Pulling Apart a Desktop Hard Drive to Get Rare Earth Magnets.

In this instructable I will show you the steps to take apart a computer hard drive and get the rare earth magnets from it.

Step 1: What You'll Need...

1. A hard drive
2. Appropriate screwdrivers

Pretty simple, eh?

Step 2: Firstly You Will Need a Hard Drive.

Hard drives can be found most everywhere. In Australia we have things called council cleanups where many people chuck out old computers.

For those who don't live in australia there might be a similar thing in your area or freecycle.org is always helpful.

When you get a DESKTOP (only) computer it is pretty straight forward in taking off the case and unscrewing to get out the hard drive. My trusty set of screwdrivers worked well for this purpose.

Sorry, forgot to take pics of me taking out of the computer.

Step 3: My Trusty Screwdriver Set...

I have had this set for a long time...

It has a bit of a story to it.
Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to hear my ramblings...

Along time ago I went to bunnings to find a cheap bargain... I do that often! I talked to my friend, the forensic expert, and he got out this set of philips heads, the straight heads, torx heads and some other type of heads.
It cost me $6... Good deals at bunnings.

Well anyway you will most likely need a torx set of screwdrivers as well as philips heads.
Torx screwdrivers are used for taking apart the insides of computers... Not the computers themselves but hard drives etc.

Don' freak out if you don't need a set and you have bought one. I can guarantee that if you take apart 4 hard drives at least one of them will need torx screwdriers.

Step 4: Starting Work on the Hard Drive.

Get out your hard drive and rip of all of the stickers.
Undo all of the screws that you see and take the cover off.

Step 5: You Should Now Have Something That Looks Like This..

Again you want to undo all of the screws

Step 6: Cool... Metal Disk

You now have access to the first of the two magnets.
See that thing that has a number on it... Thats a magnet. You will have to pull really hard to get it off.
Directly underneath that is the second magnet. you may need to use a knife to get it off.


You now have 2 rare earth magnets. But wait... you have to be careful with these.

Step 7: Safety With Rare Earth Magnets...

Rare earth magnets can be very damaging. They can destroy tv and computer screens.

Well now you have these rare earth magnets what do you do with them?

Check out this site for answers: http://www.dansdata.com/magnets.htm

Step 8: Getting the Magnet of the Brace!

Due to comments here is how to get the magnet off the brace.

Sorry, No photos, forgot.

What I recommend i not taking them off the brace because most magnets will snap BUT

What to do is get a (blunt) butter knife and slide it under. Then get a pair of pliers and try to grab the top without them sticking.

Using your feet hold the brace and pull using the knife and pliers. Make sure not to snap them bucause the stuff inside is bad for you!