# Hard Drive Platters



## tyoon21 (Oct 7, 2007)

Hi all,

I was going through some old hard drives. I found a couple that had 4 or 5 platters that were connected in the middle by a metal spindle looking thing. I cannot separate any of them off this spindle for some reason. Usually on the ones that have a couple platters the whole spindle assembly will come apart when you unscrew the thing, but for some reason I cannot find a screw on these spindles. Any advice?

Thanks again in advance,
Tom


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## lazersteve (Oct 7, 2007)

Most drives have 6-8 screws around the top platter which keep all the platters on the spindle motor. If not try peeling away the labels on the outside of the drive looking for hidden screws.


Post some photos of the drive if you don't find the screws. Do you have the make and model of the drive?

Steve


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## tyoon21 (Oct 7, 2007)

Hi Steve! 

Here are some pics of the platters I found. I looked for the screws eveyrwhere but I have no idea where they are. It almost seems like the motor is one whole piece. 

The first photos come from a mystery drive. I believe it's Maxent? Not sure.

The second two photos come from an IBM. It says Type: DGVS COMP IEC - 950. 

Thanks again Steve.

Tom


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## lazersteve (Oct 7, 2007)

The center shaft appears to be threaded down the center into the spindle motor. You will need to turn the center shaft while holding the motor steady. These types of units are sometimes reversed threaded (righty loosy, lefty tighty).

Steve


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## aflacglobal (Oct 7, 2007)

About like a disc that goes on an angle grinder. You have to lock the shaft and then screw the threaded disk onto the shaft. Or in this case off.

Is that right ?


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## tyoon21 (Oct 8, 2007)

Thanks Steve. I'll try it tonight when I get home and let you know what happens. I figure worse come worse I could just crack the platters off manually but I figure that could get messy.

Thanks again!
Tom


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## fixinator (Oct 9, 2007)

Couldn't you just dissolve the base metals in Sodium hydroxide and filter out the precious metal solids before the aluminum hydroxide begins to self precipitate?

Fix


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## tyoon21 (Oct 9, 2007)

I actually opted for a more barbaric route and drilled the top aluminum ring in half and pryed it out. Put a couple nasty nicks in one of the plates but was able to harvest about 9 platters. Still wish there was an easier way.

Tom


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## Anonymous (Oct 23, 2007)

Usually what I'd do is I secure the spindle, get my hammer and a small flat screwdriver and hit the top aluminum ring inwards, then a little bit of prying and voila, all plates just fall off the spindle. Drives like this one are usually SCSI of the older type (found in Compaq, IBM and Dell 2nd generation servers. Besides, If you just bend plates, that'll create cracks on the surface, through which HCL could access the aluminum base and dissolve it really fast, leaving you with nice and fluffy skins to process. Cheers.


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## lazersteve (Oct 23, 2007)

vince33 said:


> If you just bend plates, that'll create cracks on the surface, through which HCL could access the aluminum base and dissolve it really fast, leaving you with nice and fluffy skins to process



Vince,

I agree that bending the platter to crack the foil aids in the acid in removing the foil, but I think Nitric acid is the best acid for the job. 

Nitric will attack the base metals in the alloy and leave behind the Aluminum platter and the foils with less contamination. Additonally, the reaction is not as violent and uses much less acid to accomplish the same task. You end up with Aluminum platters that can be recycled and your target material in the foil. 

The left over solutions doing it this way take up considerablly less volume and the alloy metals in them can be easily recovered with electricity.

I'm working on a post on this subject for later this week. I've got lots of photos, acurate weights, and some surprising results.

Steve


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## yvonbug (Oct 28, 2007)

Who cares what the platters look like? Center it over the gap in a vice, then, useing a metal dowel, wack it with a small sledgehammer. Punch it right thru. It's worked for me. (If it won't go, WACK it!) -Y-


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## 61 silverman (Oct 28, 2007)

Hello all; 
I have been checking out computer repair shops, and radio shacks in my area for their parts that they have replaced in their customers equip. I got a phone messsage the other day asking me too come by and pick up a couple of boxes of items.. Gladly went the next day to pick up.. I recieved about 60 lbs. of items, included in the items are these ( 7 ) seven hard drives. one of them had only two discs inside but are 5 1/16th inches across the others 3 in each are 3.75" across, these and the rest of the items all for free, how about that ?? still reading through posts for probable returns of pmg's."If the rest are the same inside, When all are opened up I should have 18 x 3.75" + 2 x 5 1/16".any ideas on how much = plat. += gold. 
Thank's Mark


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## Buzz (Nov 4, 2007)

Hi Steve,

I have been using HCl to dissolve the platters and just leave the foil.

I read your post about using Nitric instead and tried a batch of 25 platters.
How long did you leave your platters to soak in the Nitric?
I can't seem to get a reaction of any kind going, even after 24 hrs.

I realise i'm not going to get anything like the reaction you get with HCl but how do you know when the Nitric has done its job?

Appreciate your help with this.

Kind Regards
Buzz


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## lazersteve (Nov 4, 2007)

Buzz,

The platter needs to be bent before a 24 hour soak in the acid. Be sure you bend it enough to ripple the foil on at least 75% of the surface to allow the nitric to penetrate under the foil layer. Bending the platter in three or four directions will accomplish this.

I use a 1:1 mix of 70% nitirc acid and water. The acid will turn light blue green (cobalt) and the foils will flake off in small pieces.

I've been trying to think of better ways to strip the foils. Another way to remove the foils may be to spin the platter and shave off the foil with a sharp instrument. I haven't tested this, but it may work using an old spindle motor and a sharp chisel. Dust control is a problem with this method and will require a filter mask to prevent the inhalation of hazardous dust particles. Simply performing the stripping in a wet environment may solve this dust problem. I may try it one day.

Steve


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## Buzz (Nov 4, 2007)

Steve,

Thanks for the info.

I use a Stanley Knife to score 5 or 6 grooves in both sides of the platter.
I find it easier than having to bend them.

The temperature in my part of the UK is starting to fall close to zero now so maybe this is what's causing the slower reaction. I think i will try heating the Nitric and see if that kicks the reaction off.

Thanks again

Regards
Buzz


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## GeeDub (Feb 8, 2009)

lazersteve said:


> The platter needs to be bent before a 24 hour soak in the acid. Be sure you bend it enough to ripple the foil on at least 75% of the surface to allow the nitric to penetrate under the foil layer. Bending the platter in three or four directions will accomplish this.



How about sending them through that heavy duty paper shredder? Will that work, or are they too hard?

I'm going to borrow a friends jewelers rolling mill and see if I can roll them out. I expect the surface films to crack, while I expect the aluminum should thin out.


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## wop1969 (Mar 22, 2009)

on some of the last pictures the platers have a almost goldem color to them, what PGM's can one expect to get out of those?


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## Sodbuster (Mar 22, 2009)

GeeDub : I have run platters through the roller befor and yes it will spred out the sruface and expose the aluminum interior, however I was just tinkering and just rolled out a smll chunk of one disk. Your idea of through the roller sounds better than hacking them up with tinsnips (blisters) like I did. 
I used HCL to get rid of the aluminum first, still got the foils laying around in a bowl someware.
Ray


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## Anonymous (May 26, 2009)

I just done a batch in lye solution and I have all the foils. I put them in nitric and I am not getting any reaction. Can anyone tell me what is left. I herd that the foil contains between 10 and 30 percent platinum. Does that sound right and what is the best way to get out of the foils. Hot AR or is there an easy way.

Thanks all
Randy


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## lazersteve (May 26, 2009)

All the information I've seen indicates the platters contain between 0-20 PPM (20 grams per metric tonne).

They just aren't worth the effort. 

Sell them as aluminum and save your time and chemicals for better yielding scrap.

Steve


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## Oz (May 26, 2009)

I find they make beautiful wind chimes with a nice ring as they ting off of thin wall copper pipe. I made one for my girlfriend and told her she has the only platinum wind chime in the neighborhood.


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## Platdigger (May 27, 2009)

HAHA, great idea OZ.......


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## Oz (May 27, 2009)

It is all my girlfriends fault, honest. She kept asking me to help her make wind chimes for months knowing I had pipe scraps, wood and the tools. One day I was talking to her on the phone and she mentioned it while I was sitting in front of a pile of platters and “click” the thought was born. They do ring nicely.


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## butcher (May 29, 2009)

cut some of those platters up, took a little bit of used acid peroxide( finished using), put them in jar, careful aluminum can act violent after the oxidized layer eaten through reaction boils, dont add very much, when boiling ceases add lil more used acid peroxide, the aluminum drops copper from the acid, when all aluminum has been removed I ended up with copper and the hard drive platinum foils, now acid peroxide to remove the copper and heat and more peroxide untill I got down to almost clean foils, then used this to drop gold from a gold laden some copper HCL/Bleach solution good boil in this and left with dirty gold and platinum disk foils that strong HCL/Bleach even boiling has a hard time dissolving(will clean this up and get ready for aqua regia, this way am using mostly used acids and cemicals to remove the aluminum, even my very dilute solutions that copper has been dropped out with iron will work to remove the aluminum. , and I will then expireiment on even removing the aluminum from solution, with hydroxides, who knows maybe make up some aluminum oxide for sanding with. steve is right takes alot to get these to foils, but as I am using used solutions, and have time to mess with them, and a big box of them platters, and usually lots of used solutions,I will play with these and see if I can get some of that shinny metal.

had a few small platters my guess from laptop had glass platters foils from them stripped with HCL/Bleach and boiling, these foils must be PGM gold dissolves way easyier than these foils do.

Have not tested yet but the reddish platters are probably Iron oxide, you want the silvery ones.
I am not recommending others recover from these, but I want to do these platters , and already have a large stock pile of aluminum, and the expirience and getting some platimum is worth more to me even if I could make more money from the aluminum in them. 
is adding to my education now I am getting familiar with the aluminum chemistry, Heck that is making all this work worth it the education . 8)


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## pudi.dk (Jun 27, 2009)

How much precious metals are there in those platters?
Have been throwing a few away not knowing what metals were on.


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## lazersteve (Jun 27, 2009)

Toss them in with your aluminum scrap as the platinum in them is in very minute quantities (rumored to be less than 20 grams per metric ton) if it is present at all. 

Steve


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## glorycloud (Jun 27, 2009)

I get paid 45 cents a pound for hard drives that still have the controller card intact.
That seems to be easier to me these days then all the labor involved to remove
the screws, etc. on these drives. 8) 

Of course, I do have to wipe the drives first which does take some time and effort.
Maybe I should consider one of those hard drive grinders and REALLY destroy the data!!! :lol:

Anybody know what a cheap way to do that might be?? I bet someone has a good used
machine sitting in storage somewhere.


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## Harvester3 (Jun 27, 2009)

Howdy,
Have you thought of using a degausser on the drives instead of overwriting or "wiping" them?
.45/lb isn't too bad these days.


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## glorycloud (Jun 28, 2009)

I do have a 12"+ degaussing ring that we used to use on monitors. I think I still
have an old tape degausser that looked like an iron you would use for pressing clothes.

I wonder if anyone has any facts about the definitive wiping of data using magnetic fields?
That would be a time saver for me for sure as it takes 45 minutes to wipe a 20G drive and
it just goes up from there!


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## Harvester3 (Jun 29, 2009)

Well, I can tell you that with a strong enough emp, you will render a hard drive completely worthless for data storage. won't format, wont even be recognized as a drive. lots quicker than wiping or drilling and gives the desired result. 
Only thing I wonder is how energy efficient it would be compared to wiping/overwriting, etc.


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## glorycloud (Jun 29, 2009)

The big degaussing ring that I have has a plug that runs off of 110V wall socket power.
Maybe I will give this a try and see if I can get any data off of the drives after I degauss them.


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## Dragonstar (Mar 21, 2011)

I realize that necro posting to a three year old thread might not be the best way to introduce myself to the forum, but.... I share the OP's pain on how to get the platters off the "slotted hub" scsi drives. The answer is to use a flat bladed screwdriver to pry off the outer ring. I answered an instructable on it here:

http://www.instructables.com/answers/How-do-I-remove-the-platter-from-this-SCSI-harddri/

Getting the platters off was so maddening i even dremelled slots into an aluminum tube to make a custom torque tool ( which did not work, of course). Another thing that drove me nuts was how to tell glass from aluminum platters without marring them. The sun helps out with that:

http://www.instructables.com/answers/Distinguish-glass-hard-disk-platters-from-aluminum/

My interest in hard drive platters is not for PM recovery but to make sculptures. So getting the platters out really is the critical task. I've saved all the other pars just in case i ever get around to prospecting.


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