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How dangerous is it to have small magnets near a harddrive?

It's high powered magnets that you want to keep away. Normal ceramic magnets will probably be fine as long as you don't put them directly on the case of the hdd.
 
When you consider the fscking huge (heh, I said fsck in a hard drive thread) magnet INSIDE the drive, you will understand why magnets, regardless of size, are harmless to it.
 
Originally posted by: Electrode
When you consider the fscking huge (heh, I said fsck in a hard drive thread) magnet INSIDE the drive, you will understand why magnets, regardless of size, are harmless to it.
Click to expand...
Uh.....

Are you stupid? 😛
 
the electrical signals running all through your computer generate magnetic signals as well, and no one is in fear of their computer wiping itself
 
the shell is ferromagnetic if i'm not mistaken so it should block weak magnetic fields from the critical parts.

but i wouldn't try it
 
Originally posted by: Eli
It's high powered magnets that you want to keep away. Normal ceramic magnets will probably be fine as long as you don't put them directly on the case of the hdd.
Click to expand...
I left a large (3" diameter) ceramic magnet (it was a GPS antenna with a magnet in the base to attach it to a car roof) near my laptop for about a week once - trashed the hdd. Didn't wipe it out completely, but enough to fsck up Win2k pretty badly.
 
It isn't dangerous at all.

In fact, you should stick the magnets on the harddrive for better performance. Get some high-powered ones on there too, helps the disk speed and buffer placement, works wonders I tell ya.
 
Originally posted by: Electrode
When you consider the fscking huge (heh, I said fsck in a hard drive thread) magnet INSIDE the drive, you will understand why magnets, regardless of size, are harmless to it.
Click to expand...

We should all sent Electrode a magnet to stick to his hard drive and he can post results.....

It isn't dangerous at all.

In fact, you should stick the magnets on the harddrive for better performance. Get some high-powered ones on there too, helps the disk speed and buffer placement, works wonders I tell ya.
Click to expand...

You can use magnets to manually defragment too...just pull the magnets accross the surface of the disk and it moves everything to one end 😉
 
If you've ever opened up a mid 80s hard drive, they do have some *gigantic* magnets inside. However, they are sheilded from the platters at least to some extent.

But yes, it certainly surprised me. When I say "gigantic" I mean it took considerable effort to pull them apart from each other.. probably would have lifted 10 lbs easily...
 
Originally posted by: boyRacer
For some reason i read magnets as midgets... :Q
Click to expand...

LOL...small midgets near a hard drive...very dangerous....

and what about those fscking huge midgets inside them! :Q
 
Originally posted by: shekondar
Originally posted by: Eli
It's high powered magnets that you want to keep away. Normal ceramic magnets will probably be fine as long as you don't put them directly on the case of the hdd.
Click to expand...
I left a large (3" diameter) ceramic magnet (it was a GPS antenna with a magnet in the base to attach it to a car roof) near my laptop for about a week once - trashed the hdd. Didn't wipe it out completely, but enough to fsck up Win2k pretty badly.
Click to expand...
Maybe it was the heat? Or possibly the humidity? 😛
 
I have a magnetic water pump sitting within inches of my hard drive. It causes no interference or problems at all.

From what I've read (and heard from Materials Science Engineers) is that you'd need an insanely powerful magnet to disrupt the hard drive.


It goes something like... the magnetic force needed to write on the drive doubles every x micrometers or something, so a magnet outside of the drive would do nothing.
 
Originally posted by: Mallow
Originally posted by: shekondar
Originally posted by: Eli
It's high powered magnets that you want to keep away. Normal ceramic magnets will probably be fine as long as you don't put them directly on the case of the hdd.
Click to expand...
I left a large (3" diameter) ceramic magnet (it was a GPS antenna with a magnet in the base to attach it to a car roof) near my laptop for about a week once - trashed the hdd. Didn't wipe it out completely, but enough to fsck up Win2k pretty badly.
Click to expand...
Maybe it was the heat? Or possibly the humidity? 😛
Click to expand...
Uhhh...no. Magnet was sitting on floor (at home, not in my car), with some papers over it - left laptop (in its case) sitting on top of magnet 🙁.
 
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