What to do with IDE drives?

[Christicles]

Ok, so don't laugh at me, but I currently have 2 IDE(PATA) drives in my current machine. Now, before you ask, yes my mobo has slots for SATA, but I had a 200gb hdd from my last build that I decided to throw in for some extra storage, and when I was buying a hdd for my current build the guy in the store gave me the wrong hdd that advertised in a deal that was going on which ended up being an IDE drive. I could have taken it back but it was too much hassle and the only other sata drive that was available was from a brand that was exactly reliable at the time and I had had bad experiences with other drives from them.

Now onto the main topic. My current build has been going for about nearly 5yrs now and it's starting to show some signs of it's age, which means that I'm planning on doing a new build sometime soon. I was starting to think about what I can reuse and in my reasearch I realised that IDE has essentially been phase out of mobo production. This means I need to get some new drives when it comes to buying parts and I got to thinking, "well I have about 500gb combined storage on IDE drives, what can I do with them?" I don't really want to just leave them lying arround and it probably won't be worth the money to try and sell them. So what can I do with them?

I was maybe thinking about a small NAS but 500gb isn't really that much for nas for 5 people.

Any thoughts?

[CrysisLTU]

I used my on an Original Xbox. I installed a softmod and XBMC (Xbox Media Center) and it works awesome! If you want to use these IDE drives on your new PC though, there are IDE to SATA adapters.

[King Nothing]

Through 'em up on eBay. That's the best answer for stuff that's gonna be just laying around.

[Kian]

Not much you could do with IDE Drives now a days. You could salvage them for your next build if you really wanted, other then that I would put them on eBay/Craigslist or whatever alternative and sell them.

[Remnants]

Make them into speakers..

Throw wax on the bare platters while they are spinning and claim you're banksy..

Do what Linus did and get sledgehammer and beat the crap outta them cause IDE is slow and useless.. (I had a 750GB (several 120GB IDE drives) server, it was horribly slow)

Record yourself smashing them / microwaving them and make money on YouTube off them.

[Takefear]

Make them into speakers.. Throw wax on the bare platters while they are spinning and claim you're banksy.. Do what Linus did and get sledgehammer and beat the crap outta them cause IDE is slow and useless.. (I had a 750GB (several 120GB IDE drives) server' date=' it was horribly slow) Record yourself smashing them / microwaving them and make money on YouTube off them. [/quote']

Now this guy has an idea!

[Henoob]

I took mine apart and got the platters and now I have 2 cup coasters which are the platters.

[T-D0S]

I took mine apart and got the platters and now I have 2 cup coasters which are the platters.

I didn't even think about that.

[27-bit]

just destroy them..

[Sauber-C10]

Smash them with a hammer or smash them creatively and make a funny youtube video, but seriously i wouldnt recommend selling them as the only reason people will buy them is to try and salvage your data, ive watched it done and its kinda scary how fast and how much of your data they can find on your old drive if it hasnt been properly wiped, use software to wipe it or get a very very strong magnet and place it on or near the platter, then the data is completely fucked, but really they arent worth anything re-sale value, just bin them

[MetalLobster]

You are putting yourself at risk of someone stealing your data if you sell them. You could either get external enclosures to use them for backup or portable storage, or destroy them.

[IdeaStormer]

Donate them, of course after erasing the drive. I would reformat and write some junk on it then reformat again and then donate it, or at the very least recycle it.

If you have never taken one apart get some small hex tools and go at it so you can see how they work, but there is no need to take out a sledge hammer and destroy it and make a mess out of it. If the motor still works you can make a small pottery wheel out of it.

[douchecanoe]

DBAN the drives

If they have bad sectors destroy them

If they're okay give them to goodwill or donate them elsewhere

Maybe save one in case of emergency, never know when something can come in handy

[Helltech]

There are tons of cool things you can do with an old HDD, if you are into getting a little engineer-y

http://lifehacker.com/5619879/what-can-i-do-with-a-dead-hard-drive

[Christicles]

There are tons of cool things you can do with an old HDD, if you are into getting a little engineer-y

http://lifehacker.com/5619879/what-can-i-do-with-a-dead-hard-drive

I'm always a little engineer-y.

[kpsl808mg]

if they work - use 'em

if not - be creative !

[Helltech]

There are tons of cool things you can do with an old HDD, if you are into getting a little engineer-y

http://lifehacker.com/5619879/what-can-i-do-with-a-dead-hard-drive

I'm always a little engineer-y.

Good ;) Check out that article then.

[Blankie440]

Just don't trash them till you get those damn powerful magnets out of them. I dare you to stick it to the middle of your fridge and try to peel it off without taking it to an edge.

[jeffrly]

Donate/recycle them!

[Helepolis]

Could use them to put towards a PFsense build.

[spooley]

Swap the platters out with an angle grinder blade, fast file/sander.

[stairs2195]

i keep mine as they make pretty good paper weights :D

[Kilmer02]

I'll put em to good use if you send em' my way!