December 5, 20169 yr So, I was installing a brand new 4TB drive into my NAS and one of the screws broke off in the mounting hole of the hard drive... I made sure that I wasn't using a ODD screw either since I know those have a different TPI The head broke off cleanly so there's no extra outside the screw hole to attempt to use a pliers to manually turn the screw out... I was thinking of using a screw extractor but I'm concerned about any potential vibrations or metal shavings... Or would I just be fine with 3 screws? I prefer to secure the drives as much as possible...
December 5, 20169 yr So, I was installing a brand new 4TB drive into my NAS and one of the screws broke off in the mounting hole of the hard drive... I made sure that I wasn't using a ODD screw either since I know those have a different TPI The head broke off cleanly so there's no extra outside the screw hole to attempt to use a pliers to manually turn the screw out... I was thinking of using a screw extractor but I'm concerned about any potential vibrations or metal shavings... Or would I just be fine with 3 screws? I prefer to secure the drives as much as possible... Personally, I would just leave it (or depending upon your case use one of the bottom holes in its place) The screw probably bottomed out (too long) and you kept on trying to tighten
December 5, 20169 yr Author So, I was installing a brand new 4TB drive into my NAS and one of the screws broke off in the mounting hole of the hard drive... I made sure that I wasn't using a ODD screw either since I know those have a different TPI The head broke off cleanly so there's no extra outside the screw hole to attempt to use a pliers to manually turn the screw out... I was thinking of using a screw extractor but I'm concerned about any potential vibrations or metal shavings... Or would I just be fine with 3 screws? I prefer to secure the drives as much as possible... Personally, I would just leave it (or depending upon your case use one of the bottom holes in its place) The screw probably bottomed out (too long) and you kept on trying to tighten Yeah, the case has no ability to use the bottom mounting holes... The screw definitely didn't bottom out since it's not even through the hole... that would have made extracting fairly easy since I could have used a needle-nose pliers to reverse it enough to get a little bit of the screw out so that I could continue on the other side of the screw hole... I guess I was just unlucky...
December 5, 20169 yr The screw material probably had an inclusion, air bubble or something, or the threads weren't properly cleaned at the factory. Regardless of how it happened, right now you are in a position with a plug in the threads, protruding from neither front or back of the hole, correct? I'd be tempted to leave it alone, especially if you can secure it with the other 3 screws. If you are determined to get it out, the best way I can think of is a drill press but don't use the motor, just spin the drill bit by hand to see if you can get it to bite into the broken screw metal and turn it the rest of the way into the hole so it falls out the other side. A drill press would allow you to line it up solidly, and manual feed pressure combined with spinning the bit by hand would be no more trauma to the drive than screwing in another screw.
December 5, 20169 yr a left hand drill bit would probably be best If there is enough room past the hole to allow the plug to be ejected, a normal bit would be MUCH easier, as you can use the feed pressure to help move it forward. A reverse bit is a PITA, since it's actively trying to push back at you when it bites and turns the screw. We don't know yet what caused the screw to break, if it was a tension failure then likely the plug is loose in the threads and possibly just poking around with a sharp pick might be enough to rotate it back out. The tolerances on this stuff is usually pretty sloppy.
December 5, 20169 yr Personally, I very rarely do all 4 screws. More likely, its 2, 1 or 0, depending on where it's placed.
December 5, 20169 yr First, you definitely do NOT need to worry about the integrity of the drive => 2 or 3 screws are PLENTY to secure it. But if you do want to get it out, a screw extractor is fine -- you're not going to cause any vibrational issues with removing the screw.
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.