Fun With Some Hard Drives (they're Not all created equal ; )

**Bear** · 10-15-2013, 10:08 PM

Had a steady dripping rain today so I started tearing down some old hard drives I'd had setting for a while. Five were Seagate full height 50GB 80-pin SCSI drives (had 11 platters in each), 7 were Seagate 73GB 80pin SCSI, (4 platters each), and seven were old Maxtor 160GB IDE drives(which were a bigger PITB to tear down ; )

1. 7 more to go

2. Heads from the SCSI Seagates (the best ones were on bottom ) Still need to figure what to do with these

3. Gold Pin Connectors from the SCSI Seagate drives

4. Magnets

5. SS and AL cases

6. Platters The older 50GB SCSI had more much larger platters. I thought 3.5" drives had 3.5" platters, but the big ones here are 3.75" and the smaller ones are 3.25"

7. whole mess

I took the boards off a while back. had
Boards 3lb
SS 7lb
Al cases 9lb
Magnets 5.5lb
Heads 1lb-3oz
Gold pin connectors 1.3oz
Platters/motors still mixed 6lb

**billygoat** · 10-15-2013, 10:19 PM

Funny you mention that. I spent all day breaking down hard drives yesterday. I was an emotional wreck after it was finally over with.

**Bear** · 10-15-2013, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by billygoat

Funny you mention that. I spent all day breaking down hard drives yesterday. I was an emotional wreck after it was finally over with.

I can sympathize with ya there Billy. The old Seagate SCSIs were actually a piece of cake. When I got to the last 7 which were Maxtor IDE drives, those were more of a pain. I still have about 40 or 50 mixed IDE drives to tear into another day

**Mechanic688** · 10-15-2013, 11:12 PM

In #6 the larger ones look to be what I call 5".

**Bear** · 10-16-2013, 12:17 AM

I have some 5" ones Mech, from some old bigfoot drives

Those top ones both came from 3.5" hard drives(even tho one's bigger than the other), and the bigger ones came from an old Quantum Bigfoot 5" drive

**Bear** · 10-16-2013, 02:33 AM

The one on left is from an earlier 50GB Seagate SCSI
In the middle is a later 73GB Seagate SCSI
On right is a later 160GB Maxtor IDE

**parttimescrapperMD** · 10-16-2013, 06:44 AM

Those magnets on the left are monsters!

**weeeben** · 10-16-2013, 08:58 AM

that's a serious magnet, if you had that in your pocket and walked through a computer store,
you'd probably wipe out all the data from the pc's on display.

or if you put one in each shoe, and held one in each hand, you could take free rides on the bus.

**billygoat** · 10-16-2013, 10:03 AM

Originally Posted by weeeben

or if you put one in each shoe, and held one in each hand, you could take free rides on the bus.

That wouldn't work. You'd be stuck to the bus stop.

**Bear** · 10-16-2013, 12:49 PM

Reckon any of that's worth digging out of there?

**Bear** · 10-16-2013, 01:25 PM

Found some very tiny, but very strong magnets, in some of the working pieces. I had to set the pieces apart to photograph because they'd fly together. While I was removing the tiny round one, I noticed the small rectangular one moving which caught my attention. I found it to be the tip of some needle nose pliers passing within 3 or 4 inches above it

**Bear** · 10-16-2013, 03:55 PM

I was halfway through these before I started taking photos but luckily found a couple more of the best ones back there. They're what I think was called a "full height" drive, and the later ones were called half height. Anyway, the tall one is the 50GB Seagate 80 pin SCSI(had full size boards too, and 11 platters), and the other one here is just a shell of the 73GB Seagate SCSI and had only half size boards(and 4 platters), but they also had thick SS bands around the top

**Bear** · 11-17-2013, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by Bear

Found some very tiny, but very strong magnets, in some of the working pieces. I had to set the pieces apart to photograph because they'd fly together. While I was removing the tiny round one, I noticed the small rectangular one moving which caught my attention. I found it to be the tip of some needle nose pliers passing within 3 or 4 inches above it

Found a good place for the tiny square one today, in the toolbox. A couple days ago I repacked a wheel bearing, without the use of a torque wrench, and today gave it a quick check to see if it was snugged up enough, and guess what, it wasn't. I started taking it down to snug it up a bit more but had forgotten where the long thin magnet I'd used to pull the drift key out before was at, then I remembered this tiny super magnet stuck atop my workbench. Stuck the little square magnet on the tip of a flat tip screwdriver and it yanked that lock pin right out of there

**Dendoh** · 11-19-2013, 07:36 AM

In the 2nd photo, the brown/silver "wire" at the end of the head, isn't copper?

**Sirscrapalot** · 11-19-2013, 07:53 AM

Heh, I find some good tunes makes breaking down a bunch of HD's so much more fun. When I get a good size stack I crank up the stereo, load up the cooler an go to town. Goes by fast. Only ones that bug me is popping the lil gold dot out of the center of the casings. lol.

Dendoh..I was curious on the same if the colored ones were copper to. I've just been assuming they are, tho that can get ya in trouble.

Sure someone will set us straight!

Sirscrapalot - Learns something new every day.

**Bear** · 11-19-2013, 12:00 PM

Are you talking about like in these Dendoh?

Originally Posted by Bear

Reckon any of that's worth digging out of there?

I asked about that in post #10 but never did get any replies on it

**Dendoh** · 11-19-2013, 03:23 PM

I was talking about these

It looks like copper, even the silver one, i've read about "colored" copper, they both got the same shape, they are used with the magnets for generate the magnetic field that moves the HD head

**Sirscrapalot** · 11-19-2013, 03:35 PM

It'd be great if they used gold wire there, or silver...but yea..I'm pretty sure it's copper.

One time I wouldn't mind being wrong...lol.

Sirscrapalot - If it's gold he has about 4 ozt worth!

**newattitude** · 11-19-2013, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by billygoat

That wouldn't work. You'd be stuck to the bus stop.

omg, i'm laughing so hard I'm crying after reading the previous posts and then yours!

**sschind** · 11-20-2013, 04:58 PM

Just out of curiosity, how much do you think you would get out of that mess. I had a bunch of old hard drives and I broke them down pretty far just because I do it while watching TV at night so I'm not spending a lot of time on it. I've been told it is still a waste of time though. Are the platters worth anything. One yard I was dealing with said no. Are the magnets worth keeping separate? again the yard said no. If they are worth separating is it worth it to remove the magnets from the base?

Sorry for all the questions its just that I am getting a lot of conflicting information.

Fun With Some Hard Drives (they're Not all created equal ; )

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