What do so with unused 2.5" SSD Drives & M.2 SSDs

ShokWaveRider

ShokWaveRider

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I have upgraded all my laptops to well over 1tb. As a result, I have a few SSD drives sitting on the shelf.

Should I keep them, donate them or put them on eBay or FB marketplace? Honestly, I do not think they are worth much. I think looking up what they are selling for on eBay and trying to sell them there is my best bet.

I have the following: All drives are healthy and working with no issues.

2 x 1tb 2.5" SSD drives
1 x 256gb 2.5" SSD Drive
1 x 512 M.2 SSD drive (M.2 Pcie stick)
1 x Samsung T5 2tb External SSD
1 x Samsung T3 1tb SSD.

For the techies here, what would you do with them?
 
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PC's have become so cheap I'd be surprised if used HD's were worth much. I've got several in my old PC stuff so if anyone thinks/knows you can get enough money to make it worth the time/effort, I might sell some of mine too. Of course that's after I destroy all the data on the disk. I use DBAN for that.
 
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I'd use the large ones as external backup drives. As I like to have at least 2 or more, backup drives so that should I get infected by a malware, I can go back one or two previous backups where everything is still clean.

If I was going to sell them, I'd want to be very sure about wiping them clean first, not just formatting them.
 
I have in the past, wiped clean my old SSD, and then upgrade a relatives computer to the SSD for free.

Couldn't just give them an SSD as they would be unable to make use of it due to no computer repair skills.
 
I had a spare SSD and bought a B/U USB case for it and made it into a backup drive for my saved tax returns and associated files. It's a 60 GB drive.
 
Sunset said:
I have in the past, wiped clean my old SSD, and then upgrade a relatives computer to the SSD for free.

Couldn't just give them an SSD as they would be unable to make use of it due to no computer repair skills.
Click to expand...

I get the clean bit.

I offered them to friends, but they cannot seem to understand the benefits. They would rather just buy a new PC. LOL.
 
Lawrencewendall said:
PM me. I'll pay for shipping and wipe them to DoD standards.
Click to expand...

Nice offer but re: the original question, what then would you do with them?

Unfortunately, I think they’re basically e-waste. It’s an unfortunate situation related to our continual improvement of such equipment. The old gets left behind.
 
I wouldn't ship or give away drives that may still contain sensitive data.
 
ShokWaveRider said:
Nor would I.
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The smaller drives are useful to someone who has a failure, and only wants to use a smaller drive like the one that went bad.

The larger drives are useful for local backups. So the external 2 TB has a connection, and probably the most uesful. Other drives become useful if you have an external carrier that is USB.

I use old drives in that way. But as you accumulate more and more stuff it becomes more difficult to control.
 
ShokWaveRider said:
I have upgraded all my laptops to well over 1tb. As a result, I have a few SSD drives sitting on the shelf.

Should I keep them, donate them or put them on eBay or FB marketplace? Honestly, I do not think they are worth much. I think looking up what they are selling for on eBay and trying to sell them there is my best bet.

I have the following.

2 x 1tb 2.5" SSD drives
1 x 256gb 2.5" SSD Drive
1 x 512 M.2 SSD drive (M.2 Pcie stick)
1 x Samsung T5 2tb External SSD
1 x Samsung T3 1tb SSD.

For the techies here, what would you do with them?
Click to expand...

I would try to sell the larger drives, i.e. 1TB or bigger on Facebook Marketplace.

Couldn't you get $25 a piece for them? Maybe that's not worth the hassle, so maybe bundle them together for $75 for the lot of four SSD drives.

If you don't want to hassle with them over $75, I'm afraid they are useless. Wipe them and dispose of them.
 
I guess size is relative. I have a 1TB SSD. I still have about 75% of it free. And that was including a complete transfer from a 500GB HDD. When I look back, my 1st HD was 20MB my 2nd was only 10MB! My does time fly.

I have not needed to dispose of an SSD yet. Historically with a HDD, I wipe it clean and then have some fun with either a sledgehammer or a drill. I imagine if the value of a SSD is not worth the effort of selling or gifting to a friend or relative, the sledgehammer would suffice. It still would require a trip to the electronics recycle place.
 
CRLLS said:
I guess size is relative. I have a 1TB SSD. I still have about 75% of it free. And that was including a complete transfer from a 500GB HDD. When I look back, my 1st HD was 20MB my 2nd was only 10MB! My does time fly.

I have not needed to dispose of an SSD yet. Historically with a HDD, I wipe it clean and then have some fun with either a sledgehammer or a drill. I imagine if the value of a SSD is not worth the effort of selling or gifting to a friend or relative, the sledgehammer would suffice. It still would require a trip to the electronics recycle place.
Click to expand...
Or for me, I've used several special 7.62x39's, no cleaning or wiping required.
 
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Wipe them then load up with pictures or music and gift to friends. Or keep for yourself.
I have hundreds of movies on SSD drives I keep connected to each tv for occasional use.
Got family pictures and movies? These make a nice gift.
 
Jerry1 said:
Nice offer but re: the original question, what then would you do with them?

Unfortunately, I think they’re basically e-waste. It’s an unfortunate situation related to our continual improvement of such equipment. The old gets left behind.
Click to expand...

I am the go-to guy for computer repairs in my circle. I have a masters in computer science and a top secret clearance. I taught networking and cyber security in DoD and in our youth organization. I tried to inspire the younger generation to learn technology without destroying their parent's computer. I constantly take in PCs, fix them and give them out to lower income families and kids and try to get them to experiment with technology. The drives would go into computers I give away. Platter HDs have a shelf life. SSDs not so much.

I have 3 next to me ready to go out the door with no harddrives.
 
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folivier said:
Wipe them then load up with pictures or music and gift to friends. Or keep for yourself.
I have hundreds of movies on SSD drives I keep connected to each tv for occasional use.
Got family pictures and movies? These make a nice gift.
Click to expand...

Between our media players and laptops, we have over 16tb of SSDs in addition to a 16tg NAS. I think we have enough storage. I save a lot of Movies and TV Series on my PCs and NAS and always have. These ones have been on a shelf for a while, and I thought it was about time they went. The gifs of photos to family was an interesting Idea, but DW's old dad is 88 and does not have a laptop. My sister is 85 and would not know what to do with them. Friends all have way more storage than they need.
 
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ShokWaveRider said:
I have the following: All drives are healthy and working with no issues.

2 x 1tb 2.5" SSD drives
1 x 256gb 2.5" SSD Drive
1 x 512 M.2 SSD drive (M.2 Pcie stick)
1 x Samsung T5 2tb External SSD
1 x Samsung T3 1tb SSD.

For the techies here, what would you do with them?
Click to expand...

Personally I have enough hardware projects, for myself and others, that I would still use the SSDs > 1TB.

The 256gb or 512gb I would likely just give away (after wiping of course) to my fellow local computer hobbyists.

If you are not a computer hobbyist, wipe them and sell them on ebay. Or, maybe you have friends who are computer hobbyists that you could sell/offer them to.
 
I spend way too much on SSDs it scares me. :) We have 3 laptops, 2 of them have 2 x m.2 slots and 2 x 2.5" slots and the other is my ultralight one for travel that has 1 x m.2.

I recently upgraded them all to the new Samsung 990 4tb M.2 single sided SSDs. I got them all at the sale price of $249. 5 in total. They are on backorder now and not on sale anymore, so I got them just in time. Hense the current clear out.
 
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