Q: Can I bring an old computer to the apple store and have them remove an old hard drive?

Depends on how old is old. If it's been declared vintage they cannot open it up.

To expand on SJF's excellent observation, the period over which they will work on them in an Apple Store is roughly five years.

Please tell us what Mac this is. Some models are quite easy to open and remove the hard drive; in some cases getitng teh drive out of teh computer can be done at home in under five minutes. If we knew which mac this was, we can point you to some sites with simple, illustrated takeapart instructions.

This Apple article explains what Apple considers "vintage" and "obsolete."

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1752

And typically no, an Apple Store will not do this sort of non-standard procedure. An authorized service center would, though they'd probably want to charge you for the labor. If you want to proceed that way, you can look for a service center here:

https://locate.apple.com/country

though probably any computer service shop could probably pull the drive for you.

Regards.

I just went through the entire procedure for my MacBook late 2007. Apple Store could do nothing except offer advice because the computer is over five years old and they no longer have access to parts. In my case I took it to an authorized repair shop for necessary diagnostics and am having them install a much larger hard drive, if everything else is working well. In my area Fry's Electronics is an authorized repair and retail sales, but I went elsewhere for convince. If the cost had been too much the MacBook was going to be recycled.