My Collection of old Hard Drives
I finally got around to competing building that spare computer I have been talking about. In the process I discovered I don’t have a lot of spare decent sized hard drives (my largest is a 10 Gig that I inherited from work (legitimately, I swear!)). I did discover though that I have a lot of spare small hard drives. My list:
- 1 Fujitsu with no size markings at all, however with labels like ‘label g’ and ‘label h’, and won’t boot at all
- 240 MB HP
- 425 MB WD
- 560 MB Samsung
- 3 GB WD
- 3.3 GB Seagate
- 3.3 GB Fujitsu
- 4 GB Maxtor
- 4 GB Samsung
- 4.3GB Samsung
Not that 3 or 4 gigabyes is a tiny amount of spare, but these days that’s really almost the minimum for an OS install….
And don’t get me started on the 6 CDROM drives I have sitting around either….
Anyone else keeping old 240 mb drives for no reason at all? And on a related note, anyone know what to do with old hard drives? Can I turn them into washing machine parts or something?
I have a stack of literally 7 or 8 hard drives I don’t know what to do with. Old motherboards, cases, network cards, graphics cards, sound cards.. I have enough junk to build probably 5 or 6 obsolete computers. Hell, I have an Athlon XP 1400+ I’m using as a drinks coaster..
I have no more idea than you do how to deal with this crap. Possibly dig a large hole in the back garden and bury it, but I think that’s the sort of thing the environmental people tend to frown upon. Let me know if you figure something out.
FWIW the platter inside a HD is tough metal and very shiny; maybe make a signalling mirror for hikers in an emergency?
In Maple Ridge there’s an electronics recycling outfit that used to pay good money for MBs, and will still take used computer parts. Off River Road, not far from the Albion fish boat dock.
Give/sell them to your local computer ghetto. There’s always the “junk class” of computer hobbyist that can use them.
Of course, that being said, I have two 3GB and two 1.7GB drives sitting on my desk collecting dust. 😉
You can send it to HP for recylcing (http://www.hp.ca/corporate/recycle/program_details.php).
Too bad they charge you $20 to $52 per item! I did have a quick look and if you stuffed a ‘PC’ full of junk you could probably recycle it for $35 + shipping….
Neil, Next time we get together, I have some old computer parrts to donate!
If any of you are interested, my parents are members of a non-profit group who supply needy people with computers for free…
I’ve been giving them my old hardware bits for quite some time – they have a couple guru volunteers that donate their time to putting systems together.
I figure it’s better than throwing them in the landfill! These people don’t care that it’s a 3 year old computer… they’re just happy to have a Computer! 🙂
To give you an idea: A lot of these folks are elderly people, and getting even a 386 with windows 3.1 is very exciting for them – they WANT to learn, but a lot can’t afford to on a seniors’ fixed income.
If you’ve got some old stuff and would like to see it go to something useful, get in touch with me…
Neil…………
ryr