WARNING: Thought experiment only. I DO NOT PLAN TO ACTUALLY DO THIS.
 
But I don't like being told that I can't do something - so consider this as proof of concept.
 
 
Let's imagine that I need to open a small piece of equipment (cough) hard disk (cough) and I need a dust free environment for a limited period of time.
 
Here are the materials:
 
1. large (40 gal) clear trash bag.
2. nitrogen cylinder/regulator
3. sterile latex gloves
4. Duct tape
 
Here's what I propose to do:
1. Without opening trash bag completely, place the drive (and necessary tools - eg screwdrivers) into the bag along with a small plastic hose and duct tape the bag opening shut.
2. Use a razor knife to make 2 3 inch cuts about a foot apart in one of the walls of the bag.  
3. Insert one glove at a time. Tape each to the bag using duct tape.
4. Attach plastic hose to regulator.
5. Inflate the bag. Make small incision at opposite end of plastic hose to allow nitrogen to escape - thereby creating a positive pressure micro environment.
6. Insert hands into latex gloves. Open drive. Poke around the innards. Close drive.
7. Shut off nitrogen flow. Tear up bag.
 
Tell me how this wouldn't work and be specific.  I'll even start you out:
1. Latent dust on tools, drive will pollute microenvironment.
2. Plastic bags aren't as clean as you think they are.
3. Nitrogen flow would need to be filtered. After all, we're talking about dust 200microns or less here.

And then your cat comes out of nowhere, breaks open the bag, and starts playing with the HDD head...
 
It would work... you don't really need nitrogen though as long as you have an industrial grade air-filter. But it won't be fully sealproof... and there will be dust in there just from the beginning operations...
 
Shrug, I'm an EE, not an ME...

You will have a very dry, non-conductive environment, be careful of static electricity.   Make sure the gloves are non-powdered.
 
Otherwise, it should work fine.

The way you should do it if you want a dust free environment is this:
Go clean your bathroom the best you can.
Put a table and chair so you have a place to work on.
Close the window and all the ventilation (seal your bathroom).
Let the shower as hot as you can so you will have lots of steam.
Turn the shower off and wait until the temperature in the bathroom is the same as the rest of the house.
Now you have a dust free zone to work in. Watch out for condensation, if the temp in the bathroom is still high you will have condensation on everything you bring in so wait until the bathroom cools.
 
The way it works is this. The saturated water vapors forms condensation only if they have a dust particle or other solid to form to. Once condensation starts forming on a dust particle it will continue until it weights enough to bring it down.
 
P.S. I use this technique many times before for working on special optical instruments and it does the job very well.

LRai  
   
 
Genius! Pure Genius!

I have done this 2 times. Not to be as elabrate as you, but to transplant components from HDD's into other HDD's for data recovery. It works, and I have kept both working drives in opperation with no apparent issues even with very small dust particals that may have breached the plastic seal.  
 
 
I also did not use air/nitrogen...., no need.... but I did use static proof bags, not trash bags... static kills electronics boys and girls.

Thanks for the tip.
 
I scoured the internet looking for solutions to this problem. Given the fact that many people now rely upon their PCs to keep their music and photos, data recovery will be booming business.
 
Since this happened I've gotten "Backup Religion." I set up a fileserver to store data, bought decent backup software and added an external drive. I keep all my critical data in one location, then back it up to two separate places so that it resides in 3 different locations: Fileserver HD, External HD and networked PC.
 
I've also cut a few Taiyo Yuden CDs of photos and am storing them in a safe deposit box.
 
Paranoid? Perhaps. However this drive disaster is the 2nd worst I've suffered (the first was on a Mac that crashed on the wife 3 weeks before her ph.D thesis was due!). This one was completely my fault, and I'll be d**ned if I let it happen again.

Ok incase anyone else gets the idea to do this for data recovery...
 
 
 
it will be the worst thing you have ever done computer-wise. You will not be willing to do it a second time, unless its your own data, or you are getting payed $1000 (which is about what its worth professionaly.)

You sure that the gas you will be inflating the plastic bag with is up to clean room standards?
 
Probably has as much random particles as the air in your house.

 
I think I have made it pretty clear that this is a "Hail Mary" when it comes to data recovery. However, many people don't have $1000 to throw at this problem. They therefore have the following choices:
1. Throw the drive and data away because they don't have the $$$.
2. Save the drive and hope that someday they will have the $$$.
3. Try this.
 
As for it being the worst thing... This is obviously not a solution for the meek or timid - but Tom's Hardware is populated by people who have submerged their PCs in motor oil for crying out loud. Meek and timid aren't two words I usually apply to Tom's Hardware fans.  
 
As for the worst thing I've ever done computer-wise - shorting out my drive without a backup stands head and shoulders above all else. But you make a mess, you clean it up, you learn from it and you move on.

I mean this is the wost project that anyone can think of, if it is not necessary.
 
As for submerging a computer in oil... much more fun and easy then self data recovery after mechanical HDD failure.

This might be a stupid question, but I didn't know if it is known or not:
 
Can the Hard Drive be submerged in oil?
 
If it can, which I realize it very well may not be viable, then IN THEORY, wouldn't it solve all the issues described above?

No you would block the breather hole.

Depends if the motor in an hdd is submersible or not, which I highly doubt... The guy who stuck his comp in oil had the hdd out of it.

The hard drive breathes, therefor it can not be submerged.

understood.
 
If a hard drive breathes, a CPU thinks, a microphone listens, a speaker talks, an anti-virus anti's, a FSB/HTT pumps, a (bad) CD-ROM eats, a power supply consumes, RAM remembers, a robot body provides mobility...how far off are we from AI...really?
 
This was tongue in cheek, BTW :-P

LOL. By breathes I mean it has an air hole who equalize pressure.

Yes yes, the whole pressure differential thing.  
 
It's an interesting concept though, being able to work on your own hard drive...which would have been feasible if hard drive platters were still bigger than dinner plates and minute dust particles didn't matter.  
 
I liken the concept similar to how cars are not that easy for the average person to pick up as far as how to repair their own vehicle, due to the increasing amounts of computer control in the timing, etc. I just hope that computers in general don't become as such, but then again, when the industry caters (a small part i know) to the enthusiast crowd I am not too concerned about that.
 
Still...data recovery needs a better model for business, that or some new technology on that front that brings it into the realm of Consultants and PC repair shops. There would be a lot less fear of PC's if people didn't have to worry about all of their data being lost.

Your kidding right? The large platters the size of dinner tables required a complete cleanroom and cleansuits. Dust DID matter. And local computer shops can do non-mechanical data recovery (most comon) fairly easily.

Plus, it would change the drag on the heads and cause problems there.