Today, we're going to remove the internal hard drive from a Samsung D3 Station 5TB external drive.
This is a somewhat older drive that I purchased less than two years ago.
If you have this drive and you're using it as an external, I'll show you how to remove
the internal disk from its case.
The Samsung D3 has a three year warranty so it's still under warranty for me, but bear in mind
that by opening the enclosure, you will void any remaining warranty you might have.
The case is relatively easy to open non-destructively.
The tools you need are a Phillips head screwdriver, and a small pocket knife.
I'll be using the blade and the nail file.
Instead of this Swiss Army knife, you can use a small flat-head screwdriver if you want.
Samsung sold its hard drive division to Seagate quite a while ago, so you should expect any
recent Samsung external drive to have Seagate internals.
The only thing I can't guarantee is the actual model of the hard drive, which Seagate can
replace at any time with any other internal model.
The seal on the enclosure looks to be air-tight, but once you crack it open just a little bit,
it comes apart without much effort.
The case is made of two parts - one that contains the disk, and the other that acts as a lid.
First, you need to expose two small screws that fasten the two parts together.
The screws are hidden under two of the four rubber feet that are found on the bottom of the case.
When you look at the bottom straight-on, you'll see the white label that shows a bunch of icons, and
lists the model number and serial number.
You'll wanna remove the two rubber feet above that label.
I'll use the blade from the Swiss Army knife, though a small flat-head screwdriver would do just fine.
If you are using a blade, just be very careful not to cut yourself.
Once you've peeled the feet off, the two screws are revealed.
Take your Philips-head screwdriver and remove them.
The next step is to use the nail file, or flat-head screwdriver, and try to find an opening along
the seam, just above the left screw hole.
Once you find an opening, you'll want to jam it in at an angle, like I show here.
Now it's just a matter of prying the lid off.
The edge visibly pops up.
Afterwards, you can go around the entire case with the nail file, and uncouple the retaining
clips that are holding the two parts of the case together.
Once you get to the last side, you can open the lid just like you would open a door -
but you'll hear this horrendous snap as you do so.
But don't worry - as you can see, no retaining clips are broken, and you can re-use this
case as an external enclosure for another drive.
Let's set the lid aside.
Now that we can see the label, we see that it's a Seagate 5TB drive.
Next, you'll want to grab the hard drive from its sides and gently lift it up from the bottom
of the drive, like you see here.
Don't yank it out yet, because there's a small wire that connects the case to the SATA PCB board.
You'll want to pull that connector out of its socket.
Setting the rest of the enclosure aside, let's look at the drive.
We'll need to remove these two screws with the Philips-head screwdriver.
Next we'll wiggle the SATA connector off.
Remove the rubber shock bumpers off the sides of the drive,
and then remove the four screws that hold the bumpers in place, again with the screwdriver.
And that's it.
This particular drive is a shingled magnetic recording, or SMR, drive.
Again, you might find a different model in yours.
I hope you enjoyed – thanks for watching.