ComputingYou will see this often
Hard disk drive
Also called HDD, 3.5 inch drive, 2.5 inch drive, spinning disk.
Opened for two neodymium magnets and, if you want them, a voice coil and a spindle motor. The platters are not a useful material. The board is drive-specific.
A donor is the dead machine. The parts below are what is still worth removing from it. “Leave it” is a part that is physically in there and should stay in there: too dangerous, too worn, or only useful as part of a repair you are not doing.
The two curved blocks on the steel plates are the magnets, and they are the prize. Slide them apart. Do not pry straight up. The flat coil on the arm is a short-travel motor. The platters are not a useful material, and on some drives they are glass.
Why it is in the trash while the parts are not
Clicks, or it is simply small. The magnets do not care that the heads crashed. A drive that still spins is worth more as storage than as scrap; check that before you open it.
Before you open it
Do this while it is still unplugged, cool, and not leaking. Wipe or physically accept that the data is gone. The magnets will erase what the heads have not. Eye protection: platters can be glass.
Where the dead machine usually is
- Home office — In the house
- Office cleanout — Commercial
- Repair-shop scrap — Commercial
- Bulk trash day — Curb
External USB drives contain this donor plus a SATA bridge. Test the bridge with another drive before you blame the disk.
How it comes apart
Lid screws are Torx, often under a label. Do not strip them. The magnet screws are sometimes captive in the keeper. Slide magnets apart; do not pry straight up.
Tools: Torx T8 / T9 / T6, Spudger, Eye protection.
Words on this page
- neodymium
- The strong rare-earth magnet in hard drives. It pinches skin and shatters if two of them slam together.
What to take
The table is the short version. The notes under it describe that part inside this machine, not only the general description.
| Part | Call | How many | How often | Where to look |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neodymium magnet | Prize | 2 | always | Top and bottom of the actuator. |
| Hard-drive voice coil | Worth pulling | 1 | always | The actuator arm. |
| Brushless DC motor | Bonus | 1 | always | Under the platter stack. |
| SATA-USB bridge | Prize | 1 | sometimes | In the USB enclosure, not inside a bare drive. |
| Screws and standoffs | Bonus | several | always | Lid and magnet keepers. |
| Bearing and bushing | Leave it | 1 | always | Spindle. |
Prize
Nickel-plated neodymium arcs on steel keepers. Desktop magnets are much stronger than laptop ones.
Top and bottom of the actuator.
Slide sideways off the keeper with a plastic wedge.
Permanent, unless they have been slammed to pieces.
Turns SATA into USB. 2.5 in bus-powered, 3.5 in needs 12 V.
In the USB enclosure, not inside a bare drive.
Test with a known drive.
Often the surviving half.
Worth pulling
A short-stroke linear motor. Two leads on a flex.
The actuator arm.
Leave it on the arm. Cut the flex only after you know where the coil ends.
Good unless the flex is torn.
Bonus
A sensorless spindle. Not a two-wire motor. The magnets in it are real but annoying to extract.
Under the platter stack.
Leave it assembled unless you have an ESC experiment in mind.
Usually fine, and still hard to drive.
Torx, some with retained washers.
Lid and magnet keepers.
Bag them.
Good.
Leave it
Fluid dynamic bearing. Not a 608 you can press out and reuse.
Spindle.
Leave it.
Not a catalog bearing.