Retired Hard Drive stacks
-
I've been cleaning up my work area but one thing that I never seem to get a handle on is the pile of old hard drives. And I'm guessing that many of our crowd have the same issue. The thing is that whenever I get a new computer and get rid of an old one I pull the hard drive. The plan of copying out important stuff (really?) before I wipe the drive. That's the plan, but the reality is that I don't quite let go. Did I get everything I need? Why not check one more time later... and the drive joins the other drives somewhere in a closet. How many retired hard drives have I accumulated? About a dozen. Occasionally I actually finish and get rid of some. Or more truthfully a small EMP event confined to my closet and storage might actually be a good thing for me and save me some wasted time and space. Do others in this group have similar behavioral issues like this?
-
I've been cleaning up my work area but one thing that I never seem to get a handle on is the pile of old hard drives. And I'm guessing that many of our crowd have the same issue. The thing is that whenever I get a new computer and get rid of an old one I pull the hard drive. The plan of copying out important stuff (really?) before I wipe the drive. That's the plan, but the reality is that I don't quite let go. Did I get everything I need? Why not check one more time later... and the drive joins the other drives somewhere in a closet. How many retired hard drives have I accumulated? About a dozen. Occasionally I actually finish and get rid of some. Or more truthfully a small EMP event confined to my closet and storage might actually be a good thing for me and save me some wasted time and space. Do others in this group have similar behavioral issues like this?
I've got three sitting on my window sill, and two platters in use as coffee mug mats. I keep noticing the three and thinking "I must wipe or destroy those" but ... find the time, Griff!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
-
I've been cleaning up my work area but one thing that I never seem to get a handle on is the pile of old hard drives. And I'm guessing that many of our crowd have the same issue. The thing is that whenever I get a new computer and get rid of an old one I pull the hard drive. The plan of copying out important stuff (really?) before I wipe the drive. That's the plan, but the reality is that I don't quite let go. Did I get everything I need? Why not check one more time later... and the drive joins the other drives somewhere in a closet. How many retired hard drives have I accumulated? About a dozen. Occasionally I actually finish and get rid of some. Or more truthfully a small EMP event confined to my closet and storage might actually be a good thing for me and save me some wasted time and space. Do others in this group have similar behavioral issues like this?
Is there anything that can be done with old hdds ?
-
I've been cleaning up my work area but one thing that I never seem to get a handle on is the pile of old hard drives. And I'm guessing that many of our crowd have the same issue. The thing is that whenever I get a new computer and get rid of an old one I pull the hard drive. The plan of copying out important stuff (really?) before I wipe the drive. That's the plan, but the reality is that I don't quite let go. Did I get everything I need? Why not check one more time later... and the drive joins the other drives somewhere in a closet. How many retired hard drives have I accumulated? About a dozen. Occasionally I actually finish and get rid of some. Or more truthfully a small EMP event confined to my closet and storage might actually be a good thing for me and save me some wasted time and space. Do others in this group have similar behavioral issues like this?
Yes. Eventually, I drill a hole through them and discard in the appropriate bin at the waste recycle joint.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
-
Is there anything that can be done with old hdds ?
Redundant, offline backups? Although I fully realize that, eventually, keeping a 500GB drive around is pointless. I must have 40+ "spare" hard drives right now. By now I've given up all pretense that I'll ever do anything with the IDE ones. At least I don't have a single SCSI drive anymore... I still have people who show up every once in a while with a laptop with a dead hard drive. More often than not, I'll just give them one of my spares, which is still larger in capacity than the dead one I'm replacing for free.
-
Yes. Eventually, I drill a hole through them and discard in the appropriate bin at the waste recycle joint.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
I don't drill a hole through them; I just use DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) at its DoD setting to wipe and zero them before taking them into IT at work for disposal. They have a repurposing program for old hardware (for families who can't afford a computer), so if someone can use my unneeded hardware - why not? Unless you are storing media on your system drive, a 500GB drive is likely to be more than enough for your needs.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
-
I don't drill a hole through them; I just use DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) at its DoD setting to wipe and zero them before taking them into IT at work for disposal. They have a repurposing program for old hardware (for families who can't afford a computer), so if someone can use my unneeded hardware - why not? Unless you are storing media on your system drive, a 500GB drive is likely to be more than enough for your needs.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
I like the idea that it gets repurposed at least once instead of right to a landfill. Thanks for that tip! Maybe that will be my motivation to clean them up!
-
I've been cleaning up my work area but one thing that I never seem to get a handle on is the pile of old hard drives. And I'm guessing that many of our crowd have the same issue. The thing is that whenever I get a new computer and get rid of an old one I pull the hard drive. The plan of copying out important stuff (really?) before I wipe the drive. That's the plan, but the reality is that I don't quite let go. Did I get everything I need? Why not check one more time later... and the drive joins the other drives somewhere in a closet. How many retired hard drives have I accumulated? About a dozen. Occasionally I actually finish and get rid of some. Or more truthfully a small EMP event confined to my closet and storage might actually be a good thing for me and save me some wasted time and space. Do others in this group have similar behavioral issues like this?
-
Is there anything that can be done with old hdds ?
I purchased a Sabrent external drive reader -- it accepts SATA and SSD drives. Essentially, it turns them into stable flash drives. I use my stack of HD for backing up large data sets, such of photos. I also have a stack of small EIDE drives that I can't read. My current MB doesn't have an EIDE connector and the external caddy doesn't have the interface. I'm afraid to recycle them as I have no idea what's on them. Could be old files backups, including financial records.
