Hard drive enclosure made from a Moleskine
Flickr user Shoxcorp built a lovely little hard-drive enclosure out of a hollowed-out hardcover Moleskine notebook. I've used Moleskines for years and they're rugged as hell -- this feel like it'd really work.
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Well, at least leather doesn't burn. :)
where does one procure the USB dongle for the HD?
@2- Almost any computer store.
The biggest problem I see with this is the potential for the drive to overheat.
That is one expensive way to start a fire.
where does one procure the USB dongle for the HD?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002
I donno what kind of heat the drive will generate but it looks like the person who did this had that under observation, if not control.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoxcorp/3248618998/in/set-72157613246167585/
It's visually cool, mixing something classic with something very useful. I mean, a notebook is really just a repository for information, a very, very slow hard disk.
Do you smart tech people know if there's a risk of drive damage due to static with a set-up like this?
Do you smart tech people know if there's a risk of drive damage due to static with a set-up like this?
The risk is basically nil. I've had a similar rig mounted inside an old plastic 8-track case for a couple of years now. You're not going to build up a big charge inside a the case.
No real risk of static - you don't get shocks when you shuffle through a book, after all.
It would need to get pretty darn hot - 451 farenheit, no less - to burst into flame. USB's pretty low power at 5v 100mA, and you'd be pressed to start a fire with that.
I like it a lot. My steampunk sensibilities will probably go to a little leather hardback from a thrift shop. :)
More Boing Boing reruns;
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/25/80gb-moleskine-hard-.html
Great Idea! I've thought about gutting a right-sized book such as Feynman's Lectures on Physics as a sleeve for my Macbook Air. Should make a pretty solid case.
Wired featured a Moleskin - iPhone mod last year:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/06/how-to-turn-an.html
I'm guessing there probably isn't a fire hazard (though I'd want to monitor it to be sure).
However, overheating isn't good for the drive. I've seen situations where they've cooked themselves due to insufficient airflow.
Depends on the drive, of course. Some of the low-power/lower-speed drives may run cool enough.
Of course in these days of 4GB on a USB key for lunch-money, and larger keys available, one may start to wonder whether a hard drive is the best solution for portable external storage... since generally the portable unit isn't subject to either strong speed requirements or the need to write frequently. So this may be an elegant solution in search of the right problem.
Hmm. Great til someone tosses it down onto the table like they would a diary (and WOULDN'T a hard drive)...
The heat will probably cut the operating lifespan of the harddrive to less than a year.
One of those huge jump drives might be more interesting and less pyro.
you techies don't understand performance art.
Some enterprising company needs to make a hot-swap bookshelf for these (and a line of book covers). Great new way to organize data.
I'm wondering about the possibilities of sticking a tiny 4-port USB hub and some flash drives in there. Four 8GB would be about $60 + $5-10 for a little cheapy hub [1]. Of course if someone knows of a USB hub that has RAID or something similar that would be amazing.
[1] Of course it appears you can get a 32GB for about $50, so that would be smarter...Hmmm.
You can't read and write over a flash drive very many times, zuvembi.
There should be a whole new category for this sort of thing: "Asspunk"
#20 - well duh, of course not. But for my usage scenario, I generally tend to just be using these for sneakernet purposes, which they are more than sufficient for. If I want to use an external HD for real storage purposes, I'll just get a standard enclosure and throw whatever cheap SATA has a good cost per GB.
I've developed instructions for how to make a stun gun encased on moleskin...
I design consumer products that include disk drives.
The spec for one of the drives we use says the temperature can go as high as 55 degrees C. If the observation of 33 degrees bears up under long-term monitoring, then temperature would not seem to be a problem.
By the way, max USB current is 500 mA, not 100mA.
This makes me sad. I love moleskins. Especially my moleskins.
To see one gutted makes me cry.
I am not a man of money, so I cannot buy new moleskins whenever.
I save and care for mine, even when every single available area is drawn on.
POOR MOLESKIIIIN!
Makes me wonder how hard it would be to hide a small form factor in an old novel like the reader digest books. Or use on of these for thigns like tax documents or other legal papers you wanted to make sure where not lost of your computer was stolen.
I made a iphone book for a friend back in Sept 07 -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/morirsonando/1821820336/in/set-72157602833685544/