I use the platters like this as my primary long term storage solution. It just saves so much space without the large enclosures. /s
You joke but early 90s we had exactly this with magneto optical drives
Ah yes. The famous write-only backup solution :D
Techno-shamanism! I made a dream-catcher made from some plates.
I made a wind chime once that I really loved. Had to dirty the plates because they could catch the sun well enough to vaporize your retinas
I made a DRAM catcher once.
I heard they keep data corruption away.
Oh wow!
I don’t have the space to hoard garbage.
This is cool, but honestly kind of a deranged question to ask.
Does anybody else harvest the teeth of their victims and put them on a keychain?
Or fashion bow ties from their testicles. . ?
Fair, my home office is a monument to too much free time, a hoarding habit for ewaste, and a wife who works weekends and overnights.
This is just a less gross version of “DAE store their piss in jars so they can commemorate their unitary secretions”?
baffled glance…wot?
Unhinged comment.
Thought it was just me. Used to have at least twice this many in my old office:
That’s rad, and you did an amazing job keeping them whole. Recently I have been wrapping them in cloth, then the kids form clay around them for various fridge and office magnets.
That’s a good idea. Yeah, the trick I discovered in getting them off the mounting bracket without the chrome plating peeling is to grab each end of the bracket with vice grips and/or pliers (after you unscrew it from the drive) and just bend it down and away from the magnet. They usually come off in one piece that way, too.
Cool, I’ll try this next time. So far the least damaging way I’ve tried is putting the thing in hot water. The magnet and the base expand by different amounts and it is relatively easy to pry the magnet off. But the thing cools down quickly so it takes a few tries.
I’ve done some of that, recently I have an old putty knife and I will put it right against the crack and just hammer it which will unstick it enough that I can pull it off. Newer drives definitely have weaker magnets than some of my much older ones.
Wow it looks like a light sweeper
I have like 30 old hard drives laying around and have been thinking about doing a cool art installation with them for a while.
Maybe shatter the platters to create a spiky landscape and epoxy them in, or something like that.
Any ideas?
As more of an artist than a techie for the most part — if you have your medium or at least part of it — the more interesting thing about art is what you have to say about it.
As an example, if you want to draw a distinction and comparison between the age of discovery and the age of technology, you could use the hard drives as a canvas on which to paint a portrait of something like Robert Scott / Lawrence Oates, or Jacques Cousteau, or Armstrong and Aldrin etc.
On that last one - if you could tie the size of the drive in comparison to the size of the code used in the moon landing that might also be interesting.
Anyway, all that to say - art is a mix of medium and message
Thanks for the artist view on things. :)
I mostly want something pretty to look at but adding a message to it is an excellent idea.
I use an old platter on my desk as a coaster.
Already have a few of those, always a good party gag for the ones that know.
Their density makes them ring like a bell, if suspended by a wire through the center. Good wind chimes.
Will have to try that, also a good way to one-up my neighbor with those CDs hanging outside. :)
If you have different types you could do an exploded view hardware showcase
Yes, I’ve got quite a few types, good idea.
I thought you made a custom thermos bottle at first
Same.
Both of my autistic kids love magents. I will pull them from old drives, car/pc speakers, or anything else that has them.
No, because I am worried the NSA may try to collate data from them. In fact, I zero-wipe, drill bit the drives in the platters and the PCB, and drop them off at e-waste for recycling.
I keep the magnets, but I shred the platters. 'cause magnets are cool.
No, but you do, and I like this ob-jay-dar
Platters make good coasters
That’s a funny looking Stanley cup.
Now I am feeling sorry I did not…
There’s some really fun chemistry in the rare-earth magnets - I used to buy them in bulk to enlarge my own IT-workshop collection, which was mostly broken down for Nd salts. Also, the magnets from iMac screens were also plentiful when HDD magnets got small (and then went extinct).
