I have nerdy leanings — I like technology and so-called life hacking stuff…though I’m not much a life hacker, I think the whole concept is cool and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty when the need arises. And, like most computer users, the need for increased hard drive space arises once in a while. It’s an easy enough need to fulfill — when my desktop PC needs a bump in storage, I just go to to whatever computer retailer has the lowest price on an external hard drive (I like Seagate drives, they seem to last the longest), and I’m good. However, I recently ran into this issue with my MacBook — which is my productivity machine, the computer that my life lives on, the machine that’s pretty much always with me — and it presented a problem that required more of a custom solution.
Because my laptop is pretty much always with me and is in my bag when I’m not using it, a main concern when considering an external hard drive — right up there with reliability and capacity — was portability and ruggedness. It’s going to have to survive in one of the small pockets in my shoulder bag, a snug but mobile environment. Furthermore, I’m always concerned with footprint that my laptop takes up in any work space. I don’t want a whole bunch of techno-accessories all over the place, especially on a desk in a home studio space that already overcrowded with gear; or on my desk at work with another computer and a ton of magazines, project documents and other office crap; or on an airplane, on the couch etc. So an ideal solution would also include something that keeps the drive out of the way.
I recently spent some time on vacation and one of the people I travelled with (my girlfriend’s oldest brother) had a Seagate Go drive affixed to the back of his old PowerMac laptop. It was a perfect solution. I totally bit the idea, hit the Office Depot and got to work. Here’s how it went down:
- Chose your drive. There are handful of small-profile hard drives on the market, but I chose the Seagate 500GB FreeAgent GO, largely because of previous experience with the brand, and based on user reviews from sites like Amazon.com and Cnet.com. And I specifically chose the Mac version of the drive, though I could have gone with the PC one and reformatted to work with my MacBook. But the Mac-formatted version includes power management (sleep and shut down) that works in sync with the laptop’s power options, and comes ready to do the Mac Time Machine backup thing, and since I won’t be sharing this drive with my desktop computers at work or at home, it seemed like it was worth the extra $30.
- Gather all the materials — laptop, hard drive, velcro (not pictured: scissors, to cut the velcro squares, which come in strips of four, into individual pieces):
- Affix one side of the velcro squares to the back of the hard drive. I put the velcro hooks on the drive, because the inside of the sleeve I carry my laptop is all soft and fuzzy and would stick to the hooks:
- To insure proper alignment, stick the fuzzy velcro squares — backing still attached — to the hooky velcro squares that are already affixed to the drive:
- Get your placement right on the back of the laptop monitor (making sure the cable can reach the drive when it’s attached) remove the backing from the fuzzy squares (still stuck to the hook velcro on the back of the drive), and adhere it to the top of the laptop. NOTE: I discovered that my MacBook’s wireless antenna is on the left side of the monitor, and the active drive interfered with (pretty much totally cut off) the wireless signal, so I moved the drive to the right side of the monitor, and my wireless connection was restored to full:
- You can see that the velcro provides a bit of lift to the drive to allow air flow between the back of the monitor and drive itself. With the Freeagent GO, it’s the silver top, not the bottom, that gets warm during use, so bottom ventilation doesn’t seem to be much of an issue:
- Done. Open up the monitor, fire up the computer, and enjoy a shitload of extra hard drive space without taking up any more space on your desk:
Looks great! I found this by searching for how to do exactly what you did. :) Have there been any issues with doing this? I was concerned that maybe the magnets inside the drive or the heat from it might somehow impact the monitor. Have you found any problems? Any discoloration in any part of the screen area where the harddrive is? Thanks in advance!
Hi Tommy, thanks for checking it out!
Other than what I mentioned above about the drive interrupting the laptop’s wireless signal when mounted on the left side of the monitor, I haven’t experienced any problems with the magnets or the heat from the drive affecting the screen — is discoloration, no problems with display. The FreeAgent Go seems to channel most of the heat off the top of drive, and every time I check the bottom (where the velcro is affixed), it’s not that warm. I can’t speak for other brands, but this small Seagate has performed really well in this situation. This drive has been up and running, mounted to the monitor, since early August ’09, I’m on it for at least 8 hours most days, and things are working nicely. Good luck!
Thanks for the speedy reply! I have the same harddrive (though it’s the PC version…wish I woulda known about the Mac version which is only $11 more on Amazon). Ok, heading to Walgreens to get some velcro.
And I just noticed that you’re living in Oakland. Greetings from San Leandro! (lived in Oakland, CA 94612 for 14 years)