Drives & media · Tier D

Whole hard drives

As metal, a 3.5" drive is about 60 cents of aluminium. Everything interesting is the PCB, the head flex and the magnets.

Au 0.05–0.15 g/lbNd magnetsBase aluminium casting

eBay typical$2–5per lb

Refiner pays$1per lb

Metal in it$10.6per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencehighof the yield figures

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Gold	0.05–0.15 g/lb	PCB + head flex only
Neodymium	magnets
Base metal	aluminium casting, steel

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $10.6 per pound of contained metal — Gold 0.08 g = $10.4, Copper 15 g = $0.16. A refiner paying $1 returns about 9% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: Cold

Torx apart: PCB to the HDD board bucket, magnets separate, head arm separate, platters to aluminium or the craft market, casting to clean aluminium.

Hazards

🩹 Glass and sharps

NEVER blow on, wipe with bare fingers, or brush away cut optical fibre.

Before you scrap it

A drive with clean SMART is $8–25 (1–4 TB), enterprise 8 TB+ is $40–90. Scrap value is 60 cents. Always test first, and wipe before selling.

Questions

How much gold is in whole hard drives?

Gold: 0.05–0.15 g/lb. At current spot that is about $10.6 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify whole hard drives?

As metal, a 3.5" drive is about 60 cents of aluminium. Everything interesting is the PCB, the head flex and the magnets.

How do you remove whole hard drives safely?

Torx apart: PCB to the HDD board bucket, magnets separate, head arm separate, platters to aluminium or the craft market, casting to clean aluminium.

Is whole hard drives worth more working than as scrap?

A drive with clean SMART is $8–25 (1–4 TB), enterprise 8 TB+ is $40–90. Scrap value is 60 cents. Always test first, and wipe before selling.

Related in Drives & media

Hard drive PCBs Drives & media · $15–45/lb Au 0.3–0.8 g/lbAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 15–25% B HDD head arms & actuator assemblies Drives & media · $15–40/lb Au 0.1–0.3 g/lbNd NdFeB magnetsCu voice coil C Hard drive platters Drives & media · $10–11/lb Pt 1–2.2 mg per 3.5" platterBase 10–16 g aluminium each D Optical Drives & Laser Pickups Drives & media · $3–60/lb Au 0.01–0.03 g per drive ≈ 0.011 g/lbCu ~16 g/lbBase Al 200–400 g D Tape Drives & Libraries (LTO/DLT/DAT) Drives & media · $5–500/lb Au 0.05–0.20 g per LTO drive ≈ 0.03 g/lbCu ~10 g/lbBase 0.7–1.8 kg aluminium per full-height drive D

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