Shuttle Stealth Drives

Posted by Richard Hornby Wednesday, 11 April 2007 14:09

If like me you love your Shuttle, you'll also be annoyed at how installing an optical drive ruins the look. The Shuttle card reader ain't exactly sexy either!!

I decided to install both drives hidden behind the supplied blanking plates, this way I get to keep the clean looks it came with. The optical drive is operated by a slight touch to the blanking plate, the card reader is hidden behind a hinged flap

I have only done this on my model of shuttle ( SN41G2 ) but I'm sure the mod would work for other models with a bit of modification ; )

This isn't a difficult mod - you won't require any more tools than you had to put your Shuttle together. Except a few 3m pads and a glue gun : )

I'm going to break this mod down into two parts - first I will discuss what I did to make hide the optical drive, then later the card reader.

Optical Drive

Required tools:

Various screw drivers and hex keys, required to take the Shuttle apart.
3M Pad, to secure the blanking plate and operate the open/close button
Hot glue gun, To secure the hex screws to the blanking plate

Preparation

Begin by removing all the fascias to your drive, this can be done with a screwdriver - just push the pads in and level it off.

Remove the front of the blanking plate from the back by unscrewing the two hex screws on the front. Once removed you can glue these in place so that they match the rest of the case. I did this with white tack for the time being, allowing me to change back if I ever need to

Next place the 3M pads across the length of the CD tray, it is important to have some padding here so that there is some flex in the front plate. this will allow you to push the eject button by just pushing the face plate.

Position the drive inside the shuttle and hold the plate in position to determine where the drive should go to make it flush, you may now secure this.

Before sticking the fascia onto the drive I placed two large rubber 3M pads ( about 5mm thick but this may vary for you depending on the drive and shuttle you have) in the bottom corners of the drive. The bottom right one onto the face plate directly over the eject button. In the bottom left corner I stuck on to the drive itself ( see pic), this stopped the faceplate from bending too far inwards when pushed.

Now just align the faceplate correctly and secure using the 3M pads. Check it works and your done : )

Card Reader

As you've probably seen these mods are pretty simple. The only complication with this one is the usb header to mini usb connector, I made my own from some old cables I had, depending on your card reader this might be an option for you.

I have seen shuttle sell jumper to usb extension kit, aria have them for 89p so I wouldn't bother doing what I did. If, however, you have to its pretty straight forward - just cut and splice the two ends together matching up the colours.

Remove and prepare your blanking plate as before, mount the card reader on top of your hard drive, make sure to leave enough space to be able to shut the door with a card in.

Finally secure the blanking plate - I simply used silver tape, hinged underneath so it falls open when I open the cd drive, works a treat.