What do you do with sixteen 250GB HDD hard drives you find in the backyard? The question becomes more complicated when you realize that they are still in their packaging and from 2005. (IIRC, they were given to my dad by a friend and are leftovers from a failed tech company’s server farm.)
My brother thought about repurposing them for his gaming PC, but that was frowned upon by my parents. I suggested donating them to Goodwill, but that was frowned upon as well. My friend Patrick suggested disassembling them and repurposing the magnets. My dad (who had the final say) wanted to send them directly to San Jose recycling and pay whatever fees upfront.
In the end, my idea won out. On one of my trips to Hmart, I swung by Goodwill De Anza to ask about donations. The man I talked to said they would take the hard drives and send them to e-Waste without charging us a penny. That was enough to satisfy my dad. Saturday afternoon, we lugged the hard drives over and donated them.
PS: on the same trip, we also donated a big bag of old clothes.
