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I scavenged a few old harddrives for their strong magnets and realized that most pieces of a drive are not steel. Are they all aluminum? In particular, the housing is fairly heave and magnet does not stick to it. It seems to be all metal but it's covered usually by some sort of black coating. Not sure if it's some type of paint, or insulation or what. Anyhow, if I take it to a recycler, is this going to be taken at the same rate as cast aluminum? Or the same as soda cans? or what?

Thanks!

The housing is aluminum. Some are cast aluminum and some are machined from extruded aluminum, so what you get for it will depend on which it is and how your yard classifies them.

Note that while the housing is usually cast or machined aluminum, the cap on the top is often stainless steel.