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Conference 7.286::atarist

Title:Atari ST, TT, & Falcon
Notice:Please read note 1.0 and its replies before posting!
Moderator:FUNYET::ANDERSON
Created:Mon Apr 04 1988
Last Modified:Tue May 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1433
Total number of notes:10312

392.0. "Magnets and floppy disks" by TEA::PETERS (Don Peters, CTS1-2/H6, 287-3742) Wed Feb 08 1989 21:07

At our local computer club meeting a few days ago, the subject of magnets
being dangerous to floppy disks came up. One person said he thought the
common folklore about magnets erasing floppy disks was just a myth.

Surprised at this, I went home, made a copy of an existing floppy, and
gathered a few magnets off of our refrigerator. I "wiped" the magnets
all over the cover of the floppy, noticing that the middle hub was magnetic.
Then I put the disk back in, and was I surprised to find that all the
software on the disk worked just fine! I repeated the experiment, but still
noticed no dropped data.

Granted, these magnets were not super strong, just your common ordinary
refrigerator magnets. I didn't have a stronger magnet handy for testing, or
I would have tryed it too. I guess now I don't have to be super careful
about my disks.

Has anyone else done any experiments like this? If so, what were the
results?
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392.1LEDS::ACCIARDIThu Feb 09 1989 00:0217
    
    Just out of curiosity, I once tried the same thing on an old floppy
    using refrigerator magnets.  The disk worked fine.
    
    I then brought a small piece of Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnet home
    from work.  This is the latest and greatest high energy magnet
    material, used in high-performance moving coil disk drive motors.
    It probably has 100 X the energy product of cheap rubber magnets.
    
    This chunk (about 1" square x .150" thick) could wipe out a disk
    from a good four inches away.  It could also twist my monitor display
    from almost a foot away.  I hope I'll be able to have normal children,
    since I've worked with this stuff extensively.
    
    Ed.