Hard Drive Wall Art Project– Part 1

This week I want to share another computer art project that I just started working on. I don’t know what it is with me, and old computer parts, but I love gathering up old computer junk, and hanging it on my wall! It’s something I may have to investigate and possibly correct before I run out of empty wall space, which is another “thing” with me.

This time I was thinking about what to do with the 20 or so hard drives that I have been collecting over the years. Some of these are smaller than 350 MB! Yes I typed that in correct – MB as in Mega Bytes, as in 486 computer hard drives. That’s how long I’ve had these things around.

So the idea is that, wouldn’t it be neat to have them all lined up and hanging on my ever-geekier walls. I mean, I already have a collage of computer motherboards hanging on the wall, why not display the hard drives in the same way?

I think deep down there is a part of me that truly believes that if I get enough of these computers hanging on my wall that it will somehow have super computer powers of computation, the likes of which only the greatest IBM mainframes could even compare. But really, I just love how amazing this old technology looks. It’s so precision made, and crafted as perfectly and shiny as it could be made.

Getting started

The first step for this project is to gather up all these hard drives that have been hiding around the house. I know there are a lot of really old ones in the basement storage room. I know because I’ve been hording them, and keeping them on my – turn into computer art someday – storage shelf. This is where old shinny stuff goes when I’m done looking at it, but don’t want to throw it away.

After finding the correct screwdriver’s I started removing the hermetically sealed covers. It’s funny how at some point in the past everyone decided to stop using Philip head screws, and start using a Torx screws on hard drives. This change seems to have happened when hard drive sizes reached about 400 Mega Bytes in size and up.

I have to say; twenty-one hard drives are very heavy! I’m not sure how to even attach them together yet, let alone hang them on my wall without it crashing to the floor taking chunks of my drywall with it. With my computer wall art projects, I tend to need to hang these things only after having found beams to drive 4 –inch bolts into.

I’m going to begin removing as much weight as I can before I start to construct the final project. I am also still playing with a pleasant configuration and layout. At this point I have my raw material, but it’s not really started yet. I need to find my inspiration for this project.

To be continued…