Hard drive platters

[Ocean]

Wanna buy my magnets at 50 cents each?

You could resell them to the shop you talked about!


edited for spelling

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Wanna buy my magnets at 50 cents each?

You could resell them to the chop you talked about!

I'll 2nd that offer.

 

[stihl88]

The magnets are usually neodymium magnets with a coating of Zinc to protect from corrosion.
Try not to breath in any of the dust if you happen to break one or drill a neodymium magnet as it it quite toxic.

I heard recently that China have got a fair amount of the ore that's required to make neodymium magnets and are keeping
most of it for themselves due to the high demand for these stronger neodymium magnets in years to come.

So one could only guess that they are probably worthwhile keeping for years to come!

Ive got about 50 of them at the moment.

 

[dtectr]

it seems the magnets are bonded to the assembly - is there a safe way to separate them?

 

[chefjosh77]

I use a sharp chisel and gentle force. Some come out perfect, most will come off but with the metal plating removed in some points, and some will break. I have so many that it doesn't matter if i break a few or not. I just separate them to get the metals for recycling. My yard doesn't buy magnets, but im sure you can ebay them by the pound to a hobby person. They are great, strong magnets.

As for the hard drive plattrers, I guess they will just go back in the aluminum pile.

For as for secure erase, you can drop them in your used acids or melt the platters in a small backyard furnace. I dont know any recovery that can find data on a block of 20 platters cast into an ingot. Lazer steve cuts his into quarters I think... You need some pretty tough sheers to do it in bulk though.

 

[patnor1011]

I collect them for friends and family. They are cool so I try to take them off without damaging them. The best is to put them to hot water for few minutes. Water and heat will soft epoxy. Heat gun may work probably too.

 

[dtectr]

I use a sharp chisel and gentle force. Some come out perfect, most will come off but with the metal plating removed in some points, and some will break. I have so many that it doesn't matter if i break a few or not. I just separate them to get the metals for recycling. My yard doesn't buy magnets, but im sure you can ebay them by the pound to a hobby person. They are great, strong magnets.

my son builds super-high-end custom speakers (UNBELIEVABLE!) & uses the magnets inside the hardwood cabinets to mount the grills to the front (invisible connectors).
Since he has to buy them now, i hope to supply him for free. But these may be TOO strong!

 

[stihl88]

You can buy an array of Neodymium magnets here from the Super Magnet Man.
I used to buy them from here when making my own motors for RC planes...

Some of the magnets here will take your fingers off if you let two clamp together!

http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=31&page=7&osCsid=7980985d7843547116a7a67dd3131c57

 

[patnor1011]

You can buy an array of Neodymium magnets here from the Super Magnet Man.
I used to buy them from here when making my own motors for RC planes...

Some of the magnets here will take your fingers off if you let two clamp together!

http://www.supermagnetman.net/index.php?cPath=31&page=7&osCsid=7980985d7843547116a7a67dd3131c57

I guess I just saved few times 720$...
I can easily put my magnets from hdd to this shape and size.
http://www.supermagnetman.net/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=486&osCsid=7980985d7843547116a7a67dd3131c57

 

[butcher]

I learned you can not get them very hot (low curie temp.) you loose all magnetism.

was trying to weld the plate the mangnet was glued to, to a washer for a small motor making an atomatic stirer, at something like 360 degrees my magnet was not a magnet.

 

[lmschers]

Is everyone sure that there is no platinum on hard disks?
I swear I saw a video saying that they had a super fine protective covering of Pt on them.
I dissolved a few in acid (AR) to see what would happen, just got a white goo with a pastell tinge of green.

and

Does anyone know what the wires in the reader arm are made of?
I'm talking about the "voice coil" or "actuator coil" that's sandwiched between the two Neo magnets.
I figured they were copper but they dont dissolve in nitric or sulfiric acid.

 

[jimdoc]

Is everyone sure that there is no platinum on hard disks?
I swear I saw a video saying that they had a super fine protective covering of Pt on them.

There is a very little amount of platinum on some newer hard drive disks.
The problem is how to tell what ones have the platinum,and what ones don't.And it is in such small amounts it is not worth the effort.
Unless you remove the disks from the hard drives yourself,you can not tell what they are out of.Ebay sellers can say what ever they want to sell their items.


Jim

 

[lmschers]

yeah, that makes sense.

I've been taking apart a bunch of them by hand (it's a bitch at first)
i buy them for about a dollar a piece
i was doing this because i liked the magnets.
(and it's kind of cathartic to do something with my hands instead of play video games)

Does anyone know how new they need to be or from what company?
I looked around tentatively for patents and found one that said each side of a disk had about 20nm of platinum on them.
but i have no idea what company or make and model these would be from.

any ideas?

I was thinking that maybe a quick dip in acid would take off this layer or something.
or maybe an electrolytical cell could de-plate them...?

 

[stihl88]

I learned you can not get them very hot (low curie temp.) you loose all magnetism.

was trying to weld the plate the mangnet was glued to, to a washer for a small motor making an atomatic stirer, at something like 360 degrees my magnet was not a magnet.

Spot on Butcher, when i would solder the small Neo magnets to make quick release Lipo batteries it took some time
to learn the art of soldering the magnets to avoid the risk of De-magnetizing them. It only took 2-3 seconds of heat
above 80c (On memory) and they were ruined.

 

[Striker40]

The only way to totally destroy data on a hard drive platter so that no forensic person can recover it is to melt the platter/s down with a torch into a blob or use 40 grit sand paper with a electric sander or grinder and remove the shiny stuff off.This info came from a FBI hard drive forensic tech.Bending the platter,drilling holes,cutting it up wont work.He said he can recover data from the platters.

 

[Anonymous]

This info came from a FBI hard drive forensic tech.

Just goes to show the idiots that work in the highest positions.There are several ways to destroy them to an irrecoverable condition.

 

[glondor]

1 minute in the microwave would probably do it.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

1 minute in the microwave would probably do it.

A tourch does a quick and dandy job.

 

[qst42know]

I learned you can not get them very hot (low curie temp.) you loose all magnetism.

was trying to weld the plate the mangnet was glued to, to a washer for a small motor making an atomatic stirer, at something like 360 degrees my magnet was not a magnet.

You can re-magnetize them.

http://www.oersted.com/magnetizing.PDF

 

[Drewbie]

HHD "piston treatment"


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/23/google_data_center_security_video/