Old hard drives

Is there any practical use for old IDE hard drives, 50-200MB in working order. Or are they only fit for trashing? Any ideas?

Reply to
Tim Polmear
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I use these with PC104 based equipment during the design phase. It is then replaced with an M-Disk or other flash device as required.

Reply to
Lord Garth

I use them to test old computer boards. I also used them as a secondary drive in a few spare computers for data storage or .CAB files to repair a damaged operating system. They don't take up much space and they do come in handy. I have about 25 spare drives. Some work and some don't but I've had good luck swapping boards on the same model to recover data when the board fails.

If you don't need them sell them or give them to a school. In the US there is a concept called "Freecycle" where you post things you don't want and if someone can use it the e-mail you and pick it up. There is a local group where I live and I've given away some computer parts to people that way.

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Check it out and see if there is one near you, or start one in your town.

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Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

You can also set up a hard drive to install software on the M-Disk if its a production item. Boot from the hard drive, copy the files and install. The work I did with M-Disk engineering insisted on booting from a floppy and using a half assed connection to the engineering server to download the files which took a lot longer. I also found out they used my network login and password on the floppy to log in where anyone who could use any word processor could read the file.

This is just 'one' reason I didn't like the IT dept.

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

then

That's what I do, it's a big time saver.

I hope you changed your password!

Reply to
Lord Garth

There is a group called Computer Angels in Perth who recycle old computers and then donate them to various people/organisations.

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Alan

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Jenal Communications
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Reply to
Alan

I gathered up all the boot disks then I got the head of engineering and the head of IT in one room and gave them hell. By the time I got back to my bench the backup files were no longer on the server. The new version had a new user log in under the product name and the password was "test" and that log in only let you access one virtual drive to program two models of our product line.

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

they got a strong pair of magnets and some ss screws and torx screws for the collection box

Reply to
Ed ()

A very creative person built a windmill using the bearing of the harddisk.

It's a long thread and there are pictures down the screen.

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Regards

L.Chung

Reply to
L.Chung

ok how about this. a platter makes a great emergency mirror - signalling device, as it is so smooth and flat, not so good as a shaving mirror cause of the hole. try to aim the reflected sunlight to the searching aircraft, look through the hole in the middle and align with your finger or what ever held out in front of you.

Reply to
Ed ()

I made a small steam turbine using HD bearings. It runs on the top of the stove, although it's a bit too small for the smallest burner. It was a demo for my kids.

Reply to
Clifford Heath

Yes, I've discovered the bearings and have a nice little collection, along with the ones from old 3.5" FDDs. Can you *imagine* how much they would cost to buy? I might even be able to get the spindle motors going.

I might set up the platters as an array and see if I can set fire to something with them.

It's too bad the MiniScribe stopped working, it would have been good to have that going.

Reply to
Tim Polmear

scrap alloy

Reply to
sideshow bob

I've seen them made into table lamps. One even pulsed the spindle motor for a visual effect. The drive was opened and mounted in a plexiglas box with some accent LEDs. Very pretty but I'm not going to pay $150 for a lamp!

Reply to
Lord Garth

If I find two identical types such as conner 3.5" or old seagate (??250?) 5.25" that have deep covers. I hinge two covers together to make litlle tool boxes. I use the magnets glued on the inside to hole the box colsed. Sometimes I even mill the internal mounts down to make it nice and smooth. On one occaision I even lined it with velvet and gave it to a friend, she uses it to keep here sewing gear in.

Reply to
agamlen

you can also make a noisy mobile out fo the disks inside, thay ring when hit.

Reply to
sideshow bob

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