oooh very nice haul!
any old hardware saved is better than rotting in some storage and ultimately end up in the dump , good work!

this is fantastic! i love to see abandoned things returned to some use - whether its cars, computers, tools, toasters - anything really 😀

Workplaces are particular hotspots of old gear of all kinds, often left when the place closes as having no value - or at least no value to spend time sorting and selling

i those pics i can see what looks like electric motors, some safety gear, lots of lights, all that railing - so much stuff that could be re-used but wont be due to the cost of doing so

i enjoy some YouTube videos exploring abandoned office and industrial places and sometimes see good stuff slowly rotting away

you did well to rescue some pieces here

I used to love rummaging around old abandoned and derelict commercial buildings in the 80s and 90s. Made a tidy sum selling some of the stuff I found throughout the West Country. Even better was the squat I lived in in the 80s. If I had known about squatters laws back then, the house I lived in would have been mine after 12 years, I just couldn't prove I'd been there that long. House was worth £750K in early 90s, hadn't been lived in for 35 years, and had a fully equipped WW2 dental surgery in the front room, along with thousands of vials of noradrenaline (probably very unsafe to use after so long). Perfect for a film prop 😀

Nice save, you are a good man!

Ps.: My first ever PC was a 386DX 40 on this exact same case, have been looking for one for a while, I'm sure at some point I will score one at my local recycling center, as this cases were pretty common.

That looks fun !

That's amazing! A day saving old hardware is a good day indeed!

Sadly, where I work, they go through a ton of hardware, but due to policy it MUST be destroyed and recycled. I was willing to save some old late 90's/early 2000's systems that were replaced a couple years back, only to find out it wasn't possible. The rules are kinda silly, "safety and security" are the core reasons. It's the healthcare industry, security is to remove any possibility of a HIPPA violation, even though all storage media is removed and handled by internal IT. Safety is "infection prevention" since the hardware is used in hospitals. So, it's all liability. You might get a virus from the PC. 😜

Either way, love seeing stuff like this. Have fun working on those systems! 😀

StriderTR wrote on 2025-04-10, 16:45:

That's amazing! A day saving old hardware is a good day indeed!

Sadly, where I work, they go through a ton of hardware, but due to policy it MUST be destroyed and recycled

I've work at similar places in the past, and I understand. It's just not worth their time to really understand the risks, just play it safe and apply a blanket rule.
Sometimes I can get around this by swapping out old/dead hardware for the items I actually want. That way they still have something physical to mark off their register.
But it's not always possible and have seen some nice stuff sent off to the recycler.

I'm lucky it's not the case here, whenever we do a big clear out of our company's stuff including furniture management always says if feel free to take it before it's sent away.
So anything from the previous company is even less of a concern.

debs3759 wrote on 2025-04-10, 14:52:

Made a tidy sum selling some of the stuff I found throughout the West Country.....

gerry wrote on 2025-04-10, 08:22:

this is fantastic! i love to see abandoned things returned to some use - whether its cars, computers, tools, toasters - anything really 😀
Workplaces are particular hotspots of old gear of all kinds, often left when the place closes as having no value - or at least no value to spend time sorting and selling
i those pics i can see what looks like electric motors, some safety gear, lots of lights, all that railing - so much stuff that could be re-used but wont be due to the cost of doing so

Don't think work's generosity extends to stripping the place 😉 Which is a shame as mentioned above some of this stuff would sell for decent money but not enough to cover the actual cost of removal.
Work may be ok with me spending 20 minutes chucking a few old computers in the back of the car but spending a day or coming in over a weekend unsupervised (and therefore a possible liability claim) may be pushing it.

All I can hope is I've pleased the retro gods in saving what I have and they bless me with un-blown cap's for a few more years

HP Visualize C3600, HP 9000/785, were introduced in 2001 for $12,243

The Visualise C3600 I thought was some kind of Intel Workstation it isn't and runs HP Unix, not really my area of interest. I'll see if it works then sell on.

I would reconsider. That's sounds/looks like real fun. Not 'your' standard x86 stuff. 😀
Like the others said, great hauling.

chinny22 wrote on 2025-04-11, 06:31:

Don't think work's generosity extends to stripping the place 😉 Which is a shame as mentioned above some of this stuff would sell for decent money but not enough to cover the actual cost of removal.
Work may be ok with me spending 20 minutes chucking a few old computers in the back of the car but spending a day or coming in over a weekend unsupervised (and therefore a possible liability claim) may be pushing it.

I suppose turning up with a flatbed truck and an angle grinder is a bit much 😀

will be good to see what works out of what you got though, i'd guess most of it - depends if it was moved around roughly or got wet or something

PD2JK wrote on 2025-04-11, 07:03:

I would reconsider. That's sounds/looks like real fun. Not 'your' standard x86 stuff. :) Like the others said, great hauling. […]
Show full quote

HP Visualize C3600, HP 9000/785, were introduced in 2001 for $12,243

The Visualise C3600 I thought was some kind of Intel Workstation it isn't and runs HP Unix, not really my area of interest. I'll see if it works then sell on.

I would reconsider. That's sounds/looks like real fun. Not 'your' standard x86 stuff. 😀
Like the others said, great hauling.

When I could tell it wasn't generic x86 (and you can tell if you look at it closer) I was hoping for something Alpha NT4 compatible to play with.
But *nix isn't really my interests and CAD is wasted on me without a creative bone in my body.
But some old networking hardware on a topology that's all but dead. Come on thats sexy right?