How to remove a hard drive before recycling

Open the case. Make sure you hands are clean and DRY. Remove any metal rings, watches or bracelets you may be wearing. Touch the metal casing to eliminate any static charge; then unplug the computer from the electrical outlet. You can also use an antistatic wrist strap if you prefer. Check the user’s manual if necessary to determine how to open your particular PC case, most have a latch or sometimes they are held in by 2 screws.

Once inside let’s identify the Hard Drive we want to remove before donating the computer.

Here are a few photos to help you identify your hard drive.

Next let’s disconnect the hard drive. Unplug the hard drive from the Wide and flat IDE ribbon cable or thin and compact SATA cable and power cables. Grab the plastic IDE/SATA cable connector with your thumb and forefinger, and gently pull until the connector breaks free from the drive. The power cable can be difficult to remove if the connector is fitted tightly. Pull strait out to make sure you don’t bend any of the pins when disconnecting the cables

Here are some photo’s of the power and connector cables you will have to remove from the hard drive,

Final Step is to remove the hard drive. If the hard drive is fitted in a metal cage, locate and remove the screws that are holding the cage in place. Hold your hand under the cage to catch it if necessary. Once the cage is free, remove the small screws on either side of the hard drive to remove it from the cage. If the hard drive is connected directly to the computer case, simply remove the screws on each side of the hard drive and slide it out of the case. If you see a plastic green rail on each side of the drive (as commonly found in Dell PC’s) squeeze both ends of the green rails towards each other and then at the same time pull away from the front on the case and the drive should slide out. If it is an HP PC then it may have a green plastic tab that must be lifted to let the drive slide out from the drive cage. HP’s only have one tab to list for the drive to become free to slide out.