Looking for suggestions on how to list a car load (literally) of random disk drives

[pedzsan]

I've never thrown away a disk drive.  I'm now 60+ and I have a car load of old disk drives.  I bought a big NAS (yet more disk drives) and I'm slowing going through all the old drives, copying the data I want to save to the NAS.  Then I write random data to the entire drive.  I then write all zeros to the drive.  I then reformat it with a GPT and one exFAT file system.  Last, I want to list them on eBay.  There are some duplicate types of drives.

Utopia would be to have a few fields such as manufacturer, model, size, and a photo or two per drive and hit some magic "LIST" button somewhere and it would create a listing from a template filling in the few items that change with each drive.

I'm a programmer so I'm not afraid to write scripts, etc if that would help in this case.

If you were face with this problem, how would you solve it?  Make a template and then just create each listing by hand starting from the template?  Use one listing and have multiple alternatives?  Use the bulk tool?  Use a third party tool?

[krazzykats]

Lot them up?  By brand?  Lot of 5 Westen Digital drives: 3-250mb, 2-500mb. 

Or lot them up by size?  5-250mb internal drives, 3-WD, 2-Seagate.

I  currently have a similar problem with multiple old computer towers and laptops. 😁

[onefootflipper]

First, I would make sure the drives actually had value.

Second, I would list them the same exact way I list trading cards. Stack them up next to the camera, put one under the camera, list it, hit sell similar and then do the next one. I think trying to automate it would actually just make it slower. For that matter the labor in blanking all the drives itself might exceed the value of the drives.

[krazzykats]

I think he wants to make sure no old personal information remains on the drives.  One of the big reasons I haven't touched my old towers or laptops.  I want to resell them all "as is" since they were all working systems when stored, but not until I go through each and every system, or maybe pull the hard drives. 

He seems to be rewriting and reformating the drives to make sure no recovery program can recover any old info.

[bashort]

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@onefootflipper wrote:

First, I would make sure the drives actually had value.

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Yes, check for value first, terapeak is very useful for that, see homy of a particular one sold and for how much in the last year

The electronics recyclers have the market flooded with parts

[krazzykats]

I still have my old Wildcat! BBS system, intact, though I pulled it offline in the mid-1990s...and it's all backed up on 5 1/4" floppy disks. 🤣  Probably 40 or 50 of them, something like that.

[pedzsan]

I found terapeak.  That looks really awesome.  Thank you.  Can you point me to "homy" ? or perhaps that is a typo?

[bashort]

typo    

homy = how many

[pedzsan]

To anyone interested:  yes, I am writing random data and then zeros to protect myself.  And yes... it takes a VERY long time.  Fortunately each drive is rather low bandwidth compared to todays USB-3 or USB-C speeds so I can have multiple drives being zapped at the same time.

[onlinecentral]

Then I write random data to the entire drive. I then write all zeros to the drive. I then reformat it with a GPT and one exFAT file system.

You don't trust the methods you use to wipe drives, since you do multiple wipes per drive. I would feel secure doing one wipe by writing all zeros. Operating systems will view the drive as 'new'.

Lot them up? By brand? Lot of 5 Westen Digital drives: 3-250mb, 2-500mb.
Or lot them up by size? 5-250mb internal drives, 3-WD, 2-Seagate.

As a shopper, I never browse mixed lot listings. I only want the specific make and model of hard drive, toner cartridge or whatever. I don't want to pay for that extra product and shipping and then have dispose of it. Create listings for one make and model with however many units you have. Let the buyer decide the quantity. Entering the make and model into the create listing search box might bring up many of the item specifics.

[krazzykats]

I think postage may kill that idea unless you offer better shipping value on multiples.  Those old hard drives can cost extra postage and easily weigh a lb or more. 

Using Flat rate, you may get more drives per LB at a lower shipping rate...just more things to consider. 

I don't know how old/size the drives are that the OP is selling.  😊

[onefootflipper]

Most people who want an old drive only need one and they often only want a specific one. Unfortunately this market is getting worse and worse as people come up with solutions for various vintage gear to replace the old hard drives with something else. Used to be a lot of late 90s, early 2000s arcade games had hard drives and sometimes wanted specific models. Now I think all of those have solutions to use a flash card instead. I am sure the same is happening with various vintage computers as well. 

I just hit hit mine a few times with a hammer and throw them away now. I can't imagine anyone with access to the hardware, software and skills to recover them after that is going to really be wasting their time hoping to get my AOL password from 1991.

[pedzsan]

You don't trust the methods you use to wipe drives, since you do multiple wipes per drive. I would feel secure doing one wipe by writing all zeros. Operating systems will view the drive as 'new'.

The decades old gossip is that the NSA, i.e. serious black hat, can dig through one layer of writes and find what was beneath it.  I'm not saying its true but writing random and then writing zeros seems to be a common compromised approach.  Then the exFAT is to make the file system work with any type of computer for those who don't know what "format a file system" means.

[stocked-over]

I attempted to do the same thing with hundreds of drives. It seems that the cost of shipping made it about break-even after fees, not to mention all the time to erase them.

I took them apart and sold the platters,  circuit boards, head assemblies, and magnets separately. The results were well worth the time of dissambly.

Check the sold listings of these items sold for scrap and you will see the selling prices. The additional benefit of no returns due to it being scrap was the cherry on the cake.

[jahood1984]

Depends on the drives, I sell lots of SATA laptop or desktop lots in groups of 10+. Unless you have rather large GB drives, 7200rpm+ 2.5" inch or newer desktop drives with large cache they often won't go for much individually and they are pricey to ship.  Order some region B and medium boxes, the size similar to shoe boxes, you can fit about 10 well wrapped drives in those and it can often save on shipping.  

  I wrote a drive with zeros, formatted it and installed a clean win 10 copy over it and I use that as my source drive to clone over all drives I intend to wipe and sell.  I used crystaldisk info to check drive health first, clone over it and check it again.  That way I know the drives should hold up for buyers, for antistatic I use old newspapers.