Break down of a Hard Drive

OK, I went outside and broke down some hard drives. The first four that I did, I took some weights and made some calculations.

I will list the weights individually then totaled for the four of them

Start weight
1lb 3 oz, 1 lb 4 oz, 1 lb 2 oz, 1 lb 2 oz total weight 4 lb 11 oz at .70 = 3.29 minus shipping

Boards
1.2 oz, 1.2 oz, 1.8 oz, 1.6 oz total weight 5.8 oz @ $3 per pound = $1.08 minus shipping

Platter(s)
1 oz, .8 oz, .8 oz, 1.1 oz total weight 3.7 oz. @ $2 per pound(e-bay) about 50 cents

Aluminum
10.8 oz, 13, oz, 10.2 oz, 12 oz total weight 2.875 pounds at .65 = 1.86

total $3.45 after break down for those items. Not a giant difference except for the shipping. If you are small time shipping is of concern, if you are shipping gaylords full of them then the shipping pretty much does not matter to you as you will get a higher price that mostly makes up for the shipping.

There is another variable here. The magnets. In bulk they fetch almost 50 cents a piece as can be seen in the following link. Apparently they are used for windmill stuff.

http://completed.shop.ebay.com/i.htm...=p3286.c0.m283

Of the ones that I tore apart, All had 2 magnets except one of them had only one magnet.

The tear down is relatively fast except for one that I had to grind a screw off. Other than that I could do them in 2 minutes each if i get some more torx bits for my drill.

Questions, comments?

When you brake it down. You now have more boxes you need to send to more people. When selling whole you only have one box to send to one person.

Less time spent on braking down...less money on shipping...only one person to deal with.

Another cost you have to add on is the E-bay an Paypal fees for any item that is listed/sold on E-bay.

Just my two cents.

nice work PH and Mick this is just the info we need to decide which was is the best for us and our bottom line.

I will try to do a couple of items tomarrow.

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Originally Posted by easyrecycle

When you brake it down. You now have more boxes you need to send to more people. When selling whole you only have one box to send to one person.

Less time spent on braking down...less money on shipping...only one person to deal with.

Another cost you have to add on is the E-bay an Paypal fees for any item that is listed/sold on E-bay.

Just my two cents.

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Absolutely. Only down fall is I don't get to break them down if I do that. :) I am glad I did this. Breaking them down will not be for most people on these. I will still probably break them down. It was a relaxing hour setting by the pool. Now if I could figure out how to do them IN the pool.

Thanks for the useful info. There is one more variable which I think is important, at least for a paranoid person like myself: one can always get data off of an intact hard drive. Even if the original owner formatted it, in some cases data can be recovered. Suppose someone gives me their hard drive with sensitive data or, even worse, the type of pix for which you can go to jail for a long, long time. The last thing I want is to propagate this data further by shipping intact drives to someone else. So I ALWAYS break them down and take out the data-carrying platters. I was originally considering selling the platters separately on eBay but now I just destroy them. That way I sleep well at night...

I visited a e-waste recycling ctr web site today and they showed a worker drilling 3 quarter inch holes in them for that purpose

No need to drill a hole or brake them open! To damage them beyond use is very simple. Flip the hard drive over an on the bottom of the drive you will see the motor that spins the disks. Use a hammer an hit the motor...when you do that you will bend the disks..doing this will damage them beyond any use ever again but will keep them whole an so you can sell them as a whole drive still.

Again I learn something new from just reading on here!! I always thought u had to drill a hole in the drive. now I know better:))

Anytime....the motor is attached to the disks...you push the motor in..you push onto the disks...bending them with out even braking the case and...one to two hits will kill just about any drive..so its simple..its fast an very easy.

PH – thanks for great info! Did you check the covers to see if they are stainless?

Hard drive board are worth more than motherboards. Check ebay “hard drive scrap”. You will find whole units, platters, boards, magnets and probably more. You can refine your search in different ways of course. It is not uncommon for those boards to go for $8 or more per lb. Do some research outside this forum. E-scrap prices vary. I have found a buyer paying $4.30 lb for motherboard, $14.25 lb for ram, $3.25 lb for gold connectors, $10.25 lb for hard drive boards, $118 lb for 386/486 processors, $6 lb for cell phones without battery. I’m still not convinced these are the best prices to be had. All the answers are out there if you go looking for them.

The brackets the hard drive magnets are attached to are special also. Google “hard drive scrap” from first listing I pulled the following:


These magnets are quite powerful, almost dangerous if they are strong enough. This poses a threat to computers, seeing as most data is magnetically sensitive (at least to some degree). To combat this problem, computer engineers make the magnet's brackets out of an IRON, NICKEL and MOLYBDENUM based alloy called a permalloy! Permalloy has an extremely high magnetic permittivity, meaning it will stop most magnetic fields.

Then:

Last I checked, I could get a little more than copper price for my permalloy brackets. I shopped around at some of the bigger yards, but they thought it was too small of a amount to be worth their time. At the family owned place near me, I can get over $3 per pound for the brackets.

You have to educate yourself. This will be similar to the electric motor debate where some say “whole” and some say “break them down”, but more complicated. First all the parts and their composition need to be identified before an educated conclusion can be reached. What is the actuator arm’s composition? AL? Guess I better go search.

Theoretically, Degaussing or shredding is the only way to make ALL info on the platter unrecoverable. For most people, I am sure Easy's method is fine.

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one can always get data off of an intact hard drive. Even if the original owner formatted it, in some cases data can be recovered.

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If it's open then just take one of the super magnets and swipe it across the disc's one at a time and that'll wipe out any data.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

If it's open then just take one of the super magnets and swipe it across the disc's one at a time and that'll wipe out any data.

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cool!