# What material is a PC's hard drive made of? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121 "2014-05-10T12:37:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/1 "2014-05-10T12:37:43Z")
Standard home/business PC. The actual spinning disk. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/2 "2014-05-10T12:50:33Z")
The [platter?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_platter#Manufacture) Aluminium alloy or glass coated with nickel and phosphorous and carbon. Also includes [ruthenium and platinum](http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/storage/how-the-humble-hard-drive-is-made-667183) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/3 "2014-05-10T15:15:25Z")
Thanks. Interesting. Glass? huh. We are recycling a bunch of old computers at work, and pulling the hard drives out of them. I asked how they where going to destroy them, and apparently one of the network guys has some tool (not sure if it’s just a big ass magnet, but I think you actually plug the drive in it) to wipe the drive. I thought it would be more fun, and probably just as effective to hit it with a big ass hammer a couple of times. (there is nothing at all particularly sensitive on these drives.) But such is the world of lawsuits and being Politically Correct. Someone could get hurt I suppose, using a hammer. We used to have our monthly Information Systems meetings at a local bar. Not any more. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/4 "2014-05-10T15:27:49Z")
The hammer is a better tool for the job… ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/5 "2014-05-10T15:53:08Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Someone could get hurt I suppose, using a hammer. > [@beowulff](#): > > The hammer is a better tool for the job… [Not necessarily,](http://www.electronicproducts.com/Videos/Epic_fail_Hobbyist_discovers_you_shouldn_t_hammer_the_Galaxy_S5_s_LiPo_battery.aspx) if there’s a lithium battery involved and you want to live. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/6 "2014-05-10T15:59:16Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > [Not necessarily,](http://www.electronicproducts.com/Videos/Epic_fail_Hobbyist_discovers_you_shouldn_t_hammer_the_Galaxy_S5_s_LiPo_battery.aspx) if there’s a lithium battery involved and you want to live. Hard drives have batteries? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/7 "2014-05-10T16:06:23Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > Hard drives have batteries? 😕 No, but they may have hammer-happy owners who don’t discriminate. Did you watch the short video? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/8 "2014-05-10T16:14:54Z")
if you want the information gone then wipe the data with a good removal process and reuse the drives. if you are required to physically destroy the drives then take the magnets out. they are strong and good for projects. use with caution. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/9 "2014-05-10T16:16:38Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > No, but they may have hammer-happy owners who don’t discriminate. Did you watch the short video? Oh, it was _so scary!_ ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/10 "2014-05-10T18:30:36Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > … one of the network guys has some tool (not sure if it’s just a big ass magnet, but I think you actually plug the drive in it) to wipe the drive. This is effective at making the data unreadable, but contributes nothing toward recycling. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/11 "2014-05-11T02:56:27Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > [Not necessarily,](http://www.electronicproducts.com/Videos/Epic_fail_Hobbyist_discovers_you_shouldn_t_hammer_the_Galaxy_S5_s_LiPo_battery.aspx) if there’s a lithium battery involved and you want to live. Ah, he let out the magic smoke. Thanks for the link! ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/12 "2014-05-11T13:30:17Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > This is effective at making the data unreadable, but contributes nothing toward recycling. 😕 Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. Um the recycle part here is taking it down to the basics. Not re-use. Perhaps I don’t understand your post. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/13 "2014-05-14T07:52:39Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > 😕 > > Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. Um the recycle part here is taking it down to the basics. Not re-use. Perhaps I don’t understand your post. All he’s saying is that erasing the drive will not help anyone recycle its contents, as the drive will still be intact. To get anything out of it, the OP would still need to use something like his hammer idea. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/14 "2014-05-14T13:16:23Z")
Then how do they blend phones without any accidents? Do they blend the battery also? It looks like they blend the phone while it’s operating and without cutting the video, though. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/15 "2014-05-14T13:27:14Z")
Just drill a hole through the hard drive assembly. Wouldn’t that destroy any chance of data recovery? Then just dissassemble and recycle etc. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/16 "2014-05-14T13:32:18Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Just drill a hole through the hard drive assembly. Wouldn’t that destroy any chance of data recovery? > > Then just dissassemble and recycle etc. A hammer is much easier. Drilling a hole actually does less damage - the NSA/FBI could recover much of your data. Bending the disks makes it pretty hard (but not exactly impossible) to recover data - hard enough that I’d feel plenty safe. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/17 "2014-05-14T15:46:52Z")
I physically destroyed an old hard drive once. I bought a torx bit from a hardware store so I could disassemble it, then I used a pair of needle-nozed pliers to bend and twist the disk well beyond any hope of reading the data. I kept the neodymium magnets for a while. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/18 "2014-05-14T15:58:43Z")
Where I work, the magnets are removed and then we take a belt sander to the actual disk. ---
**Author:** ![Yask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Yask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yask)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/19 "2014-05-14T16:04:59Z")
Here’s a [great infographic](http://www.factsnfakes.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/what-are-the-hard-drive-disks-made-of.jpg) on what goes into making a hard drive, from mineral extraction to shipping. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121/20 "2014-05-14T16:37:07Z")
> [@Yask](#): > > Here’s a [great infographic](http://www.factsnfakes.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/what-are-the-hard-drive-disks-made-of.jpg) on what goes into making a hard drive, from mineral extraction to shipping. Site does not allow hot linking. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-material-is-a-pcs-hard-drive-made-of/688121.md?page=2)