Breaking down a Hard Drive

Step by step guide on how to break down a hard drive and maximize your profits.

Time per drive - 5 - 10 minutes. Faster once you have done a few.

This is what we will be taking apart a western digital 40GB hard drive.


First take off the board from the bottom of the drive. Throw this into your hard drive board box. They are typically 2-3 times more than mother board grade.


Next Find all the screws on the top of the drive. Notice how two were hidden under the label. Some drives will have none others will have up to 5. If the top will not easily come off look for additional screws.


Test the top of the drive. I am usually 50/50 for the tops. Some are steel and others are alum. Check with your magnet to make sure. This particular top ended up being alum.


Next remove all screws from the inside of the drive.


Place the various parts into their respective piles.

Each part can be broken down further into more refined piles.

The copper can be removed from the arm, the wire removed, and the connector to the board removed, and the arm itself can be added to your alum pile.



Sell the platters on Ebay.

Next test the piece of metal holding down the platter. They are often alum but can be steel. This case the piece was steel.



Once done your drive will look like this. My yard tells me to leave the motors in as they take them as Alum. Once this is done i throw them in my Alum pile and onto the next drive.