@sdtag -
You can make some nice clocks out of them.
There's a ton of resources on the internet to help you.
Example:
Upcycle a Hard Drive Into a Clock : 19 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables
Otherwise, I would drill 3 holes into each drive spaced 2 inches apart and bring them to an appropriate e-waste recycling center.
They are worthless. The magnets are great, but you have to take apart each drive.
Cheers!
Apologies for arriving late and skimming through everything above.
If you still have the drives, and if this wasn't mentioned yet:
Sorry! Something went wrong!
(in my post, the link's text above says "something went wrong".
It's a valid link to the search result of "ide external" at Amazon)
Hook up the old drives to that device, and connect it to the computer with that USB wire.
It would be a nice gesture to donate them to someone who would need them, which, honestly, as of today...
...uhh, I don't know if anyone would use them.
But you can see all the old memories of all the crap that's been sitting around for ages.
Nostalgia (is that the right term? I haven't been sleeping too well lately)
Sorry, your initial post already mentioned that I just noticed.
This is how the state department and what have you do it. Hard Drive Degaussers - Products for data erase, degauss, hard drive destruction and solid state media destroyer – Garner Products, Inc.
Not sure how effective this is, but I'd only use it for flash-based media for resale. Otherwise, with flash media you just drill a hole in the center of EACH memory chip. All data is now sanitized. Amazon link
There is various software as well, but with flash media, its proper erasure depends on manufacture Spec by raising the cell's voltage to a certain micro volt...
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