> However, I've never seen glass deform plastically before. I didn't think 
> it could do that.

No, it tends to fail before it deforms plastically.  Doesn't mean glass 
can't bend or exist in a bent state though (you just need some force to hold 
it there).

> Have you handled a harddrive lately? It's basically a solid brick of steel 
> with spaces inside it hollowed out for the platters and the motor.

Yes, and also about 10-15mm thick, so I fail to see how the case around the 
platters is an inch thick.

> That's just it. If you take any feasible size motor and gear it down 
> sufficiently to generate the collossal forces required, the thing would 
> move so slowly it would make continental drift look fast. Yet this machine 
> doesn't appear to do that...

You only need to crush a distance of about 10 mm, and I assume you want that 
done in a few seconds, so I make that about 2mm/s, and given a 100W motor 
that gives 50 kN.  I haven't tried it, but it sounds enough to do some 
serious damage to the drive...

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