Turn Your External Hard Drive's Packaging into an Emergency DIY Protective Case

In a perfect world, we'd always have a protective case for all of our delicate external hard drives everywhere we go all the time. However, our world is not perfect and we definitely forget cases at home or just simply don't have enough cold hard cash to buy the rugged units that have them built in. If you ever find yourself in desperate need of a protective case for your XHD, Zach Ramelan has made a tutorial that shows you how to make a temporary one out of the packaging it comes in, something that might save your precious data (or at the very least, give you a little peace of mind) when you're in a pinch.

Now, I feel like I need to reiterate something here right quick: this is an emergency, temporary fix only. Ramelan isn't suggesting that you throw your actual protective cases away in favor of these DIY ones; he's merely saying that if you want to give your case a little more protection and you have no other options, this is a pretty decent DIY solution that takes little time and costs zero money.

Keep in mind, though, that hard drives heat up quite a bit when in use. Since plastic and cardboard don't really play well with heat, you'll have to poke some holes to avoid overheating if you plan on keeping it in the DIY case while working. I'd suggest keeping an eye on your hard drive to make sure you've provided enough ventilation, but then again, keeping it in the DIY case while you're editing for a long period of time may not be a good idea.

If you're interested in buying yourself a case or a unit with protective material built into it, personally, I prefer LaCie. I have a bunch of those little orange life rafts floating around my office and they've never steered me wrong or suffered cracks and chips due to my constant, almost intentional mistreatment of them.

Source: Zach Ramelan