This reminds me of old audio tapes. You can only use them so often, and let them age so many years before they start to sound awful. Film is a more obvious one.

This reminds me of old audio tapes. You can only use them so often, and let them age so many years before they start to sound awful. Film is a more obvious one. I would trust an ex server-room hard drive for continued use just as readily as I'd stick a bunch of thumb drives to handle storage expansion on the same systems. I simply wouldn't. And literally for the same reasons. Besides, look how cheap 3Tb drives are these days. Just opt for security and shred your old drives. I drill mine open and then burn the platters. Except the glass ones, 'cos they usually are already shattered by the time I get the case open. PS: Keep the magnets. They're really powerful. My fridge has a lot of them. They'll hold your calendar and kid's art way better than any usual magnet you'd buy for that. The DIY folks have even better uses for them.