What in hell do you do with old hard drives?

[Inigmatics]

I pile them in the closet, but what are you really suppossed to do with them?

[Coroner Kyle]

Melt them with acid, pound them with a sledgehammer, burn them. Destroy them is what I've heard, but I guess you could give them to someone or recycle them at one of those computer recycle centers.

[NickS]

Use them for storage drives, backups, crap comps for like R@H or F@H, ghetto USB keys lmfao.

Or, just for an accent piece in ANY nerd's home or office.

[eBoy0]

I just took out my old 12giger to install some benching OS's on... never know when they'll come in handy.:)

[nn_step]

Massive Raid set ups

[IFMU]

For me that typically depends.
What sizes are they? Speeds?
If they are the very old ones, under a couple gigs in size, I strip them out and take the platters. I am actually in the process of making a wall mounted decoration piece. Not to big at the moment, havent had the money to buy any old drives for a while now.
If they are decent drives, say 8 gigs and up, I sell/trade them to upgrade my present drives. So far the largest/newest drives I have are some 80 gig IDE's.

[Inigmatics]

I have an old WD 40 and an 6.4gig that crapped out, so they aren't even any good as storage drives. Just wondering what to do with um. They might find their way into the garbage, but they'll most likely stay in the corner where they've been tossed aside to for now.

[nn_step]

I have an old WD 40 and an 6.4gig that crapped out, so they aren't even any good as storage drives. Just wondering what to do with um. They might find their way into the garbage, but they'll most likely stay in the corner where they've been tossed aside to for now.
You could make a wind Chime out of them...:D

[Inigmatics]

Naw, their both worthless. I think there might even be a few more around here some where between my bro and I. He was working as a computer tech for about a year or two and kept bringing home these broken HDs from clients. My 40 gig crapped out and he kept handing me others to try, but was like yeah, I don't know if this one works either, but you can give it a try.

I think the neighbors are going to be like WTF kinda wind chime is that?

[IFMU]

Well if you want you can strip the platters out of any drives and send them to me. :D

Ever seen the hard drive window mod? Ive always liked the way it looked, maybe get some practice on that. :shrug:

[vok]

1 more vote for a wind chime, or any other super geeky ornamentation. And take pics please :wiggle:

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

i take the apart, and pick at them and :banana::banana::banana::banana:. and then put them on my shelf to sit.

[ex2cib]

take them apart, have some fun with the magnets and platters in them

[sokarul]

Take them apart. The magnets inside are super strong.

[J-Mag]

I Usually end up selling them. Poeple will buy dead hard drives even, just for the PCB or to practice data recovery etc...

[[XC] Lead Head]

Take them apart. The magnets inside are super strong.

rear earth magenets :)

[ex2cib]

its fun to get the magnets and stick them to the fridge, then get someone else to try to pull it off. takes a little effort :)

[AeroSquid]

Make it into a clock?

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umparekh/hard_drive_clock.html

[OmegaMerc]

One Idea:

BIG SLEDGE HAMMER :slapass: :slapass: :slapass:

[nn_step]

Make it into a clock?

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umparekh/hard_drive_clock.html
I like that.. alot

[Dngrsone]

Working low-cap drives make good swap drives (like the 460MB drive on my server), just bad ones are good for practicing on for the aforementioned window mod. The magnets kick butt, but are somewhat fragile.

[ripken204]

or donate them, lots of people donate their old computer to my school and we take a bunch of parts and build up computers which we then give to people who cant afford them. yes the computers suck but at least its something, and its free.

[thegoatman]

we save them and use the controller boards when customers bring crap old computers into the shop with fried controller boards. Chances of a match are slim, but we've done it before.

[Vapor]

For the sadists out there: glove-less bloody frisbee ;)

[mr_knowitall15]

the computer dept. at work made one into a giant heavy keyring. No more wondering if someone from another dept. grapped techs key...

[IYP]

lol i took the cover off my old dead drive and i use it for an airsoft target...makes a cool loud ding when you hit it....old saloon style

[mnewxcv]

i was using my fx-51 with a 4.3gig hdd up till 2 nites ago

[nn_step]

i was using my fx-51 with a 4.3gig hdd up till 2 nites ago
well I am still using a 300Mb Quantium Drive for Folding :p:

[EvilCloudStrife]

i reciently took a old 80gb deathstar that was a clicker and took it apart. I tried to unscrew the platter but it wouldnt come up so i tried to pry it up and it shaddered everywhere. It took me a while to clean up the little shards of platter. Great fun

[[XC] moddolicous]

well I am still using a 300Mb Quantium Drive for Folding :p:
What OS fits 300mb including F@H (and probably Java I think)?? As for old hard drives, I basically just put them in older computers as a file server (our fileserver has I think ~6hds, main one is 80, then theres 1 10gig, 1 8gig, 2 4gig, some 50pin scsi 4gig, 1 2gig and a 200mb one.

[nn_step]

What OS fits 300mb including F@H (and probably Java I think)?? As for old hard drives, I basically just put them in older computers as a file server (our fileserver has I think ~6hds, main one is 80, then theres 1 10gig, 1 8gig, 2 4gig, some 50pin scsi 4gig, 1 2gig and a 200mb one.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
50mb for the Os and just 250mb for Folding...;)

[pissboy]

some people make metal roses out of the platters..

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5972/rose24xh.jpg

[nn_step]

Or you can always do what Red does.. Attach string to them.. and swing them over your head as you run naked through the streets..
(yes he actually did do that in the middle of a nationally televised Parade no less)

[Inigmatics]

Wow, I get so busy with work its rediculous. Well as of now they 're still sitting in the corner where they'll probablly sit for another unkknown amount of time.

I never thought a thread about old hard drives would have gotten so much attention.

I'm playing with the idea of buying an external incloseur that I can swap them in and out of. That way I could transfer files amongst the computers throught the USB 2.0 instead of over this crappy wireless network. Well for larger files any ways. It would also come in handy to transfer dvd rips to my media center instead of burning every dvd. We'll see.

[jayjaya29]

I put one in the hole in my tree. And now the harddrive is practically in the middle of the trunk of the tree. It seriously is inside the tree. :banana:

[nn_step]

I put one in the hole in my tree. And now the harddrive is practically in the middle of the trunk of the tree. It seriously is inside the tree. :banana:
I gotta see a pic of that..
I actually know someone who wears a full size hard drive around their neck just like Flavor flav..

[Inigmatics]

What is it he said? New York, what time is it? It's time to come get your clock from Flava Flave?