what is a hard drive made of?

Question

at work (in IT) we sometimes have to destroy hard drives - but they're made out of loads of things, including metal etc - so what are they made of, and are the metal parts any good for recycling/reusing?

at work (in IT) we sometimes have to destroy hard drives - but they're made out of loads of things, including metal etc - so what are they made of, and are the metal parts any good for recycling/reusing? (specifically in the uk)

Answer 1

The outer shell/case is aluminum.I recycle hard drives for about 35 cents a pound.They shred them and use a magnet to extract the metal leaving the aluminum.I also recycle curcuit boards for 40 cents low grade 1.40 high grade.There is no part of a computer that cannot be recycled and reused.

Answer 2

You can see the inside of a hard drive with this link:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/hard-disk4.htm

The only reason for destroying hard drives that I can think of is to destroy the data on the platters. This would be necessary if the hard drive is busted and you can't erase the sectors with a program.
As for recycling, there's nothing to really recycle. Stripping the metal would be far too costly & time consuming, and you can't really recycle circuit boards. Burning them wouldn't be a good idea because of the plasic, epoxy, fibreglass, and the lead-based solder. That's one of the problems that we have today - too much electronic junk.

Answer 3

Although small they are made of a special material that has a built in calculator inside. the calculator can only add up 1s and 0s hence the small size.

Be careful when destroying because some of the little people inside who have to operate the calculator may get hurt. (these are the same people Willy Wonks employs)

Answer 4

Some people think that the platers that are in the hard drive are made of glass. The truth is that the platers are made of a metallic material that is magnetized.

Answer 5

they are made of loads of things including metal.