How many old/spare/obsolete/broken HDDs do you have lying around?

[Valantar]

I cleaned out a couple of my PC gear boxes this past week. The final tally ended up with eight 3.5" drives - two old external drives and a collection of outdated and/or possibly broken drives that I've stopped using at various points. I ended up scrapping five - three had reallocated sectors or other no-nos, while the two other were a 500GB Samsung drive that must be at least ten years old, and a 250GB WD drive that I'm pretty sure stems from my Pentium 4 rig that died back in ... 2006?

That's in addition to the one store-bought external 2.5" drive I have, as well as four more 2.5" and an old SSD that take turns backing up various things through my three SATA-to-USB adapters. So I guess the total really is twelve HDDs and an SSD. Plus the three in the defunct laptops lying around the house, I suppose. Damn, this number is getting high. How did I end up having fifteen drives that I don't (regularly) use?

I'm sure someone here can beat me pretty soundly, though. I'll take a shot: someone will have 5x my drives.

 

[Elixer]

I still have 5.25 HDs sitting in a box someplace, along with 20 IDE 3.5" units, and 29 SATA 3.5" units, throw in some 2.5" HDs as well, though, only around 10 of those I think it is.. I think half of them are dead, some are in pieces (salvaged the magnets in them), though, I didn't actually throw any away.
I keep thinking I am going to use the platters for something, along with the case.
Maybe shove a Pi in them or.. who knows. lol

I also know people that have a ton more than me, one guy has over 250 units, not including the dead ones he tosses away. Huge media guy.

 

[crashtech]

None, I bust them open for fridge magnets!

 

[Elixer]

I can't stress enough how useful those HD magnets are.

They make excellent stud finders.

 

[Valantar]

I can't stress enough how useful those HD magnets are.

They make excellent stud finders.

That's what I did with the five I scrapped Pulled them entirely to pieces and saved the magnets. I was considering saving the platters, I've seen some cool DIY projects made from HDD platters, but I couldn't see any use for them that wouldn't just be cluttering up the apartment.

 

[mikeymikec]

Huh, I guess I'm going to have to have a poke around for those magnets

I have about ten spare drives. I'm (hopefully) going to be moving house soon so I'll probably half that number.

 

[XavierMace]

I have two drives waiting to be tested to confirm if they are dead or not, that's it. If they're not dead, they'll go back into empty bays in the server. Otherwise either the magnets will get pulled or they'll be taken out to the desert. Or both.

 

[Valantar]

Quick question for the magnet harvesters out there: do you (somehow) separate the magnets from their steel(?) frames, or do you leave them on? They're not the most practical shape for a fridge magnet

 

[Thunder 57]

I probably have about the same number, 12-15. Maybe a bit more. Some go way back and are only in the MB range.

None, I bust them open for fridge magnets!

I can't stress enough how useful those HD magnets are.

They make excellent stud finders.

Thanks for the tip, I'm going to take some magnets out!

 

[crashtech]

Quick question for the magnet harvesters out there: do you (somehow) separate the magnets from their steel(?) frames, or do you leave them on? They're not the most practical shape for a fridge magnet

Some of them I have to take a grinder to so they will lay flush, others are ready to go. Wife has used hot glue to affix them to things, a small whiteboard for example.

 

[Elixer]

Quick question for the magnet harvesters out there: do you (somehow) separate the magnets from their steel(?) frames, or do you leave them on? They're not the most practical shape for a fridge magnet

I actually have done it both ways.
If you bend the metal frame, the magnet does pop out, but the epoxy they used on them is strong stuff, so it takes a thin layer of whatever they are using to coat them off.
So, for now, I just leave them as is, and I have a few of them stuck on walls, others on the fridge, some in the car.
I will have to try soaking some in acetone or something like that to see if I can break the epoxy bond or not.

For stud finding, I just wrapped some painter's tape around them, then run them along the wall so they don't scratch anything, and as soon as you feel the magnetic pull on the nail, it just sticks to it.
Works out much better than the stud finder gizmo I got that can't even find studs.