Feature - Old hard drive components become medium for unique artwork

12/28/2009 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- When computer hard drives go bad, Airmen from the 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron here typically strip them of all their pertinent data and send them to the explosive ordnance disposal unit in the 386th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron for destruction. However, recently one 386th ECS systems administrator has found a unique use for those worn out hard drives.

Miguel Rivera has been using the pieces from old hard drives to create a collection of distinctive sculptures. So far he has constructed two different cars, a fat-boy motorcycle and a robot.

"I just started making them just a few months ago," said Mr. Rivera, who has worked in the 386th ECS for the past five years. "We had a growing pile of hard drives just lying around the shop. One day I decide to take one apart since I'd never looked at the guts up close before. That's pretty much how it all started."

His first sculpture, a car-like vehicle, was built over one full weekend from standard 3.5-inch hard drives. It took a total of 33 hard drives to make, including 32 gutted for the discs and one for the main body.

"The first one wasn't really difficult to put together since I didn't have to modify much other than the cover," said Mr. Rivera. "Everything else just screwed on."

His second sculpture was another miniature car, and the difficulty of construction was very similar to the first, said Mr. Rivera. His third piece, a fat-boy motorcycle, was a bit more difficult.

"I just couldn't get parts to mix well at first to reflect the look I wanted. It took many hours of taking apart pieces and putting them back together to get it right," said Mr. Rivera. "From start to finish I think the bike took me three full weekends. I added a pair of dog tags given to me by a Navy chaplain as a tribute to our selfless troops."

Mr. Rivera said his favorite sculpture is the robot he built.

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Posted in: hard disk/drive