Non-Chemical hard drives logic boards

[amxfan]

Hi all
This is my first post here so please take it easy. I have been saving / recovering computer parts for a while now and I have a endless supply "at least for now". The question on the plate today is how to handle logic boards from hard drives. I had about 300 hard drives handed to me at no cost. I have stripped them down and separated the aluminum parts as to grade. What I have now are the logic boards. I have tried to clip the gold pins from the board, but that takes a lot of time. Are these boards worth fooling with? If so, what is the best way to handle this type of scrap. I have been thinking about incinerating the whole board and going from there, but to be honest I have very, very little knowledge and what I do know I have learned from here. My main goal when I started was gold from fingers, but after reading, I realized all the money I was throwing away by trashing all the rest. Now I am saving everything, even though I have no clue of what to do with it.

 

[Acid_Bath76]

If you have an endless supply of scrap? Hmmm... I would sell the logic board separate from the rest of the hard drive., but sell them both. Check out boardsort.com. I would take that money and save it up until you learn what you really need to make it all come together. Read a little more about some easier processes too that don't involve so much labor. Without a doubt, read HOKE. It's easy to get overwhelmed with all the material that is out there, but until you understand the fundamentals processing that stuff, you might find yourself stumbling around and losing precious yields. Worse yet, you might get hurt. To each their own though. You can download HOKE for free from this site, and the search engine is pretty good too. Between the two, you should be well on your way. This stuff is really exciting, but don't let the excitement get the best of you. Take your time and read. The time you spend researching and learning now, will pay off in dividends later. Keep on gathering material, and research the parts, as you learn more from the readings. My two cents. Hope this helps.

 

[amxfan]

Thank you for the reply.
I can not sell the hard drives whole. I have gotten with a few businesses in my area and found that they were paying to have the scrap taken. I take it for free. The only rule I must obey is all data be destroyed. I found that it is quicker for me to dismantle the drives then it is for me to whipe each drive to DOD standards. Right now I get about 10 - 15 whole systems per month. The influx of hard drives was due to the person horded them due to the data. I got them because I destroy the data. Since space isn't a real issue for me, I think I will keep hording them until either I run out of room or learn how to deal with them.
What I'm doing now is disassembling the systems 100%. I throw the cases in one pile, plastic in another. Motherboards go into a 50 gallon plastic drum. All add on cards, I remove the fingers and then they go into a different drum. Hard drives I disassemble, platters go into one drum, shells go into another. Lids and other aluminum parts go yet in another. I then have another drum for things such as heat sinks. Memory, I look to see if I can sell it outright for a decent price, if not I cut the fingers off and then separate the memory "some have a lot of gold on the back side wherever the chips are mounted on the front side". I put this memory aside. The others go into a bucket. Processors, I heat the bottom with a torch to knock the pins off, and then they all go into a bucket. Power supplies, when I have time and feel like it, I strip them out, which isn't often. I have been asked about taking monitors "CRT's". At this point, due to the hazmat, I have steered far away from them. I don't know if that is a good choice or not, but that's the choice I've made so far. In short, I am cherry picking.
I was asking about the best practice for these boards since I am getting quite a few. The wife made a comment about the quantity that I had "all stuff included", so to appease her I was hoping there was something I could do with the scrap. If not, I guess camouflage netting is in my future.

 

[Shaul]

WOW! Use camouflage netting on my wife, What a great idea. :lol:

Then I could start filling the living room and processing on the kitchen table.

Now, if I just hadn't bought her that machete for Valentine's Day.

Ah well... better to dream than be missing fingers.

 

[Claudie]

WOW! Use camouflage netting on my wife, What a great idea. :lol:

Then I could start filling the living room and processing on the kitchen table.

Now, if I just hadn't bought her that machete for Valentine's Day.

Ah well... better to dream than be missing fingers.

I told my wife that I had a mistress, That's where I have been spending all of my free time.
I don't want her to find out about the Gold. If she does somehow find out, I will keep that netting in mind.... :|

 

[silversaddle1]

Logic boards are around $14.00 per pound anymore, so why even mess with trying to recover anything from them. Sell them whole and bank the money. You will be far ahead in the long run. Remember, a hard drive platter still contains data even after you pull it from the drive. Take one of those bad ass magnets from the drive and "wipe" each platter before you sell them.

 

[Acid_Bath76]

I was rereadimg some older posts today, and was surprised nobody mentioned this already. If you have a lot of HDD coming in, erase the data with an online program that is legit and certified for the task. You can make $20 on a working HDD if it's "relatively" current. eBay isn't a bad place to research. Computer repair shops might be interested too. It can't take more than an hour to do. $20 an hour isn't bad work. Beats working at the local Taco shack. Speaking of which, I really miss TexMex. They don't have anything remotely like it up here in NC. I digress. For the HDD that you can't scrub, pull the logic boards and do as you were doing. $10/lb on the boards alone isn't too bad. I don't know what the rest of it goes for, but if you're getting quantity it's probably not too bad. Good luck! I wish I had quantity (of anything) coming in! Its always great to hear someone getting a leg up out there. Times are hard these days, but folks have to remove their "fourth point of contact" from the couch to make it happen. Hats off, and let us know how this turns out!