Drives & media · Tier D

Floppy Drives (3.5″ & 5.25″)

The 34-pin edge connector looks like gold fingers but on most consumer drives it is bare tin over copper — the working drive is worth 50× what its metals are.

Cu 20–35 g/lbAu 0.002–0.008 g/lbBase 60–80% steel chassis and shielding

eBay typical$8–45per lb

Refiner pays$0.1per lb

Metal in it$0.81per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencelowof the yield figures

How to spot it

3.5″: 101 × 25 × 146 mm, 34-pin card edge or laptop flex, marked Teac FD-235, Sony MPF920, Mitsumi D359, ALPS. 5.25″: half-height Teac FD-55, Panasonic JU-475; full-height Tandon TM100 and Shugart in IBM PCs and industrial gear. Belt-drive 5.25″ units are the oldest. Found in retro PCs, industrial CNC and embroidery machines, samplers and test instruments.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Copper	20–35 g/lb	Spindle motor, head stepper and coils; a 3.5″ drive is ~350 g, a full-height 5.25″ up to 1.5 kg
Gold	0.002–0.008 g/lb	Board flash and head-cable pads only — estimated, no assay
Base metal	60–80% steel chassis and shielding	Sheet steel at shred price

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $0.81 per lb of contained metal — Gold 0.004 g = $0.52, Copper 27 g = $0.29. A refiner paying $0.1 per lb returns about 12% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: No heat needed — mechanical teardown only

Four side screws free the drive; two or four more free the board. Pull the stepper and spindle motors for the motor bucket, board to low-grade, chassis to steel. Keep working Teac/Sony 3.5″ and any 5.25″ intact and untested-listed at worst.

Hazards

☠ Lead — dust more than fume

NEVER dry sweep or use compressed air on a scrapping bench. HEPA-vac or wet-wipe only.

🪚 Fibreglass and board dust

NEVER dry-cut boards indoors without extraction.

Before you scrap it

The whole play. 3.5″ tested $10–25, industrial-model 3.5″ $25–60, 5.25″ half-height $30–80, full-height and 8″ drives $60–250. USB floppy drives $10–20. Only scrap crushed or corroded units.

The common trap

Scrapping working drives. Industrial machines — embroidery, CNC, samplers — still require floppy drives, and retro builders pay real money: a tested Teac FD-235HF is $25–60, a clean full-height 5.25″ $40–120. The metal inside every one of them is under $1.

Questions

How much gold is in floppy drives (3.5″ & 5.25″)?

Copper: 20–35 g/lb. Gold: 0.002–0.008 g/lb. At current spot that is about $0.81 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify floppy drives (3.5″ & 5.25″)?

The 34-pin edge connector looks like gold fingers but on most consumer drives it is bare tin over copper — the working drive is worth 50× what its metals are.

How do you remove floppy drives (3.5″ & 5.25″) safely?

Is floppy drives (3.5″ & 5.25″) worth more working than as scrap?

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