Hard Drive stuck to caddy

Hey guys, i was trying to remove a hard drive from it's caddy but I was only able to remove 3 of the 4 screws holding it. The 4th screw is seen here


It's really stuck in there. Guess the person trying to remove it before messed up pretty badly. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to remove this screw without trashing the caddy?

 

Get a small drill bit and drill out the screw? It's pretty much shot anyways; whoever tried to get it out stripped it good. If you've got some good pliers you could also try to like grasp the edges and turn it out yourself, but I doubt it would work.

 

Yeah don't try drilling it. That's a last resort.
I'd try the pliers first, maybe a little bit (literally like one drop) of WD-40 or liquid wrench to help. At the very worst, you can take a hacksaw blade and saw in between the hard drive and the carrier through the screw. Then you'll be able to put a new hard drive into the carrier.

 

Oh crap I hate it when that happens! Used to happen when I was taking apart my M1730, you think your gonna make it and then you get that one messed up screw that'll mess up all your plans , I've been told WD-40 works. Good luck!

 

Find a suitable torx and it's gone, you can usualy fit it in and remove it easliy that way, i've removed hundred of wrecked screws with torx.

A plier should work otherwise though.

Drilling it off is the last thing you should do.

You can use an electric drill and put a torx that fits on the screw and set the drill so it is spinning counter clockwise that is, and just push the torx on the screw while having the drill unscrewing it, the force against the screw will make it unscrew if you push with decent force.

I've done these methods hundreds of times as when working with cars(i'm a car mechanic), many bolts and screws gets broken and has to be removed in one or another way. But these tips are the most mild ones

 

if the torx bit trick dosent work put a dab of epoxy on the screw then stick an alan key in it let it dry for a few hours turn it out and ur done with it it pretty much ruins the alan key but i have been reduced to this method before as a last resort

 

The best thing to do is this,
grab a dremel and out a cutting wheel on the end of it.
Very carefully cut a groove into the screw. This will effectively make the screw into a flat head screw. Than use a normal flat head screwdriver to remove it.

Dont cut too deep, or you will break the head off the screw.

It has always worked for me, good luck

K-TRON

 

That was a very good tip K-TRON! i'd go for that if i was in the same situation and had a dremel

 

I agree with that; in fact it fits into this scenario very well. The head of the screw is out there and it should be very easy to cut it into two...


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I tried some pliers but the head isnt exposed enough to get any grip. I dont have any torx screw drivers. I'm assuming i can pick up a set over at a local shop? I pretty much have no power tools, let alone drill bits.

I've done some work with epoxy and that was waaaay messy.

Thanks, i'll keep that in mind whenever i buy a dremel

 

Cut into two? I think you missunderstod what you did agree to here? It has nothing to do with cutting the screw into two, just cutting a straight line without breaking it so a flat screwdriver can fit and unscrew it!

See attached pic, to the right with the red line.

Torx, you can get them at any store where you buy standard screwdrivers, very common i'd say, and pretty cheap.
If you have hex-keys you could try it aswell, but only if you can make one fit into the wrecked screw perfectly, otherwise go with the torx idea.


Instead of using/buying a dremel, you can just get a small cutting blade and do a straight cut on the screw manually.


Otherwise you can cut the caddy, like shown in the pic, it'll be as good with 3 screw/mounting holes as with 4 so. But it's up to you ofcourse

I wonder if torx of the size that is one hdd itself should fit fine or just a size bigger than that.

 

Yeah, sorry for the wrong words! I meant "converting that screw to a flat-headed one".


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I was just f-ing around with you hehe So no need to say sorry!