Project #2 - Documentation

A tenent of Blackbox is for students to learn to explore
the unknown, to open Pandora's box, and to question
"facts" by looking deeper into "reality" and "truth."
Opening black boxes was the topic of my second
project.

Not six weeks before my project was due, I discarded
a half-dozen junked hard drives. So much for folks who
kept telling me to throw out my junk. I went to the local
Goodwill Computer Store to find that they did not have
any defective drives and only had one in the "cheap"
price range, $3 or less. I bought it. That worked out well
since I next went to Discount Electronics, an Austin
computer store, to check their stock. A friendly clerk
listened to my plan and promptly returned with a dozen
defective hard drives. No charge.

Most manufacturers use Number 9 Torx-head screws
in their hard drives. After checking with a couple tool
stores (who would be pleased to sell me a complete
set of a dozen Torx sizes, I found a vast assortment of
individual Torx screwdrivers at Sears. I bought all they
had in the needed size, including a couple with multiple
bits. I was still short, so I found a store that sold the
right-sized bit that fit quarter-inch drive wrenches.

I made sure the old 14-inch, 1-megabyte disc was
available, then researched the history of disc drives to
prepare the my introduction.

This turned out to be Blackbox heaven. Probably the
two most exciting items inside the drives were the
mirror-like platters and the voice-coil actuator magnets.

I enjoyed making the video of the open hard drive for
both the class and for this website. A piece of cat hair
on the platter destroyed the first one!