From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 7 Aug 2001 13:15:45 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 7 Aug 2001 13:15:35 -0400 Received: from fluent1.pyramid.net ([206.100.220.212]:18737 "EHLO fluent1.pyramid.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 7 Aug 2001 13:15:16 -0400 Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20010807100736.00b9ce80@mail.fluent-access.com> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 10:14:07 -0700 To: Chris Wedgwood , Joel Jaeggli From: Stephen Satchell Subject: [OT] Cold, Dead Hard drives (was: Encrypted Swap) Cc: Brian May , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <20010808035909.E26290@weta.f00f.org> In-Reply-To: <84zo9ci4dk.fsf@scrooge.chocbit.org.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org At 03:59 AM 8/8/01 +1200, Chris Wedgwood wrote: >I'm told people do actually buy dead hard-drives that are returned for >RMA purposes. I wonder that they do with them? :) The obvious answer: take five drives and find parts for a good drive, and resell the drive as a refurb. Not-so-obvious answer: Take the dead drive as-is, package with Microsoft Operating System of your choice, and then auction the bundle on eBay. (Dead motherboards are good for this, too.) This is to satisfy an asinine rule that someone at Microsoft cooked up. Most bogus answer: Dump them off the coast of Florida and make an artificial reef. This is what Core International, a hard drive distributor, claimed it was doing with trade-ins during an '80s promotion for drives to replace the infamous CMI 20 hard drive that IBM was shipping in its IBM PC AT (you know, that blazing 6-MHz 286 system that was supposed to revolutionize the Charlie Chaplan office environment). Most useful answer: Disassemble drive. Use head field magnets on the fridge. Use platters as coasters (I have a set of coated ones from a dead drive, and uncoated ones rejected during manufacturing that Micronet Technologies gave away as party favors one year). And THAT should close this branch of the thread tree nicely... Satch