NOTICE:

Okay, I'm getting sick of this. Every now and then, someone brings this up and says reference to 18+ content. I even saw a website with photoshops of my computer displaying 18+ content. They even twist the story, saying I have 18+ content. In reality, I DO NOT hold thise things. This is extremely depressing and...

YOU KNOW HOW DARN DEGRADING IT IS!?

Those people who run those website cracking mature jokes over this project is a total jerk. It's giving me a bad name and it ruins the innocence of this site. And it hurts me too! I even saw one website completely TWIST the story and make this a facility for hiding bad content. It's STUPID and extremely annoying.

POSTING REFERENCES TO MATURE CONTENT = PERMABAN

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UPDATE: These "pr0n" people keep annoyng us. That's it. GUEST POSTING... CLOSED!

I never anticipated the amount of BS this little project can do.

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HOWTO: Make a hidden storage disk!

Okay, so I have some friends who really like to take a look at my files. Sure, I can hide them. But what if my parents will look at my PC? Oh, no. Not that I have "mature" content on my PC, but I have written all the crap that gets in my mind there.

So I decided to build this today. To keep my data safe.

Time taken (for me): 1 hour
Estimated Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Reference for Pinouts:
http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml

Note: I am going to post these instructions on BenHeck and for my friends in the Philippines and hopefully Engadget will feature it. So we can have people looking around here and to help them too.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: THIS HOWTO IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES OF FUN ONLY. I AM, IN NO WAY, GOING TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT YOUR MISTAKES MAY CAUSE. I ALSO AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU BLOW UP YOUR COMPUTER, YOURSELF, YOUR DOG, YOUR HOUSE, OR EVEN BLOW THE CRAP OUT OF YOUR TOILET.

Sorry about the disclaimer, because I know there are people who like to sue others for their mistakes.

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I had this unused phone line output near my laptop. I heard that the previous resident of the house used it for his dial up connection. Sorry, but 28.8 kilobit dial up for me is over. I'm rocking the 1024 Kilobit HiSpeed Cable. I was not using it, so I decided it will make a perfect hiding place.

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Here's the stuff I will use. The small circuit board up there is a PNY 4GB USB Drive. I cracked the plastic case off. It will be the "storage" device. Right next to it is a scissors. Left of the USB drive is an IDE Ribbon Cable. This "ribbon" of wires is pulled from a dead computer. It's not really that critical, but I used it for convenience. At the bottom is a 30 Watt Soldering Iron. These things get hot enough to MELT metal, so be safe when handling this. It will be used to melt metal. The liquid metal will then flow to the bare connections, securing them. This is called soldering.

Oh, I forgot to photograph the Duct Tape, USB Wire, Telephone wire and Screwdriver.

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I used scissors to cut four strands of wiring from the ribbon cable.

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I taped stuff down so they don't move around. Here, I am heating the soldering iron to prepare to solder the connections to the USB drive. A USB port has 4 separate connections. That's why I needed four strands of ribbon cable.

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Sorry, I cannot photograph the soldering because I had my hands full. And no, I can't let anyone photograph for me or the secret will be out!

Here is the USB drive with four wires on it. The four wires "connect" to the four connections of the USB port. I used the iron to melt the metal and stick one of the wire strands on it. The metal cools, and it will "lock" the wire.

Be sure none of the four connections are touching each other, or you will kill your PC!

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Testing if the drive still works.

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Testing if it works with the USB cable. (more on it later.)

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Okay, since the "core" of the project is done, now it's time to take a screwdriver to the plug and unscrew it. The screws are fairly long, so don't lose them.

AND FOR CRIKE'S SAKE, PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO UNSCREW THAT POWER PLUG! YOU'LL GET A NASTY JOLT IF YOU DO SO!

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Open Sesame! Don't worry. The wires will not shock you.

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Plug removed.

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I taped the exposed copper and stuffed the wires back into the recess.

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Cover the hole with a box, just in case someone goes in.

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A closer look at the back of the plug. Notice the different color coding of wires.

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Using the Reference for Pinouts, (See at the top of the page.) I put:

PIN 1 to RED
PIN 2 to ORANGE
PIN 3 to GREEN
PIN 4 to BLACK

I triple checked my connections.

If you have different colors, then sorry, I cannot help.
Also, if you only have TWO wires instead of FOUR, bad luck.

Once I did that, I set it to some place safe.

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Take a phone line wire and clip it. It must have FOUR pins.

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Now to make the connector cable. I took a USB cable and clipped it to size. Then I took the phone wire. I exposed the wiring on both connectors. You should see these wires.

USB CABLE:
RED
WHITE
GREEN
BLACK

PHONE WIRE:
RED
ORANGE
GREEN
BLACK

NOTE: Leave the phone wire longer. The reason is that the phone wire is brittle and can easily break. It is infuriating to work with.

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Heating up the iron. This takes a while.  :-P

The metallic cylindrical shaped spool of wire is called soldering lead. I had this for three years and I haven't used it all up yet. Eventually, I will but...

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The metal wire melts to coat the wires to bond them together.

Bond the:

RED wire to the RED wire.

WHITE wire to the ORANGE wire.

GREEN wire to the GREEN wire

BLACK wire to the BLACK wire

Triple check the connections for safety.

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Take some tape and insulate the wires individually. Make sure no wire is touching another!

The patch cable is DONE!  w00t

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Now to test if it works. Plug the Phone Line in first, then the USB Cable to the computer.

Gasp! The amber light is ON!

It's working!

I can see my files!

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Now to screw it back on.

Screw it.

Looks like any other phone line, no?

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It's WORKING!

I see my files.

DARK SPYRO!!!

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FINAL THOUGHTS:

It works very well. Just take the patch cable away, and we are fine and dandy. It looks like any other phone jack, but it IS a secret data device!

Heh... Now, what to put in it? Hmm... I don't know.

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UP NEXT:

Playing Insomniac Spyros on PSP

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UPDATE: May 9, 2008
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Youtube:
[youtube]http://ca.youtube.com/v/PP8ypD_poXw[/youtube]

Transfer rates: (Using DiskBench)

Read: 2.883 MB/s
Write: 1.183 MB/s

Slow, but working.