My Hard drive hoarding is out of control

[thecomputerguy]

So I've got about 400 hard drives that I pulled from various systems over the last couple of years with the intent of wiping them and destroying them but i've fallen so far behind that it's going to take me days of work to properly wipe these things and then hammer them do death.

I've called destruction companies and some of them want upwards up $5-$20 per drive to destroy them which as you can imagine I'm not willing to pay $5000+ to have hard drives destroyed. If I was smart about it would have passed this cost onto the customer long ago but I've treated it as a good-faith convenience service up to this point when station is replaced.

Any ideas how to get rid of all this crap on the cheap?

I've got drives ranging anywhere from 80GB to 2TB, all spinners.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Got a drill press?

Wiping and then destroying isn't really required, punch a hole and smash then take to the scrap metal place. That's what I do.

Certified destruction is a whole different matter. That shouldn't be assumed with a convenience disposal.

 

[Moltuae]

Any ideas how to get rid of all this crap on the cheap?

 

[Computer Bloke]

 

[backwoodsman]

You could ship them to me. It would take only a couple minutes each and some bench space to zero-fill and surface scan them, then I'd have a lifetime supply of used drives lying around for whatever I need some drive space for around the shop, or the occasional cash-strapped customer who needs the cheapest possible repair, or doorstops, or whatever else used drives are good for.

 

[thecomputerguy]

You could ship them to me. It would take only a couple minutes each and some bench space to zero-fill and surface scan them, then I'd have a lifetime supply of used drives lying around for whatever I need some drive space for around the shop, or the occasional cash-strapped customer who needs the cheapest possible repair, or doorstops, or whatever else used drives are good for.

I feel like the shipping weight/cost would be pretty extreme ... lol.

 

[timeshifter]

days of work to properly wipe these things and then hammer them do death

I've often thought about building a PC with 8 or so SATA ports and booting DBAN. I think I've done 2-4 drives at a time in the past. Seems like any old PC, Core 2 Duo or even older would be up to the task. If they were all DBAN'd then would "hammer them to death" be necessary?

 

[SAFCasper]

We got in the same situation a few years back. Not quite as many but maybe close to 200. I went through them all with a battery powered drill & a hammer... terrible decision. Would not advise repeating it.

Some of the 3.5" drives, especially older ones like Maxtor, are really thick. We burned through drill bits like no tomorrow and I had to keep stopping every 5-10 minutes to let the drill cool down. I also got blisters on my hands from all the smashing.

Decent drill press with some cobalt bits would have made things 10x easier. Treat it as an investment for your health!

Or just start a bonfire!

 

[Computer Bloke]

If they were all DBAN'd then would "hammer them to death" be necessary?

Not necessary but it's fast, effective, and self-documenting. You can tell at a glance when a drive has been erased with a hammer.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Another word of wisdom, if you're going to use the drill go through the BOTTOM of the disk. That cast iron is much easier to drill than the aluminum / stainless steel plate on the top.

Also, no DBAN setup in the world can keep up with a property operated drill press!

 

[backwoodsman]

I feel like the shipping weight/cost would be pretty extreme ... lol.

If you're in the US, they could be shipped cost-effectively using USPS Flat Rate boxes, or UPS's equivalent. Laptop drives especially. For desktop drives, looks like roughly $20 to ship 20 drives by USPS, or $25 for 40-ish drives by UPS, if you're at the opposite corner of the country from me. For laptop drives, multiply the number of drives by 5 or so. Maybe not cost-effective for the lower-capacity desktop drives.

I'm sure plenty of you are laughing at me, or don't think I'm serious. Feel free; I laugh at the everything-that's-not-cutting-edge-is-worthless mentality too. That's just not the right answer for a lot of folks.

 

[Computer Bloke]

I'm sure plenty of you are laughing at me, or don't think I'm serious.

I don't think anyone's laughing, but I'm sure a few of us have concerns about @thecomputerguy shipping 400 drives full of his clients' data to (with the greatest of respect) some guy he met on the Internet.

 

[backwoodsman]

I don't think anyone's laughing, but I'm sure a few of us have concerns about @thecomputerguy shipping 400 drives full of his clients' data to (with the greatest of respect) some guy he met on the Internet.

A valid concern, and a judgment call I can't make for him. But he was already considering sending them off to people he doesn't know that he probably found on the internet (destruction companies). I at least am a known quantity around here, and I'll get some use out of some of them. The rest, maybe I can arrange for some of the local cattle or pack mules to walk on for a while.

 

[Mike McCall]

There's always target practice.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Luckily for us there's a metal recycle place 1x exit up the highway, couple of times a year we fill up the back of my RAM pickup and haul up there for some cash.

We use the Weibtech Drive eRazer....which we use for certified drive destruction which we do printouts for, but we do the non printout ones just for drive wiping anyways. When the drives accumulate in the "ready for wipe" drawer we have on the service bench, we'll connect a drive and hit the go button while doing other things. When it's done..swap out another drive. Drives get labeled with a perma market and put in boxes for the next metal recycle run.

Oddball drives..our guy smashes or destroys the platters manually but we try not to do that ...nice office, make a mess. Careful with the ceramic platter 2.5" drives.

 

[Porthos]

I would love to have some good 1tb and 2 TB working spinners for the cost of shipping.

 

[thecomputerguy]

I would love to have some good 1tb and 2 TB working spinners for the cost of shipping.

But why though ... just curious?

 

[Porthos]

But why though ... just curious?

Use them as secondary drives in desktops for auto Macrium backups.
These backups for those who had them have saved the clients bacon several times recently.

 

[sapphirescales]

Dear lord, what's wrong with you guys? Data recovery companies will gladly pay a flat rate per drive (usually $7-$10). The very idea of paying to get rid of them boggles my mind. 400 drives is $2,800 - $4,000+ worth of inventory. Call some data recovery companies or drive wholesalers (these are people that buy drives in bulk then pick out the gems and sell them for a premium to data recovery companies). Some of these drives are worth hundreds of dollars if you have a rare one. Drive wholesalers are the least picky, but they pay far less (typically $2-$3 per drive).

I have a good relationship with a drive wholesaler. He travels all over the US and physically visits shops to buy their drives. He pays me pretty well too ($5-$6/drive). Pick up an old crappy server with a bunch of hot-swappable drive bays for $100 and let it rip. Or heck, buy a cheap SATA controller card and have ugly cables everywhere. Don't do these one at a time. It's not worth it then.

If you want even more money, list them on eBay. I can get $12-$15/drive on eBay if I sell them in lots of 10-20. I find it's too much of a pain in the butt though to deal with a bunch of different buyers, BUT you can contact buyers outside of eBay AFTER the sale is complete and ask if they're interested in buying from you on a regular basis. I can't tell you how many great business relationships I've started this way.

Use them as secondary drives in desktops for auto Macrium backups.
These backups for those who had them have saved the clients bacon several times recently.

I agree that desktop hard drives still have their place for backup purposes, but I'd be wary of installing used drives in client's systems. I mean, I did it back in 2011 with those hard drive shortages and it worked out surprisingly well, but still...

 

[thecomputerguy]

Dear lord, what's wrong with you guys? Data recovery companies will gladly pay a flat rate per drive (usually $7-$10). The very idea of paying to get rid of them boggles my mind. 400 drives is $2,800 - $4,000+ worth of inventory. Call some data recovery companies or drive wholesalers (these are people that buy drives in bulk then pick out the gems and sell them for a premium to data recovery companies). Some of these drives are worth hundreds of dollars if you have a rare one. Drive wholesalers are the least picky, but they pay far less (typically $2-$3 per drive).

I have a good relationship with a drive wholesaler. He travels all over the US and physically visits shops to buy their drives. He pays me pretty well too ($5-$6/drive). Pick up an old crappy server with a bunch of hot-swappable drive bays for $100 and let it rip. Or heck, buy a cheap SATA controller card and have ugly cables everywhere. Don't do these one at a time. It's not worth it then.

If you want even more money, list them on eBay. I can get $12-$15/drive on eBay if I sell them in lots of 10-20. I find it's too much of a pain in the butt though to deal with a bunch of different buyers, BUT you can contact buyers outside of eBay AFTER the sale is complete and ask if they're interested in buying from you on a regular basis. I can't tell you how many great business relationships I've started this way.


I agree that desktop hard drives still have their place for backup purposes, but I'd be wary of installing used drives in client's systems. I mean, I did it back in 2011 with those hard drive shortages and it worked out surprisingly well, but still...

Just called @300DDR and they wanted no part of this, they are local to me.