So many times I need to tell customers that their hard drive is fucked, especially when they drop their laptop when it's on (3 today is a record).
What's the easiest way to cut apart an old hdd to show the inner workings? Just as a heads up, me and power tools are mutually exclusive :P
I want to be able to show them the platters and heads, how the heads don't touch the platter (until they drop it of course).
Maybe give a few to a high school metalwork teacher and make it some kid's project?
All I have ever needed to open a hard drive is an appropriate size Phillips, or more recently Torx, screwdriver.
Oops, I didn't see the "cross section". I would open it first so I could determine where to cut it. The zinc and aluminum components should be easy to cut with a fine-pitch hacksaw blade, and the steel components less easy, but the machanism may have hard pins that you should probably avoid, and for the servomotor magnets I have no idea how they would cut, but you should probably avoid this too because the material is likely to be somewhat toxic.
Here is a good pic from "How stuff works"
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-hardware-pictures13.htm
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-hardware-pictures14.htm
I wouldn't use a laptop even if it was given to me.
They cram 20 lbs. of hardware in a 10 lb. container.
One reason they have a short lifespan in comparison to a desktop.
I have big fingers, so their keyboard is a pain as well. :bg
some cheap (and nasty) HDD's use glass covered with metal for the platters... crosscutting those might be both dangerous and pointless too