Chemicals inside hard-drives?

[OrangeDoor]

I'm curious if there are any harmful chemicals within hard-drives? Possibly coating the platters? Any info would be helpful.

 

[EightySix Four]

Please tell me you did not manage to ingest a hard drive....?

 

[PottedMeat]

well i would guess simply handling the platters/heads wont hurt...

but i wouldnt go around scraping the platters to snort IBM's pixie dust

 

[OrangeDoor]

I did not ingest a hard-drive 🙂 And am not planning on using any possible chemicals in it for consumption of any sort. I think that the platters would make amazing mirrors and my friend told me he thinks there's some layer of oxide (or somesuch) on the platters. I have a bunch of bad drives laying around that I'd like to take apart for a possible project, and would like to make sure I'm not going to do anything harmful to my health 🙂

 

[OrangeDoor]

As with all things electronic, after taking a device apart, be sure to clean the circuitry and other things that are dismantled, as some contain lead and other chemicals that can burn the skin and eyes.

Found that at a pretty nifty site: http://www.electronetwork.org/.../decons/harddrives.htm

But it's still not the sort of technical answer that I'm looking for.

 

[EightySix Four]

I don't believe there are any chemicals on there that will cause you harm if your just using them as a mirror, I've taken apart many I'm still (chokes, falls out of chair)

 

[Gurck]

It's safe. Taking apart CRT monitors is not though.

 

[jagec]

Considering how many I've taken apart, I certainly HOPE there aren't any health risks.

 

[TSDible]

Get in touch with a HDD manufacture and tell them that you are concerned about health issues relating to the disposal of old HDDs.

Ask if they can provide MSDS for the components of the drives.

You never know... you could get lucky.

🙂

 

[klaviernista]

Originally posted by: OrangeDoor
I did not ingest a hard-drive 🙂 And am not planning on using any possible chemicals in it for consumption of any sort. I think that the platters would make amazing mirrors and my friend told me he thinks there's some layer of oxide (or somesuch) on the platters. I have a bunch of bad drives laying around that I'd like to take apart for a possible project, and would like to make sure I'm not going to do anything harmful to my health 🙂

Typical hard disc platter composition:

Substrate: glass, polycarbonate, NiAl alloy, or Titanium alloy (only the nickel would be "toxic" because of the heavy metals, but the wort you'd exerience would be nickel itch unless you ate the disc LOL)

underlayers: typically Chromium and/or a Cr alloy, i.e. CrMo CrW, CrV (again, the heavy metals could be toxic)

Magnetic layer: typically a Co alloy, I.e. CoCr, CoCrPT, CoCrPtTa CoCrPtB, etc. (again with the heavy metals)

protective layer: typically aluminum oxide or diamond like carbon (neither are toxic, aluminum oxide is the same material used for aluminum foil, and diamond like carbon is routinely used to coat cutting/drlling surfaces of tools). The aluminum oxide layer can be retroreflective (mirror like reflection) depending on its thickness

Lubricant layer: perfluoropolyether. Non toxic except when ingested in large quantities (it will lubricant your intestines real well 🙂)

Also, your hands won;t coe into contact with anything but the bacside of the substrate and the lubricant/protective layer because the other layers are covered.

 

[InseName]

Originally posted by: Gurck
It's safe. Taking apart CRT monitors is not though.

taking it apart is safe, u must mean craking the display tube is not as it is maxed with radiation, but they made it literally 3" of solid glass so its pretty hard to

 

[CQuinn]

taking it apart is safe,

If you consider potentially lethal electric shocks to be "safe"

u must mean craking the display tube is not as it is maxed with radiation,

And what type of radiation would this be?

but they made it literally 3" of solid glass so its pretty hard to

That would depend on the type (and age) of the CRT.

 

[harrkev]

taking it apart is safe, u must mean craking the display tube is not as it is maxed with radiation, but they made it literally 3" of solid glass so its pretty hard to

Monitors tubes usually have a coating of lead around it. So, you CAN take apart a CRT is you are cautious about the 1000V or so in there (even when unplugged), AND you wash your hands very carefully after you handle it.

But, if you know how to fix a CRT, then you already know this. If you do NOT know how to fix a CRT, then you have absolutely no business messing around in there in the first place.

So, the short answer is that you do NOT open up a CRT monitor. If you are the exception to this rule, then you already know who you are.

 

[bobsmith1492]

What's the big deal with CRTs? The only two dangerous things are the high voltage capacitor (easy, just discharge it first) and the tube, which is only dangerous if you smash it and the vacuum implodes which I suppose could fling glass around. Also, there is no 1000 v inside a monitor; the high voltage capacitor only holds 2-300 max.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
What's the big deal with CRTs? The only two dangerous things are the high voltage capacitor (easy, just discharge it first) and the tube, which is only dangerous if you smash it and the vacuum implodes which I suppose could fling glass around. Also, there is no 1000 v inside a monitor; the high voltage capacitor only holds 2-300 max.

I thought the flyback transformer was used to step up to a voltage on the order of 25,000 volts for the electron guns, and the tube could potentially remain charged when off.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Transformers only up the voltage when the current is changing; if the current is constant (i.e., the monitor is off), the transformer will do nothing.