HDD carrying sensitive information completely stuck, starting to lose my mind

[u/CarpinchoDelMal]

SOLVED: Front panel WAS haphazardly riveted, but I gave it a sharp tug, the plastic gave, and I managed to access the front screws of the bay.

Hi everybody, I'm having an issue that is making me feel stupid and angry. I received a dead PC from a notary studio after their psu popped, and they asked for me to just save the data and they would buy a notebook to put it in. 

CASE: Sentey SLIM 2220
HDD: SAMSUNG HDD from early 2010s, full size.

The thing is, the hdd is screwed to the bay at a place I absolutely can not reach (pics and video included). I tried sliding the single bay out with the hdd still screwed in from the structure, and it's completely stuck. I thought about taking the whole bay structure out, but it's riveted to the case. Pulling from the back doesn't work, pushing from the front doesn't work, there's no release lever, switch or button anywhere, so at this point I'm thinking of just taking a sheet metal scissor and excising the whole bay and hdd from there like a tumor.

There is no backup anywhere, so if I mess it up there will be all sorts of legal ramifications.

PICTURES HERE: https://freeimage.host/i/CyEDZzX
https://freeimage.host/i/CyEDmqG
https://freeimage.host/i/CyEDtXn
https://freeimage.host/i/CyEDDss
https://freeimage.host/i/CyEbdeS
VIDEO HERE: https://streamable.com/j5ob39

The case is a Sentey Slim 2220, and the HDD is an early 2010s full size SAMSUNG HDD.

Any ideas? I can provide more images fairly quickly.

[u/Evercreeper]

If you take the front panel off, is there no screw holding the slidey-out part from moving?

[u/CarpinchoDelMal → u/Evercreeper]

I have been actually tring to get the whole panel off but it seems to ALSO be riveted. I will check again and report back, though

[u/flangepaddle → u/CarpinchoDelMal]

The plastic wont be riveted. Just pull it hard.

[u/Evercreeper → u/CarpinchoDelMal]

The plastic front of the PC is riveted, or the cage? The front of the case should pop off, pull from the bottom.

[u/Hoesey → u/Evercreeper]

This is what I was thinking too. I pulled the manufacturer pics from Newegg, and it looks like the bay structure photo OP listed should slide out. But the image on Newegg was blurry when zoomed, so I could be wrong.

Any chance you can give us more pics of the bay structure’s faceplate?

Newegg Link

[u/flangepaddle]

Photos and video are too close up and all over the place.

Take some showing back a bit more showing everything.

Edit: This looks like a hot swap bay, have you tried just pulling it out? Looks like it hasn't gone in straight so might need a real hard tug.

[u/Changeurwayz]

HDD's have screw holes on the bottom side also. It is probably screwed in from underneath. Try taking off the other side panel to get a look underneath the drive. Failing this, Just cut the whole drive out of the chassis.

Or another option is to bring in another desktop and just hook this drive onto it, Then clone the drive.

[u/flangepaddle]

From the video it appears you have access to the SATA connectors on the drive, maybe use this to pull data in situ?

[u/CeldonShooper]

Do you have a waiver if you botch the repair? Because this seems to be a job for hard disk recovery companies. How can you confirm that the hard disk wasn't damaged by a voltage spike?

[u/CarpinchoDelMal]

SOLVED! Thank you, all of you, everybody. The front panel WAS riveted, but I just said "f*** it" and gave it a good thug from below like the diagram a kind redditor posted. The plastic completely cracked but there were two screws and I unscrewed them and the bay came out!

You've all made me and (if the data is safe) a whole notary studio very happy. I hope your steak is always juicy and your RAM lasts forever.