DIY External Hard Drive Rack 2

Earlier this week, a freak lightning incident took out my 23-inch Lenovo graphics tablet, along with my printer, a KVM switch, and two mini-boxes from my cable company. The Lenova was a fine machine and I will miss it, but it was also eight years old; I half-way expected it to die soon of natural causes, but I did not anticipate that it would be assassinated.

Oddly enough, the other computer attached to the KVM switch seems to be fine.

Over the years, a rat’s nest of wires, external drives, and hubs had built up behind the Lenovo and I decided this would be a good time to clean up the mess. Because I’m chea–er–frugal, I did on the chea–er–frugal.

I purchased a shower caddy at the local store and cut off the hanger part above the top shelf. Then I dug a bit of wood out of my pile of left-over bits and pieces (in my world, there is no such thing as “scrap” lumber), cut it to serve as a base, and gave it two coats of polyurethane.

I braced the caddy in place with screws, alternating them on either side of the bars on the bottom so the caddy would not slip, and, finally, put four stick-on felt feet from my local hardware store on the bottom. It has worked out nicely, for a total expenditure of under 30 USD.

Here’s a picture of finished product. The new computer to plug these into is in transit.

Here’s a picture of the completed rack.

In a related tidbit, I was telling my barber about this today and she told me this: When she was younger and she and her husband had purchased their first house, she was napping on the couch when lightning struck the window air conditioner. She said that she could see it travel from the A/C unit along the wall over to the television, where it blew out their cable box. The A/C unit and the television were unharmed. (She also told me she freaked and I told that, if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be normal).

I guess lightning can do funny things.