Current version by: Anthony Kouttron

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Edit by: Anthony Kouttron

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Edit by: Anthony Kouttron

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Original post by: Anthony Kouttron

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@oldturkey03 Thank you for your input. It is fantastic. I just looked through the related patents and I did not see a mention of the patent for the screw. It is possible that it may be a japanese patent and unfortunately that it not my main language :/.

To explain why I am investigating pentalobe screws: ifixit first found the pentalobe screw used by apple in 2009. At the time, it was extremely unpopular as a screw. It was used in practically nothing else besides the 2009 15-inch MacBook Pro and caused quite a stir, which may have lead people to believe it was an apple proprietary screw.

In a recent [https://twitter.com/ELaurijssens/status/1067824757578575872|twitter post by Emma Laurijssens], she mentions her ipod hdd features such pentalobe screws and it was manufactured in 2007.  This piqued my interest as I have never seen a hdd with screws other than torx or phillips. It seemed fitting that apple would consider implementing an oddball screw in the ipod hdd as it was the one component that they had exclusive rights to (18mo exclusivity rights with toshiba) during the mp3 player wars, and it would be within apple’s best interests to reduce competition.

So I started digging.

I found that Toshiba did use [https://www.ebay.com/itm/231846123686|pentalobe screws] on their [https://www.hdsentinel.com/storageinfo_details.php?lang=en&model=TOSHIBA%20MK5002MPL|MK5002MAL] 5gb 1.8in hdds for the original ipod:

[image|95246]

It doesn't end there. It seems that Toshiba developed PC card II hdds with pentalobe. Toshiba advertised a "2gb PC Card HDD" in an April 2001 product brochure - months before the Apple ipod release on October 23, 2001. The 2gb pc card hdd acts as a 2gb expansion HDD for laptops that have pc card slots. Model number [http://www.toshiba.eu/discontinued-products/pa3079e-1pcc/tab/accessories/|PA3079E-1PCC].

Here’s some  brochures from toshiba about the drives:

Source: [https://es.computers.toshiba-europe.com/Contents/Toshiba_uk/EN/Others/PriceList/Toshibapricelist_may2001.pdf|1], [https://es.computers.toshiba-europe.com/Contents/Toshiba_es/ES/Others/PriceList/Catalogo_de_productos_Julio_02.PDF|2], [http://www.toshiba.ch/Contents/Toshiba_de/DE/Others/ProductPDFs/satellite3000DB.pdf|3]

Here's the later 5gb versions of the PC card. They all feature pentalobe screws:

[image|95245]

Source :[https://www.ebay.com/itm/232944068315|1], [https://www.ebay.com/itm/183450760173|2], [https://www.ebay.com/itm/323423240593|3], [https://www.ebay.com/itm/132290671304|4]

I think there's a way of looking up toshiba hdd manufacturing dates from the serial number on the drives. If any of these drives are plugged in the SMART data should show the production date.

With a bit more digging, I found a patent for the [https://patents.google.com/patent/US6025973A/en?q=fastening+mechanism+for+hard+disk+drives&assignee=toshiba&before=priority:20030101&after=priority:19900101|PC card HDD]:

The patent is from 11/22/1991 and not originally assigned by toshiba. It was assigned to Fujitsu Limited, which is rather strange since it looks identical to the toshiba pc card drives.

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US5488523A/en?q=DISK+DRIVE&q=HAVING&q=A&q=THICKNESS&q=EQUAL&oq=+DISK+DRIVE+HAVING+A+THICKNESS+EQUAL|1992 from maxtor]

[https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2000025316A1/en?q=DISK+DRIVE&q=HAVING&q=A&q=THICKNESS&q=EQUAL&oq=+DISK+DRIVE+HAVING+A+THICKNESS+EQUAL|1998 from citizen watch]

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US5444586A/en?q=disk+drive&q=fastener&before=priority:20000101&page=8|EMC group]

None of the PC card patents show a screw in the diagrams. I have not found a direct reference to the pentalobe screw in any of the PC card patents either.

I have found some patents that are very close to the Pentalobe screw. Here’s my [https://patents.google.com/patent/US5137407A/en?q=pentalobe&oq=pentalobe|closest find]. It’s from 1989:

[image|95242]

It shows a 5 lobes screw with the appropriate style recess, however the star shaped five vane recess is supposed to be rounded at the points of the star and the patent I found shows it flat.

There is a recent [https://patents.google.com/patent/JP5911025B2/en?q=pentalobe&oq=pentalobe|japanese torque screwdriver patent] that directly mentions the pentalobe screw, but I can’t understand it. From 2011:

[image|95244]

If anyone wants to lend a hand there that would be great. I still have to  get used to the japanese patent search system as it was down yesterday and I couldn’t try it out.

My conclusions so far:

I don’t believe apple designed or developed the screw as the screw existed a decade before the ipod came to fruition. It is possible apple never produced this screw either and just purchased it from a supplier, choosing pentalobe just for its exclusivity. Maybe the weird screw was intended for use among HDD manufacturers. I am not sure yet.

Possible original designers could include IBM, toshiba, fujistu, and even FANUC (fujistu heavy machinery division). IBM released the Microdrive in 1998 and then sold their HDD division to hitachi and HGST formed from 2002-03, so hitachi is out.  Interestingly, IBM micro drives used a [https://www.ebay.com/itm/173617044824|tri-wing] [https://www.ebay.com/itm/180788194811|screw].

I spent quite a bit of time researching this, yet it seems there is still a bit more digging to do.  Let’s do this people :D

''Full disclosure: I am doing this research in my leisure. I don’t work for apple or any HDD manufacturer. Not intending to shame anyone or any company, just trying to find the origins of this mysterious screw.''

-Anthony Kouttron

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