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PC Speaker Magnet next to HD

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GooGobbler

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2001
Hi people. Alright, here is what happened: I was tightening a screw on a fan and it fell to the bottom of the case. I attempted to find it but I couldn't for a while. Well, what do you know! The screw was magnetically attracted to a magnet on my PC Speaker! The magnet's location in the case is what scared me. It was right below my Hard Drives! Now I want to know if that magnet has the potential to corrupt or even damage my hard drive, or are new hard drives now magnetically shielded? Here is a picture of what I am talking about: Yellow = HD, Red = Magnet on PC Speaker

pic.jpg


Thanks!
 
not many people realise this, but inside a hdd, you will find one of the strongest magnets in the world. :D

i think the ****y magnet on the case speaker won't even be noticed. :p
 
1) its probably magnetically shielded
2) its such a small magnet it doesnt produce a stong field
3) wiped data happens thru change of magnetic field (ie wiped by powerful pulstating magnetic field by moving it rapidly) not by a static magnet.

you should be safe ;)
 
Wait a minute. What about two hard drives that are stacked together in the same case? How come they don't interfere with each other in that situation?
 
If I remember my reading right, HDD magnets use "Earth Magnets" Also I believe that HDD makers are supposed to use the same feild ranges per the FCC regulations bla bla bla bla.

Whether this is 100% true in all cases or not I have no idea, but I do know that the magnet IN the hdd is about 100x more powerful than that cheapy one at the bottom of the case.
 
you have nothing to fear... the magnets inside harddrives are indeed super strong... they are strong enough to draw blood :eek:... so that puny speaker magnet wont do any damage...
 
I didn't know that a magnet could be that strong until I oppened a dead WD hd, the two small plate magnets could hold eachother with my hand between them (i said my hand, not my fingers:eek: )
 
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yeah i disect every computer part of mine that dies hehe :D well needless to say i was playin with 2 harddrive magnets and they snapped shut on the webbing(cant think of a better name) between my index finger and thumb it took an hour for the bleeding to stop :eek:
 
Don't worry about it. Like everyone else said, your drive will only die if it encounters a dynamic magnetic field.

One of the kids in my Chemistry class brought in a ancient 5.25" 300MB Apple HD. We disceted it durring class (it was a free day) and played with the magnets for the whole period. He says he'll bring in another one Monday so that I can get one of the magnets (Him, and one of my friends got the first two).

I also get the middle platter!! :D
JigPu
 
it has to do with how magnetic fields work. Firstly, the strength of a magnetic field decreases as the inverse square of the distance between the magnet and where you're measuring. Second, and this is the part where my head starts to hurt, it takes a certain strength of field to change what's on a HD platter. This strength is called an "oesterd".

If your magnet doesn't produce enough oesterds, it won't affect the platter even a little bit- it's like it's not even there. And those little PC speakers aren't strong enough from outside the drive- thanks to how fast magnet strength decreases over distance, the thickness of the HD case is more than enough to keep it shielded.

If the magnet was actually touching the platter, then it would *maybe* be intense enough to mess it up. But that won't ever happen :D

well, I learned all this at Dan's Data, but I can't find the link to the exact article- so I hope there aren't too many factual errors! Bottom line, a PC speaker will never be strong enough to hurt a drive.
 
I had one of my computers next to one of my speakers for a while and it didn't cause any problems.

And we aren't talking about computer speakers, this puppy had a 10 pound magnet.
 
I've been reassured of this same problem on this board that it is safe, but I'm just not at ease about the whole magnet + PC component deal...

So I unplugged mine and threw it out :D
 
heh yah I think that's the one! But it'd take me 20 minutes to read thru and be sure :D Dan is great but his articles need an index or something.
 
just dont get any non-computer subs anywhere near your comp. i had my car subs like 4 feet from my big trinitron tv and it turned the whole entire tv green. luckily it didnt damage the tv permanatly, i immediatly turned of the tv adn moved them adn it was fine when i turned it back on. it really could have done some dmg to a comp though i think
 
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