Mounting a hard drive underneath desk

B0bbyEwing

Not really a hard drive, more an enclosure.

This enclosure to be exact.

A lot of the time it's just a case of knowing what's on the market to make your job easier.

I've found some stuff on Etsy but it was getting on £30 which is a bit silly imo.

I want it off the desk really but still handy. I was thinking of some under desk bracket type thing that I could screw to the underside of the desk which the enclosure would sit inside. I'd then have the cables running the underside of the desk as best I can & going in to the mains & the rear of my PC.

I also have a WD Elements desk drive & see they do mounts for these but once again it's getting on £30 which is just daft. Plus I'm not sure the Elements would get used as much as the enclosure so I'd be preferring a mount for the enclosure really.

No I can't 3D print else I would've made the mount myself.

matelodave

Find someone with a 3D printer to make you a bracket or use a couple of stirps of wood on each side with a panel on the bottom.

It really doesn't have to be complicated nor cost a lot of money just to mount it to the underside of a desk.

forgotmyname

B&Q in their loft and general building section. They sell steel straps that are easily bent to shape and strong enought
to hold a fair bit of weight. What is the desk make from though?

Solid wood will be fine but chipboard may have issues with the weight.

Andy_L

a few strips of velcro tape

chunter

I too would be a Velcro man, especially if you're going with a SSD (light!).
Also handy if you need to remove it for any reason.
Also would nullify any minor vibration (non SSD).
Also power it via an individually switched (4-way?) extension and put that on or near desktop - simply means you can switch it off when you're not using it.

Cisco001

Just get a under desk cable tray.

B0bbyEwing

In the end I managed to find some brackets after scrolling on Amazon. Under desk laptop brackets with just enough clearance. Enclosure comes in at 35-36mm & the clearance on these brackets is allegedly 40mm. Cost something like £10-£13.

I could go the making it route but 1) it'd look parc and 2) For the sake of £10ish I'd rather not go faffing around buying stuff in, messing about bodging here & there with the end result just looking poor anyway.

Cable tidy was a no go due to the design of the desk. There's a tidy of sorts underneath anyway built in to the desk & underneath this I've self adhesived a cable tidy run anyway.

Velcro was a no go as well. I'm not trusting a bit of sticky tape to stop a hard drive from falling while things are being transferred.

As for what desk - it's an Ikea desk. Not sure the name. It has a storage drawer & cabinet on one side with an in built cable tidy at the rear. All 'wood', no metal legs.

Murmansk

I have my whole PC system unit hanging under my desk held by bits of old seatbelt strap screwed with washers to the underside of the desk. You could do something similar but far less weight to carry.

bob2302

Why don't you just put your PC on the floor?

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82030370#Comment_82030370

1. how does that help with placing a hard drive enclosure?
2. dust. Lots of dust. I had it on the floor for years & the dust was ridiculous. It now sits on the end of the desk.

bob2302

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82031206#Comment_82031206

You either put it on the floor, somewhere out of the way, or on the top of the computer.

I keep an HDD on top of my "under the desk" desktop connected with a sata-usb adaptor. I would only use an enclosure for a device that needs to be carried around, docks and adaptors are more flexible and allow for better cooling than a fanless enclosure.