Today, we're going to remove the internal hard drive from a Seagate Backup Plus
Hub external drive - not to be confused with the regular Seagate Backup Plus
drive. This drive has two USB 3.0 ports in the front of the enclosure, acting as a
powered USB hub for connecting your USB 3.0 devices, like your phone, tablet, or even
other storage devices. Before you open the case, please make sure to test your
drive thoroughly with a utility such as HD-Tune, as you'll be voiding your
warranty by cracking it open. As you'll see later, I haven't been able to
dismantle the case non-destructively, so you will see some broken tabs. The tools
that you'll need are a small blade (like the one on this Swiss Army knife), a
flathead screwdriver (not necessarily this stubby but this is the one that was
conveniently lying around for me), and a Phillips head screwdriver. The basic
procedure is this - we'll use the knife to force a gap in one edge. Then we'll slip
the flat edge screwdriver into that gap, and pry it open. We'll only work on three
edges - those that follow a straight path across the bottom. The edge that has the
chamfer goes up 90 degrees, which makes it harder to loosen, so we're not going
to work on that edge. Here's the label which lists the part number and the
serial number. I'm going to start on the side opposite the label. First use the
knife to force a gap. When using the knife, please be careful not to cut
yourself. Once you have the blade wedged in, force the long side of the blade into
the gap and pry it apart. You'll see a gap forming between the two parts of the
enclosure as you do this. Work the flat-head blade of the screwdriver into
the gap made by the knife, and jimmy it open.
You'll hear the retaining clips
snap with each prying motion. Go around the corner and travel along the three
edges to force the case apart. You'll hear further snapping sounds, which means
the tabs inside are breaking. You'll need to do this repeatedly as you work along
the edge until you reach the end. Finally, work on the third edge - the one with the
label - until you get to the end.
I'm going to go back to my first edge to finish this
off, because I didn't quite get the entire length of that edge.
From this view, the broken tabs are more visible. You can still reuse the case if you want,
because the two halves will still snap together with the unbroken tabs that
remain, but you probably won't be able to return it to the retailer or the manufacturer.
Now that we have the three sides complete, we have enough clearance
to pull out the drive assembly.
I'm not going to force the fourth edge apart.
Gently pull the inner drive assembly out,
and set the housing aside.
Remove the rubber shock bumpers off the sides of the drive, which expose the Phillips head
screws holding the silver chassis to the drive itself.
Then take your screwdriver and remove the four screws.
Peel off the silver tape on the front and back sides of the drive.
At this point, the only thing that's holding the drive is the SATA board. It's
just a matter of friction - you just need to slide the drive off the SATA
connector and out of the silver housing.
And that's it! This particular drive is five terabytes but the procedure should
be the same for all other drive sizes, since the Backup Plus Hub case design is
the same. If you take a closer look at the label, this is a Seagate Desktop
model, but it's also unfortunately a shingled magnetic recording, or SMR drive.
Your mileage may vary.
I hope you enjoyed - Thanks for watching!