Scrapping Hard Drives
25 May 2014One Mans Trash…
As the followers of my blog, (cough…nobody…cough) undoubtedly know, I have been spending quite some time smelting aluminum in my (patent pending) Easy-Blast Furnace. It’s like an Easy-Bake oven, but for boys! Or something…
Anyway, back on topic! As a part of this endeavor, I obviously need aluminum. Up until recently I have been using aluminum soda cans, however, those are pretty cheap aluminum and the printed image makes for lots of dross. So I thought to myself, what could I use that would be more pure, and I can get easily? After briefly glancing around my bedroom I noticed that I have a disgusting amount of spare hard drives lying around all with the word “BAD” lovingly Sharpied across the top.
Seeing as I didn’t have anything better to do until 3AM, I set to work. Disassembly is surprisingly easy. All you really need is one screwdriver from a precision screwdriver kit, specifically the T-8 bit. My cheap Harbor Freight kit had one. Unscrew every screw on the back and pop off the logic board.
Flip it over and get the screws on the front, usually about 6, with a 7th under the label.
Pop off the front cover and set it aside.
Oh Dear! That looks complicated! Well, not really to be honest. Just remove any screws you see with that same bit, and pry out the two neodymium magnets (top and bottom of the complicated bit),
the magnets usually hold themselves in place (with magic magnetness). Take out all the remaining screws and it should break down into individual pieces. You have your platinum platted aluminum platter(s) (and little ring bits),
Stepper motor (sometimes on newer HDD’s they do not screw out)
and drive head,
once you have done this way to many times, your table looks something like this!
There are lots of fun bits inside of old hardrives. I have been told that you can recycle the logic boards and get some money from the gold in the wiring. Or you could play with the crazy strong magnets!
And of course, you are left over with a nice solid chunk of qualityish aluminum for your furnace, by melting the cases and the disks. (Yay!)