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Traditional hard drives typically contain useful components. But dismantling them manually would be too labor-intensive. As things stand, old hard drives tend to go through a shredder and it’s often down to luck whether there’s anything usable left after that process. A company called Garner Products claims to have a better solution with its DiskMantler.<\/p>\n
This machine (spotted by Ars Technica<\/em><\/a>) uses a mix of shock, harmonics and vibration to shake apart a hard drive. The process loosens screws and other fasteners \u2014 no matter what kind of <\/a> are used \u2014 to free up parts like circuit boards, drive assemblies, actuators and rare-earth magnets. The process reportedly takes between eight and 90 seconds for most hard drives, and around two minutes for welded helium drives.<\/p>\n The DiskManter can seemingly disassemble as many as 500 hard drives a day and only a fifth or so of the planet’s e-waste <\/a>. So at least for now, Garner’s recycling efforts may seem a bit like a drop in the ocean. However, if the company can help to retrieve valuable components such as rare-earth magnets without having to break them down into elements and starting the production process over, that surely has to be a net positive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n