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 Whether they are spinning rust, SSD or the outdated 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 :-) :-)
