Trouble finding longer screws for suspension of P120S.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:47 am

I’m experimenting with a few designs for drive suspension, but I’m being held back by not being able to find screws that are longer than ones that motherboards come with, but not so long as to potentially damage a drive.
Can anyone advise me on the dimensions of standard hard drive attachment screws or a supplier for slightly longer ones? I’m using 3 Samsungs P120s and I’m not clear if with this particular model you can potentially damage the drive when using a longer screw than standard. Anybody know?
It’s been a long haul in sourcing parts for this ‘little’ project.

dfrost · Post by **dfrost** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:30 am

I think the standard HDD mounting screws are #6-32, which you can find in many lengths at any hardware store (in the US) very inexpensively.

Try inserting a full-threaded screw gently by hand into any mounting hole. You'll probably find that it stops because the threads are "blind" - the hole doesn't pass through to the innards of the HDD. That's been true of the Seagate, Samsung and Maxtor drives in my system.

Don't know what your case is, but this method works very well to isolate the drives in my Sonata.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:52 am

Thanks,

I've currently pursuing a different suspension method which I can do with standard length screws. If that doesn’t pan out, at least I know what screws to order now.

peterson · Post by **peterson** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:58 am

What about us with the metric system?

Any chance of a M-choice?

6-32 is like 3-16 right?

Or 3/16 like we wrote in school.

dfrost · Post by **dfrost** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:48 am

6-32 is like 3-16 right? Or 3/16 like we wrote in school.

That's an incorrect interpretation. A #6 screw is 0.14 inches (approximately 9/64" or 3.55mm) in outside diameter. The number 32 gives the number of threads per inch, which is very close to 0.8mm/thread. Don't think there is a metric screw size that would fit - closest I could find was 3.5x0.6, which would be too fine to thread into the hole.

Do European hardware stores sell US thread size fasteners?

peterson · Post by **peterson** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:56 am

UNC is not as easy to find as Metric in hardware stores. Not that i know of anyway.

Your system is just way too complicated.