The myth of the Magnets

[Ronski]

Re: The myth of the Magnets

Just as Kheldar said, I know this to be true. I have destroyed a HDD with a magnet, and not a hugh one. Yes it was on, and It was for a test in one of my computer classes. The teacher asked us this very same question, so we deiced to try it. We held the magnet to the HDD when the computer was off, and when it was on. When it was off, nothing occured, but when it was on, the hard drive became corrupt, and had errors all though it. It would not work, and could not be repaired. It did make some noise when we stuck that magent next to it.

Reading the above implies that the magnet caused the head to move and thus contact the platters causing damage, rather than altering the contents of the disc via magnetism directly.

Hmmm, I have an old laptop drive which is already playing up, perhaps one day I'll try it

[jaggerwild]

Re: The myth of the Magnets

A magnet will also hurt to a CRT display, it would have to be big enough. But the potential is there.