ?

no there is 5 pointer at bottom of the torx security page , sorry i posted
too soon :}
 
O

Odie Ferrous

Jan 1, 1970
0
wrench said:
[I've been taking them apart to play with the magnets--- not as strong as I
expected in the newer drives]

magnets? in a hard drive?

Take them out, give them to a child to play with, and the child will be
bleeding inside five minutes.


Odie
 
M

mc

Jan 1, 1970
0
Torx is optimised for maximum torque without damaging the
tool or screw and easier insertion than the standard 6-way
symmetric format. IMO ist qualifies as possibly the best
all around screw head format.

Yes... you can actually hold the screw with the screwdriver... that is, put
the screw on the end of the screwdriver, then move it into position.
 
M

mm

Jan 1, 1970
0
Definitely correct. For anti-tamper there is Torx with a pin
in the middle that needs a Torx driver with a hole. Standard
Torx is just very well suited for automated mounting and also

I hadn't thought about that, but I had noticed that it stays on the
tip without magnetism, even when the tip is horizontal.

The tip won't slip out of the slot either, the advantage of Phillips
head. I wonder how long until there are chrome torx screws for
decorative places.

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.
 
M

mc

Jan 1, 1970
0
The tip won't slip out of the slot either, the advantage of Phillips
head. I wonder how long until there are chrome torx screws for
decorative places.

I don't know. Recall that it took Phillips about 40 years to catch on
(invented in the 1940s, not really dominant until the 1980s if memory serves
me right). Torx should catch on by the middle of the century...
 
C

Chris Lewis

Jan 1, 1970
0
I hadn't thought about that, but I had noticed that it stays on the
tip without magnetism, even when the tip is horizontal.

Square drive (eg: Canadian "Robertson") are almost as good. I drove several
hundred 3" deck screws through flooring yesterday - once put on the driver,
they stayed put on the driver and could be started and driven without touching
the screw.

No cam-out either.

I still think they should make the manufacture and sale of slotted and
phillips screws a capital offence.
 
C

Chris Lewis

Jan 1, 1970
0
According to mm said:
My drive is clicking, and one important partition has a very bad
directory structure. I'm not sure I can copy over even the good
partitions before it "fails". If I open it, what would I want to do
to stop the clicking, or to keep the clicking syndrome from preventing
me from copying the data to a good drive.

The best way to ensure that you can copy over the good partitions
is to _not_ open the drive first.

The safest way is to image copy the whole drive to a new drive. Put
the old drive in a safe place, and try to repair the new drive's
directory structure. Preferably doing a backup of the image you copied
to the new drive before you diddle it, so you can start over _without_
touching the old drive.

The clicking is most likely retries (ie: gouged media, weak magnetics).
You _can't_ fix that. You're unlikely to be able to repair even obvious
mechanical faults either.
 
Thank you for identifing this screw as the Security Torx Plus. It does
have a pin in the middle to warrant "Security". Now I just need to
figure out where to get one.

I want to thank everyone for responding. In one day, there are 50
messages to help me identify a strange screw, offer help tips to
unscrew it, and an explanation of clean room. Newsgroup and all you
helpful people are awesome!

I also read a lot of questions on what I am planning on doing, and lots
of warnings on taking hard disc apart and killing it. I would like to
answer these questions and clarify my position. First, you can read
about what I am planning on doing here:
http://www.gearhack.com/Forums/DisplayComments.php?file=Tool/Screwdriver_for_5-Point_Star_Screw.html

As you can see, I am not talking about taking the internal hard drive
apart (although I have done that in the past). But rather, I want to
take the external case apart.

Chieh
 
N

Noozer

Jan 1, 1970
0
Stormin Mormon said:
The Torx drivers sold in hardware have six points, and this monstrosity
has
five. Of course, it is designed to be a bastard conifguration, and you
can't
get the driver for it.

As the other fellow suggested, try slotted jewlers screw drivers,
sometimes
you can get one to wedge in just right.

It's a "security" bit. Should be able to find one in most tool shops - NOT
Home Despot, etc.
 
J

J. Clarke

Jan 1, 1970
0
mm said:
On 16 Jan 2006 08:17:07 -0800, "[email protected]"


My drive is clicking, and one important partition has a very bad
directory structure. I'm not sure I can copy over even the good
partitions before it "fails". If I open it, what would I want to do
to stop the clicking, or to keep the clicking syndrome from preventing
me from copying the data to a good drive.

(The bad partition is FAT16 (because I was still running win3.1 and
win98 and wanted both OSes to access the parttiion.)

Unless you have the tools and skills to identify and repair a surface defect
there's nothing much you can do by opening the drive that will "stop the
clicking". Either copy as much as you can before it fails or send it to a
data recovery company that has the necessary tools.
 
M

mm

Jan 1, 1970
0
The best way to ensure that you can copy over the good partitions
is to _not_ open the drive first.

No, I was going to open the drive last, after all my software
solutions failed. I'm sorry I didn't mention that.
The safest way is to image copy the whole drive to a new drive. Put
the old drive in a safe place, and try to repair the new drive's
directory structure. Preferably doing a backup of the image you copied
to the new drive before you diddle it, so you can start over _without_
touching the old drive.

The clicking is most likely retries (ie: gouged media, weak magnetics).
You _can't_ fix that. You're unlikely to be able to repair even obvious

It only clicks if I try to access the bad partition, and even then not
always . I can read the good partitions, but I'm told the clicking
will get worse.
mechanical faults either.


Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.
 
M

mm

Jan 1, 1970
0
Square drive (eg: Canadian "Robertson") are almost as good. I drove several
hundred 3" deck screws through flooring yesterday - once put on the driver,
they stayed put on the driver and could be started and driven without touching
the screw.

No cam-out either.

I still think they should make the manufacture and sale of slotted and
phillips screws a capital offence.

That would be like making digitial tv the standard, and non-digital
tv's dificult to use.

Think of all the screwdrivers that would have to go on welfare.

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.
 
J

Joshua Putnam

Jan 1, 1970
0
NOPSAMmm2005 said:
I wonder how long until there are chrome torx screws for
decorative places.

I know they're already available special order, but I like the looks
of stainless better anyway, and they're readily available.
 
F

Folkert Rienstra

Jan 1, 1970
0
Chris Lewis said:
The best way to ensure that you can copy over the good partitions
is to _not_ open the drive first.

The safest way is to image copy the whole drive to a new drive. Put
the old drive in a safe place, and try to repair the new drive's
directory structure. Preferably doing a backup of the image you copied
to the new drive before you diddle it, so you can start over _without_
touching the old drive.

The clicking is most likely retries
(ie: gouged media, weak magnetics).

Just any unrecoverable read error (which isn't necessarily a physical one,
it can just be a bad write, ie a logical error).
You _can't_ fix that.

Yes you _can_, for the logical bad blocks.
 
J

James Sweet

Jan 1, 1970
0
wrench said:
[I've been taking them apart to play with the magnets--- not as strong as I
expected in the newer drives]

magnets? in a hard drive?


Hard drives have very powerful neodymium magnets in the servo actuator
for the read/write head assembly. You have to be careful not to pinch
your fingers between them but they're cool to play with.
 
Top