The DiskMantler destroys and disassembles hard drives in seconds by shaking them

Garner's new DiskMantler device is an impressive unit. It takes any 3.5-inch hard drive and automatically disassembles it into its various components in seconds. According to the company, the process takes up to 90 seconds per drive (60 seconds on average) and involves "shock, harmonics, and vibration."

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DiskMantler HDD Disassembly and Recycling, image credit: Garner Products, Inc.

It removes the "greenboard" found on older 3.5-inch drives in under 8 seconds. Garner has released a video of the DiskMantler in action, in which you can see a hard drive inserted into the machine like an old VHS tape into a VCR (for those born after 1995, watch this). From there, Garner provides some close-ups of what looks like the hard drive being shaken until it falls apart.

The patent-pending DiskMantler has definite value; it provides a way of recycling a hard drive without creating additional waste. The best part is that the hard drive's components are left intact for easy sorting, reuse, and recycling.

"By separating the valuable internal components from its casing, the components are ready for responsible recycling by creating a clean waste stream," Garner writes. "This process significantly reduces e-waste, minimizing adverse environmental effects, replaces traditional shredding and melting methods, and increases the value of the recycled components."

Plus, it makes recycling an older hard drive a lot of fun - the DiskMantler looks like something from Ghostbusters or Back to the Future. It's a hefty unit, weighing 202 pounds or 92 kilograms. It's a specialized unit, too, with a complex disassembly process, so it's only compatible with 1-inch thick maximum 3.5-inch hard drives.

Head to the DiskMantler HDD Disassembly and Recycling product page for more info.