Nice little load, with one interestingitem

My girlfriends dad works for a machine shop. (off the bat, no, as of now I cannot get metal, it all goes in one bin and they get paid a mix price). Well one day he was telling me they have a container of ewaste, and a local recycling company comes by and charges them (x amount) to empty the container. He tells me to stop by one night and see if i'm interested in anything thats in there, his boss doesn't care. So last Weds afternoon I swing by and he brings me to the cointainer. We dug out a few small items...

Microwave (cord cut)
Wireless keyboard
Radio (no speakers)
Computer power supply (marked "dead")
3 floppy drives (2 look brand new)
1 DVD drive
HP Printer
Polycom sound station (?)
Cisco ethernet router
7 flourescent light ballasts (with wires still attatched)
A couple brand new power cords
(there were also 2 bare CRT tubes in the container, no i didn't put them there)

and the big item: a HP storageworks 960 # BRSLA-0203. At first I thought it was for a security system, looks like a tape can be loaded into it. Little research tells me it's for storing large amounts of computer files (i believe, thats what i get out of it). I've never seen anything like this. They list on Ebay for (lowest I saw on a quick search) around $500. New ones on the internet go up to $5000. Has anyone came across something like this that could share some knowledge? Like if it has any value higher than scrap (for parts, or??) I'd greatly appreciate it. If it's basically not worth messing around with I'll scrap it out and take pics/vid for everyone one here.

That is a Tape Backup system.I have a much larger one that is due for the scrapping soon. It does store large amounts of data but on individual tapes that you can swap out. Basically you can backup your data to a tape and then carry it to store in a safe location or leave it in the drive. Most people put a tape backup in a fire proof safe.

If it is working then yes its worth more than scrap but testing it is going to be your problem. Most of them need a SCSI card to be able to connect to a server and then they take some software like Backup Exec to see if it will make a backup. There will be some small motors in there though to move the tapes in and out. A decent amount of steel and a power supply. I'm not sure the board grades in there but probably mid grade.

Tape drives are used to secure and store large amounts of data, the autoloader might load multiple tapes, probly should get on google and figure it out. Even sold in "untested - As Is" mode. I don't think you'd want to scrap a possible $500 in trade for a few cents worth of low grade boards and a utube video.

Its in essence a tape drive but you dont have to manually move tapes. That why you will have the motors inside. They move the tape around inside and the single slot in the front is normally called the mail slot. If you need to move a single tape in and out of the autoloader you put it in that slot and the robot arm inside picks it up and moves it to the correct location. Some of the larger ones have removable cartridges that you load 8-16 tapes a side.

This may be hard to sell and ship. If you list a few times and decide to scrap it, take it apart carefully. The motors and rails and rods can be sold on Ebay. Look up stepper or stepping motors, robot parts and cnc parts. Use these words in your title. Hobbie builders have purchased these parts from me for projects. Gears, belts, and even screws and standoffs can be sold.

Thanks guys, I don't know for sure my plan of action on it yet. When I have a little free time I'll try to look up more on it. I figure in the end it's just going to get scrapped, due to the PITA of shipping and all, and just having it take up space until its sold