On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 02:57:00 -0400, _ZZ
wrote:

I'm trying to deal with small Torx screws on a drive case. They're
about T8, maybe T7. Tough to tell cause the screws are
'pre-stripped.' In other words, there's not much edge for a Torx
driver to grip them. They almost look like rounded allen-head screws.
I'm trying to figure out how to deal with them.

"Pre-stripped" as-in, their head used to be better but a
tool has stripped it some, or pre-stripped as-in, this is an
unusual screw head that is still in pristine condition?



These are not the tamper-proof variety, so I don't need a hollow-point
Torx driver (if they even make them that small).

The first thing that occurred to me was to place a small Torx driver
in the holes and tap the end lightly with a mallet. That could do
more harm than good though, as this looks like very soft metal. It's
also a working disk drive case, so I don't want to damage the drive.

You should not tap it with a mallet. Sudden shock to a
working (viable) drive is a bad idea ignoring the screws.




I could try a tiny screw extractor, but the risk is that it wouldn't
work and then the remainder of the screw would really jam things up.

Any other ideas?

Find the closest shaped bit you can that's a little
oversized. From your description it would be an allen bit.
Since that is not a complex shaped pattern you can probably
replicate it with minimal effort. Take a fine file and
reduce the bit just enough to fit with minimal-to-no force
to insert it.