Opened a hard drive. Weird black stuff under plastic sheet

[Gaming With The Crew]

I had a broken seagate Barracuda 7200.10 that was 320GB. It didnt work so i opened it and tryed to gut it to make a usb drive as a saw in a video. Under a plastic label there was black gunk. Im not sure if thats lead but i want to know just incase it is. Thanks

 

[reedo_43]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb0NW-Vx5vM

 

[USAFRet]

Broken HDD
Trying to make it into a USB drive?

Black gunk?

A picture of this would help.

 

[Gaming With The Crew]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb0NW-Vx5vM

The stuff i have is more like a dry slime

 

[reedo_43]

Perhaps it took water damage. I believe the charcoal is meant as an air filter.

 

[USAFRet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb0NW-Vx5vM

The stuff i have is more like a dry slime

Pictures, please.
And a link to this 'video' you saw.

 

[Paperdoc]

What you found inside might be interesting but it has nothing to do now with re-using this drive via a USB connection. Once you opened the HDD case and exposed the internal parts (disk and heads) to outside air, you contaminated it with extremely fine dust. Mo matter what you do now the disks will be damaged by those dust particles scratching the disk surfaces. Even if the old unit had not been damaged earlier by water or whatever, it is now permanently damaged and cannot be used. It is a curiosity piece for anyone who wants to see the inside, that's all.