[spinestein]

[It would have to be a REALLY strong magnet.]




That is true, I was only half serious in my comment. I personally wouldn't trust a quick magnet "wipe" with sensitive data I didn't want others to see.

But I did this exact thing a few months ago. I removed an older 40GB hard drive from a computer and replaced it with a 120GB drive and was going to reuse the smaller drive in a different computer. When I picked up the old drive I realized I had put it RIGHT ON TOP of an upside down 15" Peavey Scorpion speaker I was working on a few days earlier.

My computer wouldn't recognize the drive after that and Cladera was stumped as well.

[spinestein]

Cladera = Caldera

[supercat]

My computer wouldn't recognize the drive after that and Cladera was stumped as well.

I'm not positive, but I suspect it would be possible to demagnetize the drive motor without affecting the data on the drive. Recovery in that case would be difficult, but not necessarily impossible.