# Server Hard Drives



## DarkspARCS (May 4, 2011)

Big, Old, FAT DADDY Server Hard Drives... one a Maxtor, the other a Seagate... I'm not too sure how old these two drives I bought for $5 are, but they promise to yield alot of PM, by the looks of the full plated fingers and pins, monolithic caps, flatpacks, etc...







I wonder how many platters are inside lol... :twisted:


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## Oz (May 5, 2011)

I can’t imagine how those 2 drives contain over $5 in PMs even if you do not count your time, chemical, and disposal costs.


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## silversaddle1 (May 5, 2011)

Oz said:


> I can’t imagine how those 2 drives contain over $5 in PMs even if you do not count your time, chemical, and disposal costs.



True, but there is 5 dollars worth of aluminum alone there.


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## gold4mike (May 6, 2011)

I just picked up 7 of those old MFM drives over the weekend and there is a circuit board on both sides of them. I would bet that you have somewhere near a pound of boards and I'm currently getting $11.00 per pound for Hard Drive boards so you'll at least be able to get your $5.00 back.

You'll probably find three thick platters inside each one.


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## jeneje (May 6, 2011)

gold4mike said:


> I just picked up 7 of those old MFM drives over the weekend and there is a circuit board on both sides of them. I would bet that you have somewhere near a pound of boards and I'm currently getting $11.00 per pound for Hard Drive boards so you'll at least be able to get your $5.00 back.
> 
> You'll probably find three thick platters inside each one.



I may ask where are you selling your hard drive boards I have around 200 hard drives I am taking apart and need a place to sell I don,t mind telling :lol: gold4mike.

Thanks
Ken


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## Anonymous (May 6, 2011)

gold4mike said:


> You'll probably find three thick platters inside each one.


At that age,those platters may very well contain no platinum.


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## silversaddle1 (May 6, 2011)

gold4mike said:


> I just picked up 7 of those old MFM drives over the weekend and there is a circuit board on both sides of them. I would bet that you have somewhere near a pound of boards and I'm currently getting $11.00 per pound for Hard Drive boards so you'll at least be able to get your $5.00 back.
> 
> You'll probably find three thick platters inside each one.




Are you willing to share your buyer's name on the boards? What are you getting per pound for motherboards?


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## Claudie (May 6, 2011)

I currently get $2.00 per pound for boards. I would be interested in $11.00 a Lb also.... :shock:


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## DarkspARCS (May 8, 2011)

Well I got the seagate pulled apart, it had 8 thick, large platters, about 1 and a half times as big still as a normal hard drive platter (5'' radius), with about three times the thickness as a regular drive platter.







(I hope the image shows the differences ok lol...)




obviously, the larger platter came from the Seagate

The platters were of the golden brown variety, not too sure what the maxtor has yet.

These hard drives had a date of 1985 on them, with the Maxtor drive printing roughly 12 patents for that drive on it's face, stating it was a D.o.D. variant drive.

It stated too that it was a 350 mb. drive, but the interesting thing about it wasn't it's capacity so much as it's capabilities... The Maxtor board possessed 32 single gold plated pins in various places on the main board, which tells me that one could link two or more separate pins with a special cable and allocate specific drive addresses unaccessable without the pin connections. There might have been some juicy info on those drives heh....

Here's what the Seagate drive yielded, minus the platters. the Maxtor main board is on the left, which had gold fingers I'd already snipped. The pins on both drive boards are all fully plated. There are also three female pin locations on thick gold circuit ribbon, where some of the pins were inserted that also were on thick gold circuit ribbon.




The drive chamber lid has a clear plastic box attached to it that appears to house a type of clear to clear reddish salt material (?? moisture control??), I'll need to investigate what that is... The magnets are huge!!! and very, very dangerous lmao.... I need to watch my fingers when holding them, they are super, super attracted to irons and other magnets.

There are rows and rows and rows of monolithic caps and resistors as well, on top of the multitude of flatpacks and IC's integrated on the board. My $5 may have been spent well after all... we'll see. :lol:


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## gold4mike (May 10, 2011)

Guys,

I'm sorry to have mislead you! I found my latest price sheet from my board buyer and he is paying $9.50 per pound on hard drive logic boards, not the $11.00 I stated above. Since there is a big response here I have emailed him to ask if it's OK to share his email here. As soon as I hear from him I'll follow up with a post for people to PM me and I'll provide his contact info via return PM. 

Sorry for my mistake,

Mike


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## Anonymous (May 10, 2011)

DarkspARCS said:


> Well I got the seagate pulled apart, it had 8 thick, large platters, about 1 and a half times as big still as a normal hard drive platter (5'' radius), with about three times the thickness as a regular drive platter.


Careful as they may not be aluminum bases.A lot of manufacturers used glass/ceramic as the substrate.If they do turn out to be aluminum,you should be able to sell them as #1 aluminum scrap,if the scrap yard has an XRF,or maybe go the ebay route.
However those boards will have good yields of silver and palladium,and of course gold.


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## gold4mike (May 12, 2011)

Anyone interested in selling hard drive boards (intact) to my buyer can contact me via email or PM and I'll give you his email address. He's currently paying $9.50 per pound. I sell him everything I don't wish to process myself and it's always a smooth transaction.


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## Goldwasser (May 13, 2011)

FYI, I am paying $10 per pound for Hard Drive Logic Boards. Email me [email protected] and I will help you.


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## DarkspARCS (Dec 3, 2011)

Thanks for posting Chris...

I sent you an email today, hopefully we can do some business.


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## Ocean (Dec 3, 2011)

I can also pay $10/lb for HDD boards, and will pay for shipping with pre-paid Fed Ex ground labels.

[email protected]


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## glorycloud (Dec 3, 2011)

Having grey hair and having been around computers for 30 years,
I am not so quick to scrap "relics" from days gone by. Nostalgia
causes some to want a piece of history. Old MFM, ESDI and SCSI
hard drives "can" sell for ridiculous $$ on ebay to collectors.

Recent sales:
Vintage IBM SEAGATE ST4038 31MB 5.25"/FH MFM ST412 and IBM hard drive controller = $79.95!!

Portable MFM Hard Drive Tester Troubleshooter Legacy = $125.00

Vintage Lapine Titan LT 200 20mb MFM Hard Drive 3.5" = $35.00

Seagate MFM Hard Drive ST-251-1 OLD Drive = $38.00


Many drives are listed as "vintage" and have value to collectors.
(They do make excellent door stops as well!!) 8) 

I may list some OLD drives pulled from OLD systems that are 5.25" drives
on fleabay as auctions and see how they do - just for grins.

That is all I have to say about that boys and girls. :lol:


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## 27182 (Jan 12, 2012)

Sell the stepper motors on ebay.


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## kurt (Jan 14, 2012)

DarkspARKs you wrote - "The platters were of the golden brown variety, not too sure what the maxtor has yet."

sounds like iron oxide - which is what they used for storing the data on early platers - no PGMs -- which is why earlier platers stored such a little amount of data compared to later platers.

The older ones - once they started using PGMs have about 10% Pt & the newer ones about 30% Pt --- The more Pt the more data it can store.

The metal used for plating the (newer) aluminum disc is a three metal alloy - colbalt & Pt for sure & I think nickle

the gold brown is a good indicator of iron oxide & no PMs.

Kurt


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