Best means of throwing out old drives?

[nageov3t]

Other than just chucking them into a garbage can, are there any typical recommendations for like recycling or proper disposal?

I've got a stack of 10 spinning disk drives, ranging in size from 4gb to 750gb (about 50/50 IDE and SATA) and nothing to really do with them. already have a home NAS setup stuffed with 3TB drives; my desktop is all SSD and not hurting for space.

they've all been 3-pass/random overwrite erased so I'm not super worried about anyone pulling data off the drives, just curious if I have options before throwing them into a landfill.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Well, there's always ebay.

 

[topmounter]

Find a local electronics recycler. They typically pay by the pound (not much, but it might pay for the gas to get there and back) and shred them so there is no issue with anyone extracting data from them.

 

[Erithan13]

Try them on ebay - set a postage price to cover shipping, then start the auction from something low and leave it up for 10 days. I just sold a 2TB drive for a decent price (not that much less than they go for new) and had over a dozen watchers and bids on it. You might not make a huge amount from a single drive but across 10 you may stand to make a decent sum. Best to SMART/CHKDSK each of them to see if they're okay, if they are definitely mention that in the description, people who are looking for 2nd hand drives generally appreciate that sort of thing.

 

[JeffMD]

You might be able to toss it at any best buy or mobile store. They recycle phones with an outside company and the companies usually deal in not just phones, but all electronics. They will recycle if it cannot be refurbished.