Fridge magnets

[TEEB]

I know I can get an answer to this from you folks.

I'm talking about fridge magnets on the side of computer cases. Would these magnets cause damage to the data on hard drive? The size would be about the same as a business card.

I'm sure someone will know the correct answer to this. Thanx for reading....

[JPMiller]

no... considering the low strength they are, and the fact that Hard drives use some of the most powerful magnets available inside them...
Heres a fun project, find an old dead or useless hard drive.... tear it apart, marvel at the wonders inside, and then remove the magnets... put them on the refrigerator and see how hard it is to pry them off... its ridiculous.

[flanzig1]

You need a pretty strong external magnetic field to start corrupting the data on a hard drive. We have equipment with HDDs at work that are used in a MRI scan room and haven't seen any data corruption.

[Trent Steel]

Dont worry about fridge magnets, you could place them anywhere in your computer without risk of damage (except to a floppy disk). Considering the magnet is on the outside of the case which has to be metalic for it to stick, the case acts as a shield against those magnetic fields. Neodenium magnets are a whole different story, you can temporarily/permanently damage crts monitors with them.

[Jaggannath]

hehehehe it's all about Faraday Cages

[HyperTF]

He he, I'm not taking any chances... no magnets for my case!
I heard a story told to me recently of a guy who placed a magnetic docket holder which are used in restaurants (mounted on steel frames) on the side of his PC case. Handy thing to have, but it kept corrupting data on his hard drive. This is a much more hefty magnet then a fridge magnet... cos you certainly don't want a docket ending up in your pumpkin soup!