8 Projects You Can Make With an Old Hard Drive

By  Mihir Patkar  

Don’t throw out that old hard drive from your computer! Yes, even if you got a fancy new solid state drive (SSD) or if your hard disk drive (HDD) finally gave up. Whether it’s functional or not, your old drive still has some cool uses.

What you should do depends on whether the hard drive is working or dead. But surprisingly, a functional old HDD has fewer uses than a dead one. So roll up your sleeves and check out some of these DIY projects to recycle, reuse, or repurpose an old hard drive.

For Working Hard Drives

If the drive is still working, don’t waste that space. It is still valuable storage for your data. The thing is, you don’t need to use it inside a computer any more.3 Ways To Breathe New Life Into An Old Hard Drive 3 Ways To Breathe New Life Into An Old Hard DriveIt's in the human nature to collect stuff and in the digital age we mostly collect data. For a long time, the storage capacities of hard drives seemed to increase too slow to match user...READ MORE

1. Turn It Into a Portable Drive

Once you upgrade your laptop’s drive or run out of space on your PC, you have a functional HDD in your hands. Put it to use again by popping it into an external hard drive enclosure.

Depending on the drive and the enclosure, you’ll be able to use it with or without a power adapter. As a rule of thumb, power adapters are helpful for desktop (3.5-inch) hard drives, while adapters aren’t usually needed for laptop (2.5-inch) drives.

You will find plenty of enclosures and cases on Amazon. You might even want to look at a docking station for multiple hard drives. The coolest DIY solution, though, is building your own HDD enclosure with cardboard.Why You Should Build An External HDD Enclosure From Card, And How Why You Should Build An External HDD Enclosure From Card, And HowThat pile of old hard disk drives in your drawer – isn't it time you tidied them up a little? One way you can do this is by making a card enclosure!READ MORE

2. Build a NAS

In case you already have an external drive or don’t have use for one, it might be time to build your own network attached storage (NAS). Basically, your hard drive’s contents will be accessible across any device connected to your Wi-Fi.

There are different levels of NAS. If you’re fine with spending some money, you can buy a NAS box like the TerraMaster F2-220 where you will have to do nothing but pop in the drive. If you’re on a budget and a little adventurous, you can turn a Raspberry Pi into a NAS box.TerraMaster F2-220 NAS Review TerraMaster F2-220 NAS ReviewThe F2-220 2-bay NAS enclosure by TerraMaster is a sub-$200 personal backup and storage solution. It has a dual core Intel CPU, and can handle up to 16TB of storage.READ MORE

For Dead Hard Drives

If the hard drive doesn’t work any more, data storage is out. But the drive’s physical parts are still valuable. For any of the projects below, you will need to open it up and strip its parts, which is a pretty easy process. Here’s a quick DIY video:

3. DIY Magnetic Knife Block

Hard disk drives contain large neodymium magnets. We have a full guide to remove HDD magnets safely. Each drive will net you two strong magnets.How to Take Apart a Hard Drive and What to Do With the Magnets How to Take Apart a Hard Drive and What to Do With the MagnetsAll mechanical hard drives contain rare earth neodymium magnets. These can be expensive to buy, but old hard drives can easily be harvested for these precious materials?READ MORE

Instructables user tzhy shows how to use two planks to create such a magnetic knife block. You won’t need any special tools for this, but if you don’t have wood glue or other simple hardware tools around, your local hardware shop should have it.

Once you’re done, you’ll get a neat magnetic knife block that you can hang above your kitchen. Knives will stick to this block like magic, making it super convenient.

4. Cubicle Rear View Mirror (or Other Mirrors)

The platters inside a hard disk drive can act as perfectly polished mirrors. Be a little gentle while dismantling them, you don’t want chips or scratches here. But if you get it out whole, it’s the perfect mirror.

Image Credit: Michael Hiemstra via Flickr

You can get creative in your cubicle by turning this into a rear view mirror. All you need is a large thumb tack. Mount it on your cubicle, place the thumb tack in the center, and you will always see who is trying to sneak up on you from behind.Stuck In A Boring Job? Here Are 10 Ways To Be Creative Within The Cubicle Stuck In A Boring Job? Here Are 10 Ways To Be Creative Within The CubicleThe humdrum office cubicle is a place few workers dare to express creativity. Despite those shackles enforced from further up the chain, here are ten ways to creatively escape your cubicle monotonyREAD MORE

Platters can also turn into signal mirrors (i.e. a mirror that reflects sunlight to show your location). Apart from being handy in survival scenarios, it can also be a decent safety tool for bicyclists.

In case a simple mirror is all you want, then platters can double up as pocket mirrors too. It’s a nice arts and crafts project.

5. Turn Platters Into a Geeky Wind Chime

If you have several old drives, harvest the platters and turn them into a wind chime. It’s an easy DIY project that puts your geek cred out there for the world to see.

Most of the project uses the parts you dismantle from a drive, like the base plate and the mount ring. You’ll need a strong line to hold all the plates, of course. Run the lines through the ring and into the corners of the plate. Attach a platter to the end of each line. There you go, your personal geeky wind chime. It’s one of the most creative upcycling ideas for drives.3 Creative Upcycling Ideas For Your Old Hard Drive 3 Creative Upcycling Ideas For Your Old Hard DriveCare to get the most out of your old hard drive? Even if the drive is dead, there may be one more creative use left in it before submitting its remains for recycling. It is...READ MORE

6. Make a Hidden Safe With Hard Drive Case

Once you remove all the parts inside, what do you do with the hard drive case itself? Instructables user bobert610 says it makes a fantastic safe to store your stash where no one will suspect it.

It’s also the easiest safe to construct. Take out all the parts, then insert one of the screws in the corner. Your “hard drive safe” will act as a swivelling case to stash your emergency money.

7. Fancy Hard Drive Clock

An old hard drive’s parts are perfect to build yourself a brand new clock, complete with LEDs and other cool bits. You’ll need to buy clock movement and hands separately.

DIY guru kipkay, host of one of the best tech channels on YouTube, has a wonderful video guide for this project. Kipkay’s method is more refined and the end product looks fantastic.Tech Videos -- Best Of The Best YouTube Technology Channels Tech Videos -- Best Of The Best YouTube Technology ChannelsWhen it comes to new technology, there are a number of YouTube channels that help you get a grasp on the latest and greatest. Here are ten must-watch channels every geek should subscribe to.READ MORE

That said, he uses several parts that DIY beginners might not have, or would need to go to their local hacker-space for. Here’s a simpler version for a vertical desk clock, which looks mighty cool when you add the keyboard keys.

For Working or Broken Drives

Whether it’s functional or not, if you don’t have any use for the drive, sell it. Heck, even if you stripped the parts of a dead drive and used some, you can sell the rest.

You will find buyers for everything at BoardSort, a forum for electronic scrap. And as always, you can sell broken things on eBay for cash.Sell Your Broken Things on eBay to Turn Them Into Cash Sell Your Broken Things on eBay to Turn Them Into CashDon't throw away your broken items -- turn them into cash by selling them on eBay! Here's how to go about it.READ MORE

In case you’re selling a functional disk, make sure you completely and securely erase your hard drive – just formatting it isn’t enough. You don’t want any confidential data falling into the hands of the wrong people.

How Big Is Your Oldest Hard Drive?

Right now, the oldest hard drive I have is over 15 years old. It has a capacity of an incredible 20 GB — less than what the pen drive in my pocket has.

What’s the size of the oldest hard disk you still have today?

Image Credit: Imagine Photographer via Shutterstock.com  Source: www.makeuseof.com

If You Have These Skills, No Robot Will Ever Take Your Job

By  Kayla Matthews

Losing your job to robots is no longer a sci-fi fantasy.

Some estimates say, robots may take over more than five million jobs across 15 developed countries. Machines could account for more than half the workforce in places like Cambodia and Indonesia, particularly in the garment industry.

While such information has led many people to seek out higher-tech skills, others have said we need a stronger emphasis on trade skills to combat the high competition in tech fields. In one 2016 survey, 60 percent of respondents wanted more emphasis on Shop classes in high schools, while a 2015 Gallup poll found that 90 percent of parents want computer sciences emphasized in schools.Tech Jobs of the Future: What To Study If You Want a Cool Job Tomorrow Tech Jobs of the Future: What To Study If You Want a Cool Job TomorrowIf you're a student and looking to land a good technology job of the future, understanding the direction of technology will help you position yourself to succeed, and figure out what to study to get...READ MORE

The good news. There are some skills robots can’t embody, and if you have them, there’s no need to worry about losing your job due to robotic advancements. Better yet, many of them are transferrable, meaning they can help you advance your career, even if you need to change industries.

Here are eight skills that can keep your job from being handed off to a robot.

1. Complex Problem-Solving Skills

Image Credit: Startup Stock Photos

Robots seem smart, especially when showed off during technology conference demonstrations. However, they only know what their programmers tell them. There are some exceptions, such as robots powered by machine learning that get smarter through acquired feedback over time.8 Skilled Jobs That May Soon Be Replaced By Robots 8 Skilled Jobs That May Soon Be Replaced By RobotsAre machines coming for your job? You might be surprised. Recent advances in AI are putting white collar jobs at risk.READ MORE

Even so, people able to demonstrate complex problem-solving skills, such as IT personnel, can feel confident about job security during the rise of robots.

Sharpen your complex problem-solving skills by enrolling in the Creative Problem-solving and Decision Making course offered by DelftX. It teaches people how to solve tough problems using analytical thinking, causal modeling, goal trees, and more. This self-paced, free online course requires between 20-40 hours of effort.

Enroll — Creative Problem-Solving and Decision Making | DelftX (Get an optional verified course completion certificate for $50.)

2. Project and Personnel Management Skills

Image Credit: Unsplash

This broad group of skills applies to many jobs, whether you’re leading a team of 20 people who are hard at work developing a new iPhone app or maintaining an upbeat, productive workforce at a Fortune 500 company. People often depend on robots to complete segments of projects, but those machines can’t manage huge organizational accomplishments from start to finish.

Also, personnel management encompasses numerous subjects, from psychology to legal concerns associated with human resources. Robots can’t feasibly handle all the things human resource experts do.

The Project Management Professional (PMP) course from Cybrary tackles both of these areas. Geared toward technical project management but suitable for people in various fields, this course teaches people about the initiation, planning, and management phases for projects. It takes 5.5 hours to do and provides 10 CEU/CPE credits.

Module 6 is of particular interest to personnel managers. It discusses finding team members for projects, delegation techniques, the halo theory, and other essential information. People also learn to develop schedules and budgets.

Enroll — Project Management Professional (PMP) | Cybrary

3. Athletic Skills

Image Credit: Thomas Borges

Watching and playing sports are two popular pastimes around the world, and during events like the Olympic Games, they bring people together regardless of geography. Professional athletes spend tremendous amounts of time conditioning their bodies, learning new skills, and honing the techniques they already know, all to give themselves the best chances to excel against fellow athletes in team or individual sports.

The professional sports industry is not in danger of too much robotic influence. After all, watching robots run across a field isn’t very interesting, and part of the allure of professional athleticism is the uncertainty associated with it.6 Human Jobs That Computers Will Never Replace 6 Human Jobs That Computers Will Never ReplaceREAD MORE

Assuming you’re already an elite athlete and just want to continue improving, the Athlete Learning Gateway is an excellent website to explore. Subjects offered include Sports Psychology, Exercise Physiology, and Smarter Eating for Better Performance.

One stark difference between these courses and the others covered so far is you can do some of these subjects in less than an hour. Explore them if you’re excited to expand your athletics-related knowledge and want to do so without taking too much time away from a rigorous training schedule.

Explore — Full course library | Athlete Learning Gateway

4. Confidence and Leadership Skills

Image Credit: EnergePic.com

Confidence arguably helps you go further in life by making it easier to network with people, assert your skills, and give opinions. It’s an essential characteristic for certain jobs, especially in the legal sector. Think of the negative impact it would have on the judge if an attorney stammers and stares down at their feet when representing a client in court.

Leadership skills are similarly valuable because they help you set good examples for others and encourage them to pool their talents to meet common goals. Robots can’t mimic confidence or leadership skills to the extent humans do because they’re just programmed machines.

Enhance your confidence with a self-confidence online course. It lasts six weeks and enrolled students report feeling more relaxed and able to conduct themselves well in stressful environments.

Also, focus on getting better leadership skills and sign up for the Management for a Competitive Edge course taught by an instructor from the International College of Management Sydney. The fourth module of this self-paced course is all about leadership. It covers things like how to form groups and use different leadership styles.

Enroll — Self-confidence course | self-confidence.co.uk and Management for a Competitive Edge course | Open2Study

5. Critical Thinking and Judgment Skills

Image Credit: RaxPixel.com

Although robots think critically and make judgments, these skills come from their programmers’ accumulated knowledge. Robots learn too, but programmers feed them information. Even educated robots may not be able to make decisions based on what they know as swiftly as humans.Meet the Robot That's Trying to Take My Job Meet the Robot That's Trying to Take My JobThis article wasn't written by a robot - but the next one you read might have been. Robots are already in our midst, and you might be surprised what they can do. Robots are reporting...READ MORE

Become better at critical thinking and judgment by taking part in the Critical Reasoning for Beginners audio-based course from Harvard University. Split into six podcast episodes, the course teaches learners to evaluate the things they hear and read, then make informed judgments. Topics covered include validity and recognizing, analyzing, and building arguments.

Download — Critical Reasoning for Beginners | University of Oxford Podcasts

6. Empathy Skills

Image Credit: iPrice Group

Even the most advanced robots can’t genuinely practice the crucial skill of showing empathy, or understanding what people feel. This skill is especially useful if you work for a charity, support statistically disadvantaged segments of the population, or assist people in the healthcare industry.

Become a more empathetic person with help from the Activating Empathy: A Roadmap to Changemaker Classrooms course. Although intended for educators, it goes through topics such as engagement and taking reflective action, so you can easily apply principles learned to any career. Earn a course certificate by making an Empathy Action Plan and using newly developed skills in a real-life application.

Enroll — Activating Empathy: A Roadmap to Changemaker Classrooms | Ashoka

7. Listening Skills

Image Credit: Unsplash

It’s hard to succeed in your job without well-developed listening skills. Customer service representatives listen to customers and ease their frustration. Psychologists hear patients diagnose mental problems and identify related distresses. These are just two examples of jobs where people constantly rely on good listening skills.

Tune into people in a more informed way by participating in the Listen for Understanding course presented by Global Mindset and hosted by LatitudeU. Past students rated the course highly. They said it helped them put listening skills into practice at work and tackle challenging interpersonal situations.

Enroll — Listen for Understanding | Global Mindset

8. Robotics and Hardware Repair

Image Credit: JÉSHOOTS

One inevitable thing about robots is they malfunction. When that happens, people need to know how to read error codes, make educated diagnoses, and perform repairs. Interested in taking that career path one day?

Learn robotic fundamentals through the Begin Robotics online course with the University of Reading, courtesy of Future Learn. Lessons occur for three hours per week across a one-month span. The next live course begins on June 5, 2017.

Instruction happens on an ongoing basis, and you can sign up for notifications about other course dates, too. Discover history, capabilities, and anatomy of robots after enrollment.

Next, take on the Robot Mechanics and Control, Part I course taught by a University of Seoul professor and offered by edX. It explores robots’ inner workings so you can determine what to do when errors happen. Although the instructor periodically teaches the course live, you can study it on your own time in case of schedule conflicts.

Enroll — Begin Robotics course | Future Learn and Robot Mechanics and Control, Part I | edX

How Will You Make Yourself Invaluable?

While the thought of robots being able to do your job isn’t necessarily comforting, some of the skills on this list can help you remain a much-needed part of your company. And if you want to move on, many of the skills are transferable across fields.What Happens When Robots Can Do All the Jobs? What Happens When Robots Can Do All the Jobs?Robots are getting smarter fast -- what happens when they can do every job better and cheaper than human beings?READ MORE

At the end of the day, robots are pretty cool. But they aren’t people. They don’t share the human connection that we share with one another. So we’ll always need other humans to work with us and connect to us on professional levels.

Which of the skills above will you develop to make yourself indispensable? Tell us in the comments section below.

Image Credits: studiostoks/Shutterstock  Source: www.makeuseof.com

The Ideal Posture When Using a Laptop Is Simple

By  Nancy Messieh  

There are lots of guidelines for your posture when you’re sitting at your desk, for those who use a standing desk, or if you combine both. But what if you’re not at a desk? What’s the best posture for those of you prefer to get your work done on the sofa or in bed?Sitting Up Straight Is Bad: The Right Way to Sit at a Desk Sitting Up Straight Is Bad: The Right Way to Sit at a DeskIf you think sitting up straight is the answer to back pain, think again. It actually puts more stress on your back.READ MORE

According to one study from 2010, if you’re regularly using a laptop, the best position is lying down with your knees up and the laptop resting on your thighs.

Every other position you can think of will create strain somewhere in your body, as demonstrated in the image below. The top-right image demonstrates what the study says is the ideal posture.

If you find it difficult to concentrate when you’re lying down, an alternative would be to sit up and place a pillow directly behind your lower back.

“When you focus your eyes on your device, your body is going to follow, often into an unhealthy position,” said Mark Goetz, a furniture designer who designed an ergonomic sofa. He recommends keeping your devices at eye level so that you don’t slouch or strain your neck and spine.

If you have to sit on a sofa while using a laptop, try to prop your laptop up closer to your eye level.

What are your tips for ensuring working on your laptop when you’re not at your desk doesn’t put a strain on your neck or back? Let us know in the comments.

Source: www.makeuseof.com