Hard drive plays a vital role in the computer system. Without the hardware you can’t save any file. But, what if your hard drive get broken? Should you throw it to the trash can? I don’t think so.
You can still use your broken hard drive. Not for storing files, of course. With little bit creativity you can recycle your old hard drive to become useful stuffs and make it valuable again. But, before going further it’s better to understand the hard drive parts first. Take a look at the image below.
Now after knowing the hard drive parts as you can see from the image above, you are ready to go. You will need some tools like screwdriver, pliers and so on. You will use those tools to open up your hard drive and strip its parts, depends on how you will use your dead hard drive. If you have no idea on how to open a hard drive, take a minute to see this video.
4 DIY projects to recycle your broken hard drives
You have learnt how to open your hard drive and already know the parts of a hard drive. Now you can reuse your hard drive parts to create some cool stuffs like knife block, clock and lots more. Below are 4 ideas to reuse your hard drive parts.
1. Magnetic knife rack
The first cool stuff you can create with your old hard drive is a magnetic knife rack. You can create something like this because a hard drive contains large neodymium magnets and you can utilize them to build a col magnetic knife rack by yourself.
No special tools are required. Saw and sandpaper are the key tools to form the wood. Other tools you are going to need are good branded glue like the ones at Glue Guns Direct, clamps keyhole brackets and so on. The Instructables user tzny has written steps by steps on how to recycle your old hard drive to become a magnetic knife rack. You might also interested to watch this video to get started.
2. Wind chime
Love to see that spinning wind chimes at the park or your neighbor’s yard? Did you know, creating a wind chime is actually not that hard. You can even create one by yourself, from your broken hard drives. But, you might need more broken hard drives to do this. The hard drive parts you will need are platters and cover plate as the holder. You will also need some ropes to hang your platters.
Unlike magnetic knife rack above, you will need less tools to create a wind chime. Once you done creating your DIY wind chime, you can hang it to your home yard to let it spining when the wind comes. The Instrucable user Chuck Stephens have covered how to create wind chime by yourself.
3. Geeky clock
You can also turn your old, broken hard drive into a geeky clock. But, you need some additional components to do this, including clock movement and hands. You will need all the hard drive parts to create a DIY hard drive clock. Firstly, you will disassemble the hard drive to install the clock movement and battery and reassemble it to make it looks the way it is. Then you can install the clock hands and numbers (this is optional actually).
Still get no idea?. Then you might want to watch a YouTube video from famous YouTuber kipkay below.
4. A hidden safe
Want to hide your money to a place where no one will suspect it? You can do it too with your broken hard drive. More interestingly, you will need no additional components to create a hidden safe from a broken hard drive. All you need to do is taking out all the parts, then insert one of the screws in the corner. Your “hard drive safe” will act as a swivelling case to stash your emergency money.
Instructables user bobert610 have posted an easy-to-follow instruction to help you creating a hidden hard drive safe.