This is what we do with old/dead hard drives at work:

 

It cracks the spindle and bends the platters in half.

 

You should do that while it's spinning and watch the debris fly everywhere! It'd probably even blind someone, mwuahaha.

This is what we do with old/dead hard drives at work:

 

It cracks the spindle and bends the platters in half.

 

You should do that while it's spinning and watch the debris fly everywhere! It'd probably even blind someone, mwuahaha.

I think this thread has deviated "just a bit" from the question  :)

I think this thread has deviated "just a bit" from the question  :)

 

 

It was the wind!

This is what we do with old/dead hard drives at work:

 

It cracks the spindle and bends the platters in half.

 

You should do that while it's spinning and watch the debris fly everywhere! It'd probably even blind someone, mwuahaha.

 

Most laptop drives use glass platters and they're a pain in the ass to clean up once you've crushed them. In fact, that little puff you see at the end of the video at the bottom when the drive gets crushed is glass dust from a laptop drive platter someone didn't clean up. That's why I try to crush them only to the point I hear the glass shatter but the housing hasn't split open yet. Crushing one of those while spinning would be like setting a bomb off.

I think this thread has deviated "just a bit" from the question  :)

 

Not really.

ARRRRGGGG- - - -  Because of this thread I just spent over 2 hours listening to Hard Drive Floppy and Stepper motor music on Youtube!  It was a bit of fun though!  :-)

 

 

At least get the neo magnets out.  They are always fun and useful. Your fridge magnets will never come off again.

At least get the neo magnets out.  They are always fun and useful. Your fridge magnets will never come off again.

 

You just gave me a great idea on what to do with some older smallish drives!!!

I don't have anymore fridge magnets... but now I will!

At least get the neo magnets out.  They are always fun and useful. Your fridge magnets will never come off again.

 

You just gave me a great idea on what to do with some older smallish drives!!!

I don't have anymore fridge magnets... but now I will!

 

My desk at work:

 

 

 

Strongest magnets of any disks by far are the ones in the old 15K SCSI drives. There's two of them on the bottom left in my picture. If you get it stuck on a flat metal surface it almost requires two hands to remove. They're also great for magnetizing your tools. 

 

 

I always use them when disassembling something to hold all the screws too.

I've grabbed a few in the past, but had completely forgotten about them.  I'll definitely salvage a few for magnetizing tools !!

 

AWESOME idea guys. Thanks!!!

At least get the neo magnets out.  They are always fun and useful. Your fridge magnets will never come off again.

Just be VERY careful with them. They are not the fun toys you had as a little kid, they are fairly dangerous. I would rate them at least PG-13, maybe R. If you get flesh between them as they touch each other, be prepared for a pinch that will probably raise a blood blister, possibly tear skin. If you let them fly together, they may chip and throw debris at a high rate of speed, so eye protection is called for if you want to experiment with how much damage you can cause.

 

That said, they are freakin' AWESOME magnets.  ;D

dont tear apart all of those old, low capacity drives just yet!  rather than attempt to upgrade my existing 4.7 unRAID system, i am planning to build a small unRAID 5.x system using old desktop PC and whatever small ( < 200 GB) drives i have on hand or can find for cheap.  msg me if you have low capacity SATA drives to sell.  thanks. 

dont tear apart all of those old, low capacity drives just yet!  rather than attempt to upgrade my existing 4.7 unRAID system, i am planning to build a small unRAID 5.x system using old desktop PC and whatever small ( < 200 GB) drives i have on hand or can find for cheap.  msg me if you have low capacity SATA drives to sell.  thanks.

What country/continent are you in? I'm guessing Antarctica.

Maryland, USA

dont tear apart all of those old, low capacity drives just yet!  rather than attempt to upgrade my existing 4.7 unRAID system, i am planning to build a small unRAID 5.x system using old desktop PC and whatever small ( < 200 GB) drives i have on hand or can find for cheap.  msg me if you have low capacity SATA drives to sell.  thanks.

 

This is definitely NOT a good idea ... at least not economically.  If you're planning to use UnRAID basic (free version), you're limited to 3 drives ... so 2 data plus parity means at best 400GB of capacity with 200GB drives.  You can buy a NEW 500GB drive for ~ $50;  refurbished units for ~ $35; and some used ones on e-bay for even less.    If you want more than 3 drives, you'll need to buy a Plus or Pro license;  and if you're doing that you'll almost certainly want to use higher capacity drives as well.  For example, if you bought a Plus license and 7 200GB drives, you'd get 1.2TB of space.  You could build a larger system than that by simply using the free version and 3 750GB drives.    Ditto for Pro ... the economics simply don't add up.

 

... not to mention that newer, high capacity drives are MUCH faster than the older units.

 

dont tear apart all of those old, low capacity drives just yet!  rather than attempt to upgrade my existing 4.7 unRAID system, i am planning to build a small unRAID 5.x system using old desktop PC and whatever small ( < 200 GB) drives i have on hand or can find for cheap.  msg me if you have low capacity SATA drives to sell.  thanks.

 

This is definitely NOT a good idea ... at least not economically.  If you're planning to use UnRAID basic (free version), you're limited to 3 drives ... so 2 data plus parity means at best 400GB of capacity with 200GB drives.  You can buy a NEW 500GB drive for ~ $50;  refurbished units for ~ $35; and some used ones on e-bay for even less.    If you want more than 3 drives, you'll need to buy a Plus or Pro license;  and if you're doing that you'll almost certainly want to use higher capacity drives as well.  For example, if you bought a Plus license and 7 200GB drives, you'd get 1.2TB of space.  You could build a larger system than that by simply using the free version and 3 750GB drives.    Ditto for Pro ... the economics simply don't add up.

 

... not to mention that newer, high capacity drives are MUCH faster than the older units.

 

i already have unRAID Plus license on my 3.5TB ver 4.7 system.  It runs flawlessly (and I don't want to mess with it).  BUT I want to dabble with a ver 5.x system on the cheap.  I don't need any high capacity drives to run a ver 5.x system.  using 3 120 (or even 80) GB drives is more than enough to test a ver 5.x install.  these drives can be had real cheap on ebay.

 

 

Agree that if you simply want to "dabble with v5, and are going to use the free version, then it doesn't make any difference what size drives you use.    In fact, I suspect you've already got a few drives "on hand" that will easily work for this purpose 

 

 

At least get the neo magnets out.  They are always fun and useful. Your fridge magnets will never come off again.

 

My plan is to fix a couple of those magnets to a disc, then getting a Starbuck mug, the ones that look like a paper cup, and put that disc in the bottom.

 

Then I'll place it on top of my car like I forgotten it while getting in and then drive slowly around downtown Seattle. If anybody tries to get my attention, I'll wave back at them all cherry like.

My plan is to fix a couple of those magnets to a disc, then getting a Starbuck mug, the ones that look like a paper cup, and put that disc in the bottom.

 

Then I'll place it on top of my car like I forgotten it while getting in and then drive slowly around downtown Seattle. If anybody tries to get my attention, I'll wave back at them all cherry like.

Be sure to take lots of video. Pics or it didn't happen. 

For extra credit, get an old laptop, gut it, put magnets in it and place it beside the coffee cup.

At least get the neo magnets out.  They are always fun and useful. Your fridge magnets will never come off again.

 

My plan is to fix a couple of those magnets to a disc, then getting a Starbuck mug, the ones that look like a paper cup, and put that disc in the bottom.

 

Then I'll place it on top of my car like I forgotten it while getting in and then drive slowly around downtown Seattle. If anybody tries to get my attention, I'll wave back at them all cherry like.

 

Best idea of the year so far!

At least get the neo magnets out.  They are always fun and useful. Your fridge magnets will never come off again.

 

My plan is to fix a couple of those magnets to a disc, then getting a Starbuck mug, the ones that look like a paper cup, and put that disc in the bottom.

 

Then I'll place it on top of my car like I forgotten it while getting in and then drive slowly around downtown Seattle. If anybody tries to get my attention, I'll wave back at them all cherry like.

 

Best idea of the year so far!

 

Not sure I'd call it the "Best idea of the year"  ==> but it's certainly unique, and likely to get a bit of attention 

You also could still use ATA/IDE dirves, if you have a controller for them of course...