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Small capacity hard drives

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    ScrappinRed started this thread.
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    Small capacity hard drives

    I got a lot of *desktop hard drives this week that have small capacities. Most were under 8 gig (apparently old?).



    Is it fairly safe to say that these are probably just worth scrapping and selling the cards and cast aluminum, etc?

    I have a guy who buys all my larger hard drives 40gig+, but these little ones don't seem very functional now days even as a back-up. I'm new to the e-scrap and trying to learn quickly.

    Thank you
    Last edited by ScrappinRed; 02-28-2012 at 12:50 PM. Reason: clarify


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    I scrap those. I get so many that there are plenty 40 gig or higher right around the corner. How juch does your buyer pay for the 40 gig and higher if I may ask?

    Rule of thumb for me is 20 gig or higher has some value.

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  4. #3
    ScrappinRed started this thread.
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    Thank you Parrothead.

    Well, since I don't test them and just want to turn them around quickly, $5-$8 on all the hard drives. I know that's not a lot compared to what I've seen on ebay, but there's no shipping or fees and it's a fast cash turn around. He also buys all my untested ram for $2-$8 depending on size. Lets me know that I can buy complete computers at $5 and for the most part make my money back immediately.

    I'm going to throw some of these little hard drives on Craigslist and see if anyone jumps at $6 a pop before I scrap them. I'll post if someone grabs them...

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    older hdd's can be quite valuable as collectors items on ebay, as cl prohibits shipping. Quite funny huh, for years ebay and paypal tried to convince us how safe it was to buy long distance, now cl says that's not safe, they'll rob you, meet em in a parking lot instead The apple branded hdd's, among others, might surprise you, best is to sit down and run them through a google search, checking current prices for old hdd's. Of course, them sitting on a shelf with a bigger price tag on em isn't as inviting as having the cash in your pocket. Best just investigate until you get it figured out as to what you have, and follow your own likes. I personally prefer to check them all out before deciding. I recently scrapped an old Mobo that was currently selling ( yes, selling ) at around $130.00, but only after it had been tossed around in the heap awhile did i realize this

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    I have been scrapping most any hard drive 30GB and Under. There are some 8GB and less that have some value as "Vintage" You just have to check part numbers.

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    This is an issue for me. Most individuals dont care about their hard-drives; they dont even ask for a COD. I still feel somewhat scared about selling them without wipping them first and thus brings me to my next question. Do you wipe them before selling them?

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    Mechanic688's Avatar
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    Yes, definitely.
    P & M Recycling - Specializing in E-Waste Recycling.
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    I always put them through a format at the very least.

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    just go to www.diskwipe.org and download the free version of the program. it will do DOD compliant wipes and wont cost you a penny. Now I would also buy this adpater from ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-USB-2-0-...item2c61c99b9d That way you can just plug it into your USB port and dont have to worry about tearing apart your computer. Also you can download this program if you like for free to test the drive for errors. www.hdtune.com I am thinking of buying the HDtune pro program just so I can error check and whipe all in the same program but I use both free programs as we speak to check and wipe all the drives I sell. Hope that helps.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bear View Post
    older hdd's can be quite valuable as collectors items on ebay, as cl prohibits shipping. Quite funny huh, for years ebay and paypal tried to convince us how safe it was to buy long distance, now cl says that's not safe, they'll rob you, meet em in a parking lot instead The apple branded hdd's, among others, might surprise you, best is to sit down and run them through a google search, checking current prices for old hdd's. Of course, them sitting on a shelf with a bigger price tag on em isn't as inviting as having the cash in your pocket. Best just investigate until you get it figured out as to what you have, and follow your own likes. I personally prefer to check them all out before deciding. I recently scrapped an old Mobo that was currently selling ( yes, selling ) at around $130.00, but only after it had been tossed around in the heap awhile did i realize this
    How did you know that the board was selling for $130.00? Was that on ebay? If so, what search terms would you use? tia.
    Success consists of going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm...... Churchill

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    There is also a drive wipe tool in a free program I use for routine maintenance, called CCleaner, it's in the tools options, and you have choices for 1, 3, 7 passes (maybe more), just do as PTS said and hook up a usb ext dock.. Depending on the size of the drive, and how many passes you want to perform, it could take days.. Last one I wiped was only an 80G unit, and it took 13-14 hours for a triple pass..

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    Hi Tia I searched the board numbers, you will find these on most every board, sometimes between the add on slots, sometimes right in the big middle of it, sometimes on a small label at the edge, sometimes hidden very well, but (almost) always there will be an identifying number that specifies the board. Then it's only a matter of doing a google search, and possibly adding the word ebay to the search. This will at times take you to a specific listing, where "completed listings" option isn't available. If so, click at the top on category and choose computers and networking, from there enter the board number once more and search, from there, on the left side, you should see the "completed listings" option

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    lol i may be wrong but i think tia is thanks in advance me and my ex gf been slowly getting back together she sent me TOY i had no idea what she meant my partner laughed and said thinking of you, one of the guys done a smfh the other day i googled it and lmao

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    lol Cory thanks!

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    Quote Originally Posted by WhiteLightning View Post
    There is also a drive wipe tool in a free program I use for routine maintenance, called CCleaner, it's in the tools options, and you have choices for 1, 3, 7 passes (maybe more), just do as PTS said and hook up a usb ext dock.. Depending on the size of the drive, and how many passes you want to perform, it could take days.. Last one I wiped was only an 80G unit, and it took 13-14 hours for a triple pass..
    wow 13 hours? your using the wrong program then. Diskwhie only takes about 20 mins to do a triple pass on an 80gb drive.

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    If you connect the drive to an existing SATA/IDE cable it will wipe much faster. I tried USB and it was way to slow.

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    Quote Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper View Post
    just go to www.diskwipe.org and download the free version of the program. it will do DOD compliant wipes and wont cost you a penny. Now I would also buy this adpater from ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-USB-2-0-...item2c61c99b9d That way you can just plug it into your USB port and dont have to worry about tearing apart your computer. Also you can download this program if you like for free to test the drive for errors. www.hdtune.com I am thinking of buying the HDtune pro program just so I can error check and whipe all in the same program but I use both free programs as we speak to check and wipe all the drives I sell. Hope that helps.
    One word of caution on that tester from e-bay. I bought the same one. The cables are great. I was testing my first hard drive with it. and the hard drive worked great. I was looking through all of the files and getting ready to format it when the power supply started making noise and gettting louder and ended with a loud pop! The power supply had fried. I cracked open the case and used one of the extra power cables to start over again, and guess what? The 500gb hard drive I decided to look at first was now fried. Cheap Chinese transformer blew up my $40 or so hard drive e-bay sale.

    I still use the USB cable and it's buddies to test with, but reccommend going straight to the inside of the computer to get your power. I have a computer on the bench with the side off for this purpose all the time now.

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    those external cd/dvd drives can be used for it too, just pull the disc drive out, and hook up the hard drive in it's place

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    3 tips from someone who used to run a repair biz out of his apt. used to build and sell pcs. Customers had no issue with me working in my boxers either lol. House used to look like NASA with 5 or more pcs running with 5 monitors.


    Anyhow, if your using a p3 pc to wipe the drives forget it. You need a p4 or higher to cut it. The p3 proc cant handle the calculations needed fast enough to wipe the drive. 2 make sure you connect the drive directly to board. Usb passthrough will seriously slow down the drive read/write. Also make sure you board is at least udma5 higher or higher speed. If not use a pci raid card so you can get max throughput.

    And lastly you can jumper any power supply to turn on to power your drives. Google for it, but off the top of my head I remeber black for ground and green is the turn on wires for the power supply. Jumper them with a paper clip, piece of copper etc and the power supply will turn on. Then you can use it to power all drives instead of jumpering into ya pc. Plugging and unplugging wears out the molex connector quite fast, so better off having a junk psu to power them up and ruin the molex connectors on that.

    And lastly the best program to use to wipe drives is http://www.dban.org/. It will boot right into dos and work without windows environment slowing it down.

    Thats all i got...have a good one.

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    Quote Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper View Post
    wow 13 hours? your using the wrong program then. Diskwhie only takes about 20 mins to do a triple pass on an 80gb drive.
    That's good news! I was dreading the possibility of triple passing some 500G drive with that program.. Thanks for the heads up


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