anyone know of any reason not to just throw away old hard drives. I am not worried about data, just didn't want to pollute anything.

Heavy Metals.....LEAD

It's always nice to see people thinking about it before they throw this stuff away.

Many regions have recycling centers for technology waste. Some things, like CRT monitors may have a small fee. Lots of these recycling companies salvage what they can to build computers for charity organizations. They claim that next to nothing ends up in the landfill.

You're in luck, Colorado seems to be a very pro-recycling state.

https://www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/electronics/electronics.asp

https://www.recycling-guide.com/searchfolder/searchresults.php?code=26C

https://www.mountainrecyclers.com/WhyRecycle/tabid/27/Default.aspx

https://dmoz.org/Business/Energy_and_Environment/Waste_Management/Recycling/Electronics/

Hey, if they still work put them on EBAY because there are a TON of old systems that cannot use new drives.

Speaking of disposing of Hard Drives This is Scary!! Drill holes into your harddrive if you have data concerns!

https://www.nbc6.net/technology/9305222/detail.html

We physically dismantle all of our old drives and smash them with a sledge hammer. The tech who does this is a weight lifter. I have done it several times and its a great stress reliever. Not that we have any stress around here. Its scary to think that data can still be recovered. Most of our old systems are taken to a recycling center for disposal. CD's and DVD's with data should also be distroyed or shredded.

I usually disassemble the drive, save the magnets (they make great tool retrievers), sandpaper the platters, turn the case in for scrap aluminum, trash or hammer the rest.

There's absolutely no need to be so destructive with retired hard drives (unless they no longer work, of course). A good alternative to smashing them, and thus wasting a potentially usable (and money-making) component is to run a dedicated drive-erase utility on it, one that provides a 3x-zeros overwrite in accordance with DoD specs.

The drive can then be safely resold with no concern about the buyer being able to recover 'sensitive' data from it. Here's a couple of links to some very worthwhile utilities.

https://www.killdisk.com/ - Has a free version, cheap to buy.

https://www.whitecanyon.com/hard-drive-eraser.php - Also cheap to buy, very simple to use. Insert a boot disk, reboot the system involved, and follow the prompts.

There are others. Lots of others. Google on "Drive Eraser" or other related terms for more (including, most likely, more freebies).


Keep the peace(es).

kc7gr, Don't watch much CSI do you? LOL.

If you have the money to purchase a new drive, scrap the old one to bits. It works.

If you need a HD somewhere else in the company, wipe that hard drive clean with a UNIX clearing agent, then install a fresh OS.

Kind of what I did when I bought two servers from Ed, they had Win2kPro on them, wiped them clean SEVERAL times, and installed a fresh batch of linux. BTW: Servers are still running great Ed, thanks again!

https://www.andruschak.net/DataSecure/index.html

You recover that data and you're something. LOL

<snippety>

Oh, puhh-LEEEZ! Hollywood is going to put out what gets them the most eyeballs glued to the screen. If they think that showing some fantasy genius getting data off a drive that's been properly wiped is going to get them those eyeballs, then that is exactly what they're going to show.

My biggest concern is about wasting potentially usable components. There's way too much of that going on in the world already.

If you have one or more drives you don't need, and you're not obligated by contractual requirement to destroy them, clean 'em up with the right software and sell them on Greed-bay or CraigsList, at least.

Don't just smash them for the sake of smashing. The old Bell System already did way too much of that with some wonderfully well-made (and still useful to this day) equipment.

BTW, I'm glad the servers worked out for you (and aren't you glad that Ed didn't simply smash the hard drives?)

Keep the peace(es).

The last HD I had that went bad, I took apart and cut the platter in half with a dremel!

The platters also make nice shiny Christmas tree ornaments.