I use a box cutter and start one end. I try to take the blade down a few inches so that once I get the copper exposed I can hold the wire in a gloved hand and then grab the insulation with pliers and start pulling. Can be a hassle at times, that I won't deny, as the insulation weakens in some parts and snaps before it is off. All the wires I have pulled from a computer have been copper. It may look like aluminum when you first strip it, but that is a solder covering on the wires. If you use a file on it, you see what I mean.
The ribbons that connect the hard drive to the mother board and cdrom/dvdrom drives are copper. I don't bother stripping those as they are a pain. Pretty sure USB cables are the same. I cut open a few Ethernet cables to find that they are copper.
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