SESKStuff Everyone Should Know
SESK: Stuff Everyone Should Know · sesk.info/magnet-hard-drive

Can a typical refrigerator magnet erase the hard drive on a laptop?

No. Modern hard drives have powerful magnets inside and ignore weak fridge magnets.

  1. Yes, any magnet wipes the data
  2. Yes, but only if it touches the screen
  3. No, fridge magnets are too weak ✔

Why: Old floppy disks could be wiped by a simple magnet. But modern computer drives require a massively powerful industrial magnet to lose data.

Huh, didn't know that: Solid state drives, which are in most new laptops, do not use magnetism at all and are completely immune.

The dad joke
Why did the magnet get promoted? It was very attractive.
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Sources

  1. PCWorld: Busting the biggest PC myths https://www.pcworld.com/article/427500/busting-the-biggest-pc-myths.html

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