Computers have become vital for our lives, and we cannot live without them. But the hardware we are using becomes obsolete very often with constantly evolving technology. Memory is one of the most crucial parts of the computer, and it is available as a hard drive, and often we face the situation to dispose of them. Here in this article, we are going to see how to sell used hard drives safely and securely and get the best possible profit out of the sale.
This step-by-step guide will give you all the facts that you must know and follow while attempting to sell used hard disks. In the present day, we have many options to dispose of used hard disks.
We must be aware of and follow the most secure and safest way to dispose of our hard disks and get the best possible price for the same.
Though we will be mentioning only hard drives, the material we outline here for the safe disposal of your used hard drives will be applicable for all types of memory devices like HHDs, SSDs, and the hybrid drives designed to hold a large amount of data.
Why Should I Sell Used Hard Drives?
The need for you to sell your used hard drives may arise due to a variety of reasons. This depends on the type of computer user and to which group you belong. You may be an individual computer user using it for personal use or a small to medium enterprise using the computer for your business. Otherwise, you could also be a large corporation running hundreds of computer systems running as a huge data center.
Whatever be the type of user you are, the procedure to sell used hard drives is almost the same except that there will be a change in the number of hard drives you will be selling. When you have no use for some of the used computer parts and have no perceived future use for them anymore, it is prudent to dispose of them to get the best investment return.
If the hard drives you want to dispose of are no more useful to you, but still, they have a residual life term left in them before they can be condemned, they can be useful for some other persons. In this case, selling your used hard drive will help somebody who will be able to get these hard drives at very little cost and put them to better use instead of just destroying them and selling them as scrap.
In this process, you will be able to realize some good amount when you sell your used hard drive, and this amount can be used for other purposes or can be used for buying new computer equipment you currently need to upgrade your system.
When To Dispose Of Your Used Hard Drive
This is the first step in the process you must follow in disposing of your used hard drive. The entire sales process has to be timed at the right time during the life cycle of the hard drive, and its identification is necessary for getting the best benefit out of disposing of your used hard drives.
When you sell the used hard drives too early after installing and operating them, you will be losing a major portion of their useful life as well as the value you will be recovering from its use. This way, you will not be able to realize its real value, and you will be selling it at a loss as you will be selling the hard drive as a used product at a lesser price.
On the other hand, if you decide to dispose of the used hard drive very late in its life cycle, you will not be able to realize its real resale value as the hard drive will be labeled as too old by the buyer. This way, you will be unnecessary holding the useless hardware with you for longer periods while they are losing their value in the used IT equipment market.
So, it is necessary to perfectly time your selling of used hard drives to get the best possible profit while selling them.
Factors Which Decide If You Can Sell Your Used Hard Drives
Your hard drives are ready for disposal:
- When they are not currently in use, and they are retired from their current phase of functioning
- When the hard drives have no plan for the future use
- When the hard drives are two to three years old- the useful life of a hard drive varies with the type of disk, manufacturer, and drive model. But most of the time, it is better to change the hard drives that are more than 2 years old.
- When the old drives have to be removed as a part of the ongoing system upgrade for improved performance and to reduce the risk of loss of data
- Usually, there are a variety of reasons when a hard drive will be marked to be disposed of. It is always better to sell used hard drives at a point that comes after their middle of the life cycle for the better benefits both service-wise as well as realized prices.
Stages Of Selling Used Hard Drives
When you have decided that the hard drives are to be sold now, then you need to go through the following steps to successfully and safely dispose of the used hard drives.
Stage 1 of Selling Used Hard Drives: Securing Your Existing Data
As the hard drives that are marked for sale were used to hold data, your primary concern must be securing the data that are contained in the hard disks. You have to be very careful in dealing with the data in the hard drives that are about to be sold in the used computer market. Some technologies can retrieve data from the hard drives that have been formatted even repeated times.
When you have sensitive business data or data relating to your business, then you must take extra care to completely wipe off the data from the hard drives and make them irretrievable to safeguard the safety and security of the data contained in them before you sell them. You can either use software or specially designed technologies that assure complete wiping of data from the disks.
Stage 2 of Selling Used Hard Drives: Where To Dispose Of Used Hard Drives
Now you have many options to sell the used hard drives. You can go for some of the online places like eBay, Amazon, or other sites where you can sell used hard drives. On the other hand, you can also call your local used computer parts reseller and ask him to take your used hard drives. But beware that when you are selling the used hard drives as above, you must erase the data by yourself or within your company before allowing them to go out of your hand.
Advantages of selling used hard drives online:
- You put your costs (though You Might Be asking too far, and They May not market )
- More cash per purchase percentage-wise. Notice, not more money all around.
- No amount minimum for sale. 1 hard disk is fine.
Disadvantages of selling used hard drives online:
- You have to do all the work on your own.
- You need to understand or determine the ideal selling price.
Some companies are specialized in dealing with used IT equipment, and they are called ITAD (Information Technology Assets disposition) Companies; StarPC Excess is an ITAD company. These have special knowledge about different used computer-related equipment and know-how to put them to reuse for better utilization before condemning them to scrape. You can use one of them to sell the used hard drives. Most of the time, these companies undertake the data disposal in the used hard drives using their special data decommissioning software apps.
Advantages of selling used hard drives to an ITAD Company:
- You get a reasonable market price based on current needs and the status of your resources.
- They could handle the data removal! Instead, they send an offer based on what you have, and you either accept or deny that cost.
Disadvantages of selling used hard drives to an ITAD Company:
- It’s possible that you could make more sales lead. However, should you account for time in doing so, this might or might not remain accurate.
- Has to get a larger quantity. Many ITAD businesses won’t purchase 1-2 hard drives. Watch our minimal quantities.
Stage 3 of Selling Used Hard Drives: How To Dispose Of Used Hard Drives
This may be done either directly by you using online or offline methods, or you can do this using an ITAD company’s services. When you are selling online, you will be setting your price, and you will be taking care of the data removal, and hence you need not have to worry about data security. By this method of disposal, you can expect to receive a better price for your used hard drives.
But whereas if you are using an ITAD company, the price offered by them has to be accepted for the used hard drives, and the company will take care of the data removal.
Stage 4 of Selling Used Hard Drives: Packing & Dispatching
Once you have gone through the above steps, now you have to take steps to pack the hard drives properly so that they can be shipped safely. This you have to do it by yourself when you’re disposing of used hard drives using online means.
When you do this, you should know how to pack the hard drives for safe transit so that they arrive at their destination in good working conditions. If you are disposing of through ITAD company, they will take care of packing and dispatch when selling the hard drives and other computer equipment.
On any account, do not forget to take insurance before you send the hard drives so that you are covered sufficiently for any damage that may occur during the shipping of the used hard drives.
Stage 5 of Selling Used Hard Drives: Get Paid & Enjoy Your Profit
Once you have shipped the hard drive, you will be receiving the agreed amount for the hard drives, and you can enjoy the money received for selling your used hard drives, and you will be happy to have got the best ROI on your used hard drives.
After reading this, you exactly know what the benefits of selling your used hard drives are; we feel obligated to provide you with these benefits, so do choose StarPC Excess to sell your used hard drives.