How to Convert Your Game Boy Into a Portable Hard Drive
Dismantle your Game Boy., Dismantle your spare 2.5″ external HDD enclosure., Remove the battery chamber., Remove height knobs and walls from the front piece., Plugging in your hard-drive and fitting into case., Before you place the hard drive...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Dismantle your Game Boy.
There are 6 screws on your Game Boy holding the case together.
They are tri-wing screws, but you can undo these with a small flat blade if you don’t have one.
Alternatively, you can drill them out carefully, you’re not going to need them for the hard-drive.
The main motherboard has quite a few Phillips head screws.
Undo them all and remove the contents of the Game Boy. -
Step 2: Dismantle your spare 2.5″ external HDD enclosure.
It may be held in with two screws.
Take the controller board out and check that it will fit inside the Game Boy with a hard-drive plugged in., For your hard-drive and controller to fit in height wise, you will need to remove the battery holding chamber to allow for extra depth.
Using a small blade or saw is recommended do this, however, you can achieve this with small pliers and some extra time. , You will also need to remove some knobs and wall encasing from the front piece by using some small pliers.
Be careful not to bend the actual case!, Plug in your hard drive to the
2.5″ portable USB controller.
Screw it down.
If you would like an LED to appear where the Game Boy’s power light was, you can remove the LED from your HDD controller board, solder some wire to the pads, and run the wire to the power light hole in the front case.
Next, you will need to secure the original buttons back to the front of the case. , Cut your piece of paper to size, and stick it on the inside of the lens cover.
Find the best fitting spot inside the front case piece for the hard-drive and controller.
It is also a good idea to test that a USB cable will fit into the controller whilst in the game boy case. , You’re almost done now.
If you have any wires from the LED, bundle them up and push them underneath your controller to prevent them shorting when the lid is closed.Run the USB cable out of the headphone jack slot, and ensure it isn’t going to move around too much.Put the case together and see if the controller is loose.
If it is, perhaps put some foam in the back cover to use as a packer and stop the hard drive moving around.
My controller however, was a tight fit and does not move.Now, there would be more than one way to close the lid on this, but I just used superglue for now.
Put superglue all around the edges of both case sides, and then join them together, ensuring no cables are being squashed.
Keep pressure on it for a good two minutes., Congratulations, you now have a Game Boy portable hard drive., Get creative, and make a cool icon for your device! -
Step 3: Remove the battery chamber.
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Step 4: Remove height knobs and walls from the front piece.
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Step 5: Plugging in your hard-drive and fitting into case.
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Step 6: Before you place the hard drive enclosure in the case
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Step 7: you may want to print out a piece of paper with the game boy screen color to stick on the inside of the screen lens
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Step 8: as the screen may not fit in with the hard drive.
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Step 9: Finishing up.
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Step 10: Plug it in!
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Step 11: Customize the drive for fun!.
Detailed Guide
There are 6 screws on your Game Boy holding the case together.
They are tri-wing screws, but you can undo these with a small flat blade if you don’t have one.
Alternatively, you can drill them out carefully, you’re not going to need them for the hard-drive.
The main motherboard has quite a few Phillips head screws.
Undo them all and remove the contents of the Game Boy.
It may be held in with two screws.
Take the controller board out and check that it will fit inside the Game Boy with a hard-drive plugged in., For your hard-drive and controller to fit in height wise, you will need to remove the battery holding chamber to allow for extra depth.
Using a small blade or saw is recommended do this, however, you can achieve this with small pliers and some extra time. , You will also need to remove some knobs and wall encasing from the front piece by using some small pliers.
Be careful not to bend the actual case!, Plug in your hard drive to the
2.5″ portable USB controller.
Screw it down.
If you would like an LED to appear where the Game Boy’s power light was, you can remove the LED from your HDD controller board, solder some wire to the pads, and run the wire to the power light hole in the front case.
Next, you will need to secure the original buttons back to the front of the case. , Cut your piece of paper to size, and stick it on the inside of the lens cover.
Find the best fitting spot inside the front case piece for the hard-drive and controller.
It is also a good idea to test that a USB cable will fit into the controller whilst in the game boy case. , You’re almost done now.
If you have any wires from the LED, bundle them up and push them underneath your controller to prevent them shorting when the lid is closed.Run the USB cable out of the headphone jack slot, and ensure it isn’t going to move around too much.Put the case together and see if the controller is loose.
If it is, perhaps put some foam in the back cover to use as a packer and stop the hard drive moving around.
My controller however, was a tight fit and does not move.Now, there would be more than one way to close the lid on this, but I just used superglue for now.
Put superglue all around the edges of both case sides, and then join them together, ensuring no cables are being squashed.
Keep pressure on it for a good two minutes., Congratulations, you now have a Game Boy portable hard drive., Get creative, and make a cool icon for your device!
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Sara Diaz
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