Breaking Down a 5" Hard Drive

Just thought I'd do a pictorial on a 5" hard drive like I did on monitors. That way someone can decide if their worth breaking down or selling whole. I used a 5" for example cause the parts were bigger for picture taking. Today's hard drives have the same basic parts, just smaller.
This is the 5" H.D.

This is with the cast alum. top cover removed. Some tops are S.S. Some even have a piece of steel glued to an alum cover.

This is the removal of the circuit board on the bottom. Usually about 4 screws to remove.

Unscrewing the platters. Older H.D.'s only have a couple, big gig hard drives have quite a few.
Removing the platters after removing the screws.

Thanks much for putting this one together as well. I think we need a section just for the posting of member made tutorials. Pictures and videos.

I've never seen a hard drive quite like that one and I never knew some of them have motors on them! Thanks for uploading!

newattitude, That hard drive probably came out of a computer from the late 80's early 90's. They changed to the smaller ones and some of them I've seen are only 27 meg and 1 gig, today an 80 gig is considered small.
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/...eHardDrive.asp
Maybe wiki can explain it better than I can. According to them the 5 1/4" drive was first introduced in 1980, and the first 2.5" was in 1991. Here is the complete history of everything Hard drive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...rd_disk_drives

In regards to the disk(s) inside a hard drive.... It's my understanding that the platinum on the disk is currently impossible to recover. However, if you get a large stack of these (50-100) they do sell on ebay... I would bet that amateur engineers/chemists, etc are purchasing them in hopes of developing a new way to recover the platinum. The money they would make from a successful method would probably be way more than any platinum they could actually recover themselves.

The platinum is recoverable by some companies, they grind up the platters then using different filters and chemicals they separate the platinum from the aluminum. It's kind of a long process more suited to a company than someone at home.

Don't want you too motivated, not in this heat, might have a heat stroke.

Originally Posted by Billiard MD

In regards to the disk(s) inside a hard drive.... It's my understanding that the platinum on the disk is currently impossible to recover. However, if you get a large stack of these (50-100) they do sell on ebay... I would bet that amateur engineers/chemists, etc are purchasing them in hopes of developing a new way to recover the platinum. The money they would make from a successful method would probably be way more than any platinum they could actually recover themselves.

Nice work 688!

I wonder are these people collecting these disks for recovering platinum or perhaps they are "data mining"!

or perhaps they are "data mining"!

It doesn't matter how they receive the platters if their recovering the good stuff, Some people snap them in half and others use a drill press and drill a big hole right down thru a stack of them.(just take the drilling's and include them in the box also.)

I destroy hard drives for a fee and then recycle the rest of it. The magnets get around $0.80 each sold in lots on ebay. The top is stainless, the case is aluminum. The read/write head/arm is aluminum with some copper and steel bearings. Motors go in the motor bucket, logic boards get sold for $10-$14 per lb to gold recyclers. The platters are cut into 4 with a metal sheer and then recycled as aluminum. Each drive takes me about 5 minutes to fully process.

I didn't know those platters had platinum, now I've got to go dig them out of the aluminum bin. Any idea what's on the huge 12" platters from the 1970s disk pack units? I've cut up a few of those too and kept the platters out of them.

i read that hitting the hardrive case in the right spot with a chisel or just wacking it with an axe is good enough to ruin the data.. am i missing anything?

Your right if your only disabling the HD and not tearing it down; your basically warping or binding up the drive so it won't turn. If you tear it down and use the super magnet that comes with it and "wipe" the magnet directly across the disks there won't be any data there to retrieve. If you want to be sure, cut the disk in half or drill a hole in it.
Like someone said, the boards alone are worth the time of tearing them down.

logic boards get sold for $10-$14 per lb to gold recyclers.

Heh, just came across an old hard drive kind of like the ones pictured but thinner. Got the magnets out (I had finally bought a precision tool kit!) and let me tell you, don't let them snap together on your fingers while playing with them!! OWEEEEE!!!!!!!!!