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Scrapping hard drives

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    KC-SF started this thread.
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    Scrapping hard drives

    I have a project that involves scrapping 1,700 3.5” hard drives. I usually don’t deal with aluminum. What would the anodized aluminum cases be classified as at the scrap yard?

    I also have access to a sand blaster and a crew of high school kids that are dying to use it. Would the scrap price be different if they were blasted clean?

    All the drives are dated no later than 1992. Does anyone know what metal the drive platters are made of?



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    you can search this on the forum on what the platers are made of...its been said a few times nows and where to sell them.

    Sand basting them should not make them worth more.

    I will buy the hard drives from you at $0.90 for that much weight. each drive is a pound or a little over so thats a cash offer of $1,530.

    AL is selling for around $0.70 or so.
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    KC-SF started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by easyrecycle View Post
    you can search this on the forum on what the platers are made of...its been said a few times nows and where to sell them.

    Sand basting them should not make them worth more.

    I will buy the hard drives from you at $0.90 for that much weight. each drive is a pound or a little over so thats a cash offer of $1,530.

    AL is selling for around $0.70 or so.
    I wish I could flip these drives. They belonged to a company that operates several internet server farms with about 300 servers per location. Their drive arrays reject about 50 drives a week. The drives probably could be repaired and re-certified, but they still contain client data and they don’t want to risk putting a repaired drive back into service. I have to scrap & certify that the drives are destroyed, and produce a weekly scrap report. I just picked these people up and if all goes well, they’ll give me everything they need to get rid of for free from now on.

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    Quote Originally Posted by KC-SF View Post
    I wish I could flip these drives. They belonged to a company that operates several internet server farms with about 300 servers per location. Their drive arrays reject about 50 drives a week. The drives probably could be repaired and re-certified, but they still contain client data and they don’t want to risk putting a repaired drive back into service. I have to scrap & certify that the drives are destroyed, and produce a weekly scrap report. I just picked these people up and if all goes well, they’ll give me everything they need to get rid of for free from now on.
    Congrats and getting a good contract like that. Some companies want to be paid to recuperate some sort of costs, but others like your new clients, want the cheapest way possible to dispose of them, so they dont spend money out of pocket.

    Have fun scrapping them.
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    Quote Originally Posted by KC-SF View Post
    I wish I could flip these drives. They belonged to a company that operates several internet server farms with about 300 servers per location. Their drive arrays reject about 50 drives a week. The drives probably could be repaired and re-certified, but they still contain client data and they don’t want to risk putting a repaired drive back into service. I have to scrap & certify that the drives are destroyed, and produce a weekly scrap report. I just picked these people up and if all goes well, they’ll give me everything they need to get rid of for free from now on.
    The drives would not be repaired. That would be for scrap drives. But to make sure on your paper work you can damage the drives beyond use by hitting the back of each one on top of the motor. What this will do is "push" the motor onto the hard drive disks and bend them out of shape. Once they are bent there is no fixing them. The disk and the data are gone for ever.

    So you can "flip" the drives..just use a hammer and give them a good hit on the back until you see that motor "push" in an box it up and move onto the next one.

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    Quote Originally Posted by easyrecycle View Post
    The drives would not be repaired. That would be for scrap drives. But to make sure on your paper work you can damage the drives beyond use by hitting the back of each one on top of the motor. What this will do is "push" the motor onto the hard drive disks and bend them out of shape. Once they are bent there is no fixing them. The disk and the data are gone for ever.

    So you can "flip" the drives..just use a hammer and give them a good hit on the back until you see that motor "push" in an box it up and move onto the next one.
    It doesn't just bend them, it breaks them. The platters shatter really easy.

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    Quote Originally Posted by KC-SF View Post
    I have a project that involves scrapping 1,700 3.5” hard drives. I usually don’t deal with aluminum. What would the anodized aluminum cases be classified as at the scrap yard?
    If im not mistaking its cast. The cover is stainless if im right. Platters are alluminum with some platinum in them. ANd the magnets can be sold on ebay pretty good. Thats about the extent of my kowledge hope it helped.

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    It doesn't just bend them, it breaks them. The platters shatter really easy.
    I've only had 1 shatter on me and it looked like it was made out of a mirror, the rest just bend cause their alum. If you want to make sure about the destruction of the drives, take a stack of them and using a drill press just drill a couple holes in the H.D.'s Nobody can reuse em then,,,
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    Mechanic, some hard drives did have platters made out of glass with a coating (I think it was platinum just like the aluminum platters)

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    Ive been informed by a refiner that there is no platinum on the platters, his exact words were "that is a myth".

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    Quote Originally Posted by fnd5055 View Post
    Ive been informed by a refiner that there is no platinum on the platters, his exact words were "that is a myth".
    There is platinum on the disc but a miniscule amount on each..

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    I think he's jerking your chain cause it's been documented all over the net. Here's a quote taken from the gold refining forum.
    Per the research I've done, the film on hard drive platters contains platinum, for a 3.5" platter, there is about 1 gram of film, and the film will contain between 10% and 35% platinum (more platinum the newer the drive). so 10 platters would be 1 gram or more.

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    you can always sell the hard drives on ebay. i think thats what im gonna do when i get enough i dont have that many. i wish i could scrap more computers though.


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