How Much Are Old Hard Drives Worth?

In this blog, we’ll discuss how much old hard drives are worth.

Every IT department is short on cash. The operating budgets are often reduced by the Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director to less funds than any purchasing manager would prefer.

It is a process plagued with imagined needs versus unknown environments. Some of this cash shortfall is the result of years of budget cuts without increases where necessary.

Selling your hard drives is easier than you think!

Get a free quote and sell your hard drives now!

Case in point: what is the recycle or scrap value of a hard drive?

Recycling hard drives won’t make a large amount of cash flow but it can be a sizable boost to a discretionary budget.

Editor’s note: if you simply want to get a quote and sell used hdd in bulk, click that link or jump to the bottom of the page and submit a list, we’ll get in touch soon.

How Much Are Old Hard Drives Worth: Determining Value

Consider these specs when determining how much your old hard drives are worth:

Condition – New or Used
Storage size – 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, 16TB
Disk type – SSD of HDD
SATA or SAS
Brand – Seagate, IBM, Toshiba, Western Digital…
Manufacturer Part Number
RPM – 5400, 7200, 10k, 15k
Transfer Rate – 190 MB/s
Size – 2.5″ or 3.5″

Storage capacity drives the resale and recycle value as well as condition. Do not keep your old drives in a Gaylord box or piled on a workbench.

Use anti-static bags for storage and designate a safe, climate-controlled storage container, with adequate padding between each unit.

Remember that just because you have determined the drive is at the end of its life cycle does not mean it can’t be sold on the market as a reconditioned unit.

Safely storing the drive also allows the recycler to do a thorough data wipe.

We have a proprietary method to scrub all data, including the FET. With this data wiped, a working hard drive moves from scrap value worth pennies to a drive worth actual dollars.

Benefits of Working with Us When Selling Your Old Hard Drives

We at exIT Technologies go one step further and offer asset value for your used drives.

Our program lets a data center develop an environmentally sound end of life program for their hardware and leverage the maximum amount of return.

If we go back to the premise of using the recycled hardware to develop funding for speculative hardware, the IT department can develop an approved program to purchase equipment that may deviate from the ridged spending structure set forth by accounting.

We can help you find specialized hardware at the best price.

This partnering allows us to enter the process at any point along the hardware lifecycle.

A benefit to look for when dealing with a company offering IT asset disposition services is determining the age at which the hardware value falls off significantly. Based on years of experience in the market, it is generally true that the 3-year mark provides the best ROI when selling off assets.

After that point, the value starts to spike downwards until the 5-year mark when its value is at end of life.

By having a relationship with us at exIT Technologies, we can foresee the market dropping and suggest upgrading equipment.

We’re also R2 certified and provide full tracking services for all destroyed or resold equipment.

How a Hardware Recycler Handles Your Hard Drives is Important

Chain of Custody – From your facility to destruction the drive carries the sensitive data.
Overwriting Every Bit – We use an array of systems that access the hard drives directly without hardware or software-based manipulation.
Serialized Reporting – Each drive has a unique serial number. To ensure each drive was wiped, you have a certificate of destruction for each serial number.

If you have a data center full of drives and need help, we’ll do it all for you. Our team will come to your data center, take out the equipment, wipe it, palletize it, and get it out of your way.

We even pay you for the pleasure of having us do the work so you can get back to business.

An interesting article about hard disk value recovery by Tom Coughlin at INEMI lays out an intuitive plan for why hard drives need to be recycled at their highest usable level.

To assume that a drive should be shredded such that it is only valued at its base materials is ineffective to a long-term approach for sustainability.

It also lends credibility to the premise that with the continued need for data storage, hard drive shortages may become more prevalent. Hence the continued growth of a secondary market of used drives.

He goes on to cite security concerns about data risks as hurdles for firms wishing to sell their used equipment into the secondary market. The ITAD or asset disposal industry relies on costly proprietary data destruction software that charges per wipe.

The current software passes defunct drives and even fails good drives, costing a client a potential return. Customers deserve better.

Tailor-Made Data Destruction for Your Old Hard Drives

Instead of using industry-standard software, we created our own custom data destruction software so that you don’t pay extra for secure data destruction. This level of security is also folded into our turnkey data center decommissioning program.

No matter which way you go, recycle for resale or full destruction of the hard drive it’s important to remember where in the life cycle you want to place yourself.

Are you a data center that consumes copious numbers of hard drives each year? Or are you a smaller hybrid facility that wants to ensure absolute data security?

No matter your position, a recycling program is available; either turnkey or self-ship.

What You’re Looking for is an ITAD Firm

Value your leftover data center IT assets and turn them back into working capital.
On-site Decommissioning services by an industry-leading organization
Custom electronic recycling and E-waste services with R2 tractability
Data center migration to the cloud made easy or a new center with no downtime.

Ask yourself this question: do I trust my data and any residual value for base metals or resale to the local guy who lacks a track record of success, or do I go with a firm with over 25 years of longevity?

You’ll be surprised to find that the long-term players like exIT Technologies are more competitive and provide better value for service, security, and cashback into your business. Get your quote and sell your used hard drives today.

We also can help you get cash for:

Have something to add? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!