Same here in the UK.
You can sell data storage devices however they have to be wiped to a certain standard, and the software that does it and checks that its done and confirms it is very expensive to buy and far outweighs any money you will make from the sale.
Its just not worth licencing the software, so they strip out the drives and put a new one in there or sell it without one.
The reclaimers who do sell old systems with old drives source them separately. and the drives have the certification but they dont need to pass that on to their customer just hold it just in case.

Thats why here in the UK we dont really have e-waste resellers like you see in the US. We have some of course but considering the amount of e-waste the country makes its basically nothing.

I have several machines with drive cages missing, which is extremely annoying. Instead of just removing the drive they tear out the entire drive cage.

On one of my machines there's simply no space to mount a drive anywhere else, so it's using an IDE DOM.

There was a similar discussion three years ago in another thread: Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Here we sell stuff to e-waste recyclers by weight (they've got electronic scales) and they also offer items for sale -- at a higher price, of course. The knowledge levels of recyclers can vary significantly: sometimes they'd label real junk with outrageous price tags while gems can be bough a dime a dozen. I'll update an interesting recent experience in another thread. 😉

We don't have any stupid data privacy laws: a seller is fully responsible to whatever data in the storage media (HDD/SSD/CD/DVD) within a computer system. I've found personal data in at least five "junk" computers (two roadside pickups, two bought from e-waste, one hand-me-down from a friend that in turn from a "donation") and memory cards from broken digital cameras.

Errius wrote on 2025-03-07, 02:34:

I have several machines with drive cages missing, which is extremely annoying. Instead of just removing the drive they tear out the entire drive cage.

On one of my machines there's simply no space to mount a drive anywhere else, so it's using an IDE DOM.

I had exactly that with an old laptop A VAIO. The HDD was in a cage that was mounted to a sledge. They pulled out the sledge took off the cage but the sledge back into the laptop and sold it as it was so it looked like it was all there.
Its a brick! And they knew it was when they sold it.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-03-05, 09:30:

here in Australia they simply refuse to sell anything citing the laws concerning e-waste and liability and even if you manage to argue the point and offer to sign a waiver they then start citing data protection laws which here in Australia are strict and that they could lose their licences/contracts if they get found selling hardware.

Australia honestly has some really stupid laws and many more that have simply never been updated for modern IT so a lot of retro gear that goes to e-waste gets shredded.

In WA in the 90's I volunteered at an e-waste/recycle centre that donated some rebuilt 486's to the public. Later, school-donated pentiums. It was determined legal to wipe the drive & reinstall MS windows as long as it was a donation only.

People that worked there (including me) saved many of the good stuff, but many things that would still be appreciated were destroyed.

Where I've lived in Northern California the Ewaste locations have all been very clear that their policy is like that of the old roach motel ads - the parts check in, but they don't check out. The one nearest to me now even has a sign up telling you to not pester people dropping stuff off! I get the impression that it goes beyond a data security issue, perhaps they have a financial incentive to take in as much as possible? It reminds me of a California State program called "Cash for Clunkers" where they would pay people to drop off old cars, as the California Air Resources Board wants to get all older cars off the road; Dave Freiburger had a long running series on what he called the "Crusher Camaro", a 1968 Camaro that they rescued from this program and rebuilt.

When I first moved to this area, there was an Ewaste facility that was located in a small building, so they would often have spillover out front of the building that was unsecured. Once they closed for the day, you could have a look and pick up anything you liked. Conveniently, I would pass by this place on my way to and from work, so I often stopped after work to have a look. Almost everything out there had the hard drive removed, which was fine by me - the couple of exceptions to this that I picked up were likely computers that had been dropped off after hours, something that often happened on weekends when they were closed. There was an all in one computer (it was a Dell or HP) that I grabbed that turned out to have an SSD in it!

But they finally moved to a larger facility, and their outdoor storage area is protected by a very tall fence with barbed wire on top of it. Probably just as well for me, I have to fight my compulsive hoarder tendency anyway.

Every once in a great while I will spot something on the Craigslist Free section, but this is pretty rare at this point.

From what I seen the bigger recyclers around here used to have a deal with a local computer shop to resell anything "modern". That computer store eventually closed down before covid hit, I think.

A smaller place that resold some equipment would let me grab anything vintage I wanted, but they went out of business over a decade ago. I think they also had a contract for stripping electronics and then sending the parts back sorted.

Once in a while I see broken TV's and monitors out on trash day it's been ages since I seen a PC. Pretty much every medium/large business has a computer company that they pay to recycle their old gear and destroy the HDs.

Smaller companies tend to know people who come in and take their stuff every few years to do whatever with. Once in a while some place will have an advertisement on craigslist for old gear at shitty prices.

I miss the days of freecycle before the "gold craze" where computer gear was offered for free and putting an advertisement for it would bring countless replies. From watching youtube videos I notice people have switched to facebook marketplace to sell computer equipment and I hate that setup.

Unknown_K wrote on 2025-03-07, 13:15:

Once in a while I see broken TV's and monitors out on trash day it's been ages since I seen a PC. Pretty much every medium/large business has a computer company that they pay to recycle their old gear and destroy the HDs.

It's getting less and less common to get a "Beige" find, yes.