Me? no I'm fine, relaxed and at peace....

....that coffee mug half embedded in the wall - oh I'm sure that's always been there.

....that ancient curse written in blood on the floor mentioning Seagate's technical design staff and rabid soi dogs armed with rusty axes is surely just a trick of the light?

Some weeks ago I sought and found here in Pattaya, with the aid of the most helpful 'IT on TV' members some security version of TORX driver bits, my intention was to install a 1.5TB drive in a Seagate external USB housing I have.

I thought at the time I was looking at the USB drive that they looked like TORX screwheads but were different, I put it down to old age - poor eyesight or a change in local gravity flux.

So I purchased some T10, T15, T20 (?) TORX security bits, six point TORX star driver bits with a hole drilled centrally in the driver bit to allow a protruding pin in the screw's head to fit - that otherwise stops thE use of normal TORX drivers, with me so far.....

So Seagate have choosen to take a futher step to keep me out of my USB drive.

They have changed to use five point security TORX machine screws rather than 'normal' six point security screws. I did wonder if they broken into my house and changed the screws that night it rained?

[pause]The local black magic man has arrived with the big drums and the goats, it will be a loud messy night of curses and dark animal rights tonight....[/pause]

Now having searched on the keywords TORX, Seagate, animal sacrifice and five pointed $%£&£ security drivers - I can see that I'm not the first nor the last person to seek the dark lord of computer mis-use to change parity bits in their mail files overnight and make they LCD screens suffer sticky pixels.

I see that 5 pointed TORX 'BO' driver sets are sold on eBay etc. but frankly I'm ready to go in through the top of the case with a shaped charge and stun grenades.

WHERE'S MY HAMMER ?

Me? no I'm fine, relaxed and at peace....

....that coffee mug half embedded in the wall - oh I'm sure that's always been there.

....that ancient curse written in blood on the floor mentioning Seagate's technical design staff and rabid soi dogs armed with rusty axes is surely just a trick of the light?

Some weeks ago I sought and found here in Pattaya, with the aid of the most helpful 'IT on TV' members some security version of TORX driver bits, my intention was to install a 1.5TB drive in a Seagate external USB housing I have.

I thought at the time I was looking at the USB drive that they looked like TORX screwheads but were different, I put it down to old age - poor eyesight or a change in local gravity flux.

So I purchased some T10, T15, T20 (?) TORX security bits, six point TORX star driver bits with a hole drilled centrally in the driver bit to allow a protruding pin in the screw's head to fit - that otherwise stops thE use of normal TORX drivers, with me so far.....

So Seagate have choosen to take a futher step to keep me out of my USB drive.

They have changed to use five point security TORX machine screws rather than 'normal' six point security screws. I did wonder if they broken into my house and changed the screws that night it rained?

[pause]The local black magic man has arrived with the big drums and the goats, it will be a loud messy night of curses and dark animal rights tonight....[/pause]

Now having searched on the keywords TORX, Seagate, animal sacrifice and five pointed $%£&£ security drivers - I can see that I'm not the first nor the last person to seek the dark lord of computer mis-use to change parity bits in their mail files overnight and make they LCD screens suffer sticky pixels.

I see that 5 pointed TORX 'BO' driver sets are sold on eBay etc. but frankly I'm ready to go in through the top of the case with a shaped charge and stun grenades.

WHERE'S MY HAMMER ?

Just go out and buy a new generic drive enclosure for 500 baht, or spend a bit extra if you want something cooler and with extra features. Probably cheaper than buying more TORX bits.

Just go out to your local hardware shop and buy some small sized hss drills and drill out those damned screws . Not easy but it will fit to your anger and open this thing

Even more stupid are American wheelchair manafacurers who use special screws on their wheelchairs so if it breaks down you just sit in the middle of the road.

snap the centre pins out and then use the appropriate sized flat head screwdriver to remove the screws.

thought I might add - a pair of mini side cutters can be used to "crack" the screws if they are not countersunk - just grip the outside of them vertically and twist

Edited March 26, 200917 yr by stumonster

Xanax works pretty well...

Had the exact same problem. I took a file to a cheap torx blade until it fit. Worked well. If you can find easy out, that would be another way to go, then put in screws with regular heads.