On Mon, 18 Oct 2004, Chris Wareham wrote:

> Thomas Dzubin wrote:
>> Sorry, not really a NetBSD question, but more a DEC/VAX question...
>> 
>> I'm wanting to move a couple of disks from my Storageworks BA35x shelves
>> to the internal shelves of my 4000-105, and I'm having a mess of a time
>> figuring out how to disassemble one of these green self-contained little
>> boxes without completely destroying them.
>> (note, I *DON'T* mean how to remove the shelf from the 8-slot BA35x box,
>> that's pretty simple...what I want to do is get at the actual physical
>> RZxx disk inside the nice pretty plastic green shelf)
>> 
>> There are two tabs on each side and I can seem to wedge them all in,
>> but the top&bottom of the shelf don't want to separate...do I need
>> to somehow take off the front (grey) panel first?
>> Obviously I can remove the drive by completely destroying the shelf and
>> forcing the two halves apart and breaking all the tabs, but I'd rather
>> not do that.
>> 
>> Does anyone know if there is an easy way "into" these shelves?  Or
>> were they just assembled in a way that they were never meant to be
>> disassembled and I just need to wedge a crowbar in there and let the
>> plastic pieces fly?  :-)
>> 
>> Thomas Dzubin
>> VAX & PDP guy
>> Calgary, Vancouver, or Saskatoon.  CANADA
>> 
>> 
>> 
>
> Judging by your follow up message you sussed out that it just takes a
> lot of force to release those tabs! Once inside the tricky part I found
> was removing the jumper block from the drive without damaging the ribbon
> cable thingy that's attached to it. I ended up with three new disks for
> my MicroVAX, but no chance of reusing the Storageworks boxes which would
> have been handy for the Alpha at work.

Actually, it don't require that much force or fiddling.

You *do* need to remove the front plastic piece first, before trying to 
separate the two halves. The front is held to the box by another set of 
plasic tabs. Look carefully, and it should be easy to figure out.

They also exist in some different variations. The ones with the fragile 
ribbon cable thingy can be a bit difficult to save. You have to handle 
them with care.

 	Johnny

Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt@update.uu.se           ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol