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.

Well least now I know how to remove it all and what to expect since I have one just like this.

Originally Posted by AJR

Not sure how much your yard pays for aluminum, but if you took out the motor wouldn't you get a higher price for the electric motor?
Also, the magnets inside the drives can be dangerous - hard to pull apart and will pinch your fingers real bad if you're not careful. But they can be sold on ebay as well in lots.
Be sure if there is data on the drive that wasn't wiped, that you scratch or break the platters first before selling them. Data can still be recovered from an individual platter from those who really want the data for identity theft or fraud. Plus people will buy them on ebay because they think they are loaded with a platinum coating, but it would take thousands of them to make it worthwhile with the amount of chemicals and such you need to recover the platinum.

Electric motors usually only get around .25-.28 a lb. might as well leave it in if they'll buy it that way, makes more weight. Also the little "washers" on top and in between the platters, the top one is usually stainless and the thicker ones are alum. It all adds up if your breaking them down this far.