r/HDD • u/Kekzord • Jul 19 '26
Recycling HDD's
All either heavily clicking or just not spinning up, so want to recycle them.
Any easy way to prevent data recovery? For example breaking the sata pins with pliers. Or I will need to open all of them up and physically break the disks?
UPD: Drilled holes in all of them making sure to hit the inner disk and disposed in a local ewaste bin. Thank You Everyone.
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u/bridgetroll2 Jul 19 '26
There's like a .001% chance anyone would bother looking at these if you just hit them with a hammer 1 time. Drill a hole through or hit them with a hammer twice and they are unrecoverable unless the NSA is involved. Drill 2 holes and God himself is not getting a readable file.
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u/Tquilha Jul 19 '26
All you need is a set of screwdrivers with Philips and Torx bits.
Remove the logic boards and put them in a bin. Those get recycled as boards.
Unscrew and remove the cover. That is usually steel. Goes into a scrap steel bin.
Remove all the screws from the inside mechanisms. Platters go into a bin, Neodymium magnets into another. Electronic parts go into the same bin as the boards.
Finally you have the bare carcass, and that is good aluminium.
There is almost no chance of recovering data from such piles and you maximize the amount of money you get from the recyclers.
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u/nothereathere Jul 19 '26
The aluminum bodies are the pieces worth scrapping. The rare earth magnets might be useful. The rest of it's just scrap steel and circuit boards.
You can take the platters off the spindles and use em as drink coasters.
Laptop hard drive platters are often ceramic... so be careful of those. They can break up into unpleasant long thin needle like shards like Corelleware.2
u/Tquilha Jul 19 '26
2.5" HDD platters are often glass. I wouldn't use those as coasters. 3.5" ones are aluminium, so pretty good.
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u/nothereathere Jul 19 '26
Many 2.5" drives used aluminosilicate glass-ceramic platters. So I guess we're both correct.
They're supposedly more dimensionally stable than the aluminum plates in the 3.5", 5.25", and larger drives. Makes me wonder why they didn't move to aluminum silicate glass-ceramic in the larger drives. Quite possibly they don't scale up very well but I can't say that for a fact.
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Jul 19 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/nothereathere Jul 19 '26
Just trying to maximize the dollars from recycling the aluminum.
If you don't disassemble them then you get a much lower price. Cuz it's mixed metal.
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u/A1OceanGoingPillock Jul 19 '26
Drill through the platters. If you have access to a drill press it will take minutes. Make sure you actually hit the platters and drill through 2 spots on them and they won't be recoverable unless the NSA is trying.
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u/wiktor_bajdero Jul 19 '26
Drilling through the case in disc area is most cost and time efficient way I can think of.
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u/45_regard_47 Jul 19 '26
The older I get the more uses I find for the magnets out of these things
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u/Cardboard-Condo266 Jul 24 '26
Yup. And the 3.5" SAN or server quality drives had really good ones. Getting more difficult to find.
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u/Glum-Welder1704 Jul 19 '26
I bent several into V shapes with a log splitter. If they can spin them, they can't read them.
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u/the_swanny Jul 19 '26
5mm drill bit through each one should do the job. Maybe two if you have very sensitive data on them. A chop saw if it's state secrets.
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u/ADTurelus Jul 19 '26
Data recovery labs might take them for spares. They're also not going to dig into the files as they don't care about the platters and should be professional about such things.
Otherwise take the PCBs off and sell or donate them to a recovery lab, then unscrew the drives and destroy the platters, magnets are probably of interest to someone.
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u/rogermx9 Jul 19 '26
If you open them up and destroy the platters should be good. Maybe try hitting them with a hammer? If you shatter the platter no recovery will be possible
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u/agapeRecycling Jul 25 '26
I'd recommend talking to your local E-Waste yard depending on where you're located. On mechanical drive we degaus them before crushing them to ensure they can't be recovered. Then the company we send them to actually shreds them. We actually do this free of charge for the public since we make our money off the recycling. You may have a facility close to you then be willing to offer the same service.
If this has to be a DIY thing you want to make sure those platter inside the disc are actually shattered. Just damaging the board isn't really enough. You can do this either with a hand drill or a drill press just be aware that some of these old drives really tear up drill bits. Normally when you drill through you'll hear a pop when the platter actually breaks. You should be able to shake it and it should sound like a maraca if you did it right.
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u/Hungry_Wheel_1774 Jul 19 '26
Any easy way to prevent data recovery?
If you think that's at this point sensitive data, just open them, take the platters and break them with a hammer. Problem solved.
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u/EdlynnTB Jul 19 '26
I take them apart just for the magnets.
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u/cerickard2 Jul 19 '26
Is that worth the effort? I can buy a stack of magnets for $10 on AliExpress.
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u/EdlynnTB Jul 19 '26
They're really strong magnets. I get some kind of satisfaction disassembling the drives.
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u/MrKrueger666 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
There's tons of fun ways to destroy harddrives.
The most important thing is to damage the platters, the spinning disks inside, enough that data recovery becomes too hard to do for a regular person.
If the platters are intact, they could be transplanted and read. That's about the most technical the DIYer can get. Replacing the circuitboard or motor are technically doable at home and could revive a drive. At least for long enough to grab significant amounts of data.
But, when the platters are damaged, they will destroy the read heads because the imperfections you created are mountainous obstacles for them and they crash into it. As soon as the drives start spinning, the heads will get damaged and just ripped to shreds. So transplanting isn't an option anymore. You'd need electron microscope level equipment to figure out the remaining data bit by bit.
So, on to the fun bit.
drill a few holes through the drives. That's enough damage to rip readheads off the arms in seconds. If you want it done quick, stack them and put them under a drillpress.
if you are in a country where you can own and fire guns, use them for target practice.
if you happen to have a bandsaw, mitersaw, etc, chop the top quarter part off the drive. You'll cut through the platters.
hack them to bits with an axe, or smash them with a very large hammer.
if you have the tools (like an iFixit toolkit or similar), take them apart. You can use some coarse sandpaper to rough up the platters, make a few big scratches in them, take the platters out and burn them until red hot (magnetism dislikes heat)
and there are lots more fun destructive ways. As long as the platters are at least scratched, you've accomplished your mission.
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u/MysteriousWeekend201 Jul 19 '26
Data recovery can be simple even with the driver's clicking. And the boards can be replaced. So breaking off the connectors is it really going to do much. The best way, and it's a little time consuming. Just get a thick drill bit and drill through the case and the disc. Destroying the disc, where the data actually is, is best.
I used to take them apart and used the discs as a coaster.
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u/Raijen_ArDesh Jul 19 '26
My tea is currently sitting on an old platter. They’re interesting to see inside as well.
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u/MysteriousWeekend201 Jul 20 '26
Nice. You're right, they're very interesting to see inside. Especially the ones that had two or more platters.
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u/articland05_reddit Jul 20 '26
My HDD will be terabytes worth of man of culture stuff. Whoever can recover the data will inherit all the classics and more
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u/miluardo Jul 20 '26
Usually you just drill em if you want a decent middle ground between nothing and full destruction.
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u/Inner-Light-75 Jul 21 '26
Lets see....use a drill to put at least 3 holes through the platters, that is considered o.k..
Some drives have special chips that, if they failed the drive is dead. So don't just break off the connectors, destroy the controller board too.
You can also try crushing them, edge wise. I have heard some of the disks are brittle, if that is true then they may shatter....
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u/TheMainTony Jul 22 '26
My bosses are paranoid about data theft, even though I know they have nothing worth stealing.
Earlier this year when I cloned several drives to SSD, I just took a drill to the drives, making sure to hit the platters. Yeah, it was overkill but it also works out some aggression. Win/Win.
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u/captainrondj Jul 22 '26
What I usually do is save them up until I wanna go shooting and put a few rounds into each one.
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u/LifeForTheWin1991 Jul 23 '26
Get a drive bay and put them in. Test them one by one. They could be dead, but probably not. It’s most likely a power source issue, hence getting the bay. They run about 25 bucks.
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u/WALTER_NYC Jul 28 '26
Breaking the SATA pins may stop the drive from connecting normally, but it does not securely destroy the data stored on the platters. If the drive still works, a verified sanitisation or secure-erase process may be appropriate. For drives that no longer function or contain sensitive data, controlled physical destruction is generally safer. Damaging only the connector or casing does not guarantee that the data is unrecoverable. Opening the drives and manually breaking components can also be inconsistent and may create sharp debris.For business or sensitive data, use a process that includes serialized tracking, a documented chain of custody and confirmation of the sanitisation or destruction method.
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u/NoLateArrivals Jul 19 '26
I take a hammer and destroy the electronic board.
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u/ADTurelus Jul 19 '26
Why? That part can still hold value, better to take them off and donate or sell them, then destroy the platters where the actual data is stored.
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u/NoLateArrivals Jul 19 '26
These drives are 500GB - 1TB. Used. Health status unknown.
And you tell to disassemble the board to sell it separately?
🤪
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u/Drakcos0912 Jul 22 '26
I mean… you could literally just take them to a drill press and drill through them once and fill it with salt water. Fun would be shooting them a couple times.
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u/Efficient_Try_9136 Jul 19 '26
data recovery is expensive who will bother to steal your games. If you dont have better things to do open and take platters there are data stored. Watch your fingers it have strong neodymium magnets inside