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Magnets (From dead hard drives)

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by therealjunkman

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I'm curious. What, if anything, do ya'll do with the magnets out of dead hard drives? Personally, I have a number of uses for them, from practicable to silly. (Play 'magic magnet' through a glass table with a two year old)
I'm wondering if anyone else has found a good use I've missed?
I am also into home power, that is, off-grid or homemade power. These magnets are powerful, plentiful, (for some of us, any ways) and so small and light as to have potential for uses in this area. There are people who think nothing of winding their own rotors for wind powered generators using plywood! Personally, I'm not that dedicated, or good, but I do play around with various ideas on ways of being able to survive a power outage with at least some electrical power of my own. I made a couple of generators out of 'found' stuff, one being made of exercise equipment. (A stationary bike and a treadmill being the main components)
Any suggestions? And, does anyone know where one may get, free or very cheaply, a LOT of hard drive magnets? I find these days, many drives have only one, not the two as was common in recent years. This cuts into my ability to gather up a large number of them by half.
Thanks.
Junkman

4 replies

by cmiller5400

Doubt that you will find many businesses that will sell/give them to you. Problem is that the HDD may contain sensitive data and may need to be crushed/destroyed. Most probably end up in the metal scrap yard and are turned into Toyota's :p

by forum surfer

My kid's artwork usually makes regular magnets fall to the flood. HDD magnets however, hold the artwork just fine. They're also great for office pranks. Superglue one or two to the bottom of a keyboard and you can stick your buddy's keyboard to a drop tile ceiling.

:)

Most companies are like mine. Who has time to take apart a hdd? I just toss it in the bin, then it gets boxed up and sent to the shredder. I will grab the occasional one when new magnets are needed.

by charliespencer

After booting from another media and running an erasure tool, I send mine to our machine shop. They delight in finding new ways to inflict physical destruction on them. I haven't dismantled an HD in years.

by hal 9000

It's the costs involved in dismantling HDD's. If I was to sit around expecting someone to pay me to dismantle HDD's I would go hungry more often than I actually had anything to eat.

Very Occasionally I will strip a HDD down and destroy the Platters but this is the exception not the rule and it always is a drive with very sensitive Data on it that the customer wants to see physically completely destroyed so the platters get hit with a Gas Axe. I can guarantee that there will be nothing recoverable after than.

About twice a year I give several boxes of HDD minus the Platters to the Local Data Recovery Company who uses them for their work. They also give me a Deal with any Recovery Work that I need done. :)

They do however send me lists of HDD types/models that they would like to have available and any that I get from Decommissioned systems I strip down and give to them when I have the time or I get one of the Work Experience people to do this when they come here to learn things. :0

Col

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