Disassembled a 2.5" drive to remove the magnets

[philb2]

A bit of fun at 9.30 pm, when I was tired of doing bills and credit card statements. I had this Hitachi 1 TB drive manufactured in 2015, which quit working. I had read about removing the magnets from an old hard drive, so I gave it a try.

My tools were a small flathead screwdriver that I used as a prybar for the drive cover, and an iWork "Smart Phone Repair Kit." Part number 88-670-212. I used various bits to remove the Torx head screws holding the drive together. The entire job took about 15 minutes. because the drive cover would not come off clean. I disassembled the head actuators to get to the magnets. It was easy to identify the magnets using a paper clip. Damn, these magnets are strong.

 

[deaedius]

Yes those magnets are surprisingly strong frow how little they are!

 

[Zepher]

One night I was bored and also decided to get the magnets out of the hard drives.


I also disassembled a pair of my old SCSI Seagate Cheetah 10k Rpm drives.


The Magnet in it looks like a friggin brake caliper, lol,

 

[philb2]

One night I was bored and also decided to get the magnets out of the hard drives.
View attachment 473790

I also disassembled a pair of my old SCSI Seagate Cheetah 10k Rpm drives.
View attachment 473792

The Magnet in it looks like a friggin brake caliper, lol,
View attachment 473791

Zepher

You did a much neater job than I did. For some reason on my drive the top cover was attached to the center of the platter spindle, and would not come loose even after I removed a screw.

For security reasons, I disassembled the platter stack, and scored the platters. Ain't nobody going to get any of that data back.

 

[dbwillis]

ive got a 3.5 drive down to about 8 minutes to disassemble, minus using a center punch to pop the motor out from the backside...cant do that when the wife and kids are asleep.
toss the platters and frame into the alum bucket to melt down...with 2.5 drives, the alum is so thin, I just use 2 channel locks to bend it in half...magnets also fall out that way too and the screws just pull through the alum or the heads pop off

 

[rhkcommander959]

Love me some HD magnets, the platters are so shiny too!

Have any of you managed to separate the magnet from the housing?

I took one magnet and ground the sides down, turned it into a stud finder with a bit of string, works great!

 

[dbwillis]

Yes, 2 channel locks, bend the metal that's around the magnet