External hard drives and speakers

[wightstraker]

I've just bought an external hard hard drive for laptop. It
sits happily on my desk, and seems to be working fine, but I have one
concern - how much of a risk is to leave it by my speakers? At the
moment it's sitting about 2-3 inches in front of my right speaker.
I've heard that this could cause damage to the drive, but frankly, I
have little other place to put it and I'm feeling skeptical. Any real
world advice?

 

[CJT]

I've just bought an external hard hard drive for laptop. It
sits happily on my desk, and seems to be working fine, but I have one
concern - how much of a risk is to leave it by my speakers? At the
moment it's sitting about 2-3 inches in front of my right speaker.
I've heard that this could cause damage to the drive, but frankly, I
have little other place to put it and I'm feeling skeptical. Any real
world advice?

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Impmon]

I've just bought an external hard hard drive for laptop. It
sits happily on my desk, and seems to be working fine, but I have one
concern - how much of a risk is to leave it by my speakers? At the
moment it's sitting about 2-3 inches in front of my right speaker.
I've heard that this could cause damage to the drive, but frankly, I
have little other place to put it and I'm feeling skeptical. Any real
world advice?

It should be OK. For a few reasons:
1: computer speakers are shielded
2: hard drive are encased in metal
3: some external hard drive also contains metal frame.

You would need a really strong magnet to damage a hard drive and those
are rarely found anywhere near computers.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I've just bought an external hard hard drive for laptop. It
sits happily on my desk, and seems to be working fine, but I have one
concern - how much of a risk is to leave it by my speakers? At the
moment it's sitting about 2-3 inches in front of my right speaker.
I've heard that this could cause damage to the drive, but frankly, I
have little other place to put it and I'm feeling skeptical. Any real
world advice?

If they are unshilded, you might destroy your disk. This can also
go slowly over time. There have been a number of cases with laptop
disks and srong magnets in german fold-down train tables.

The magnetic field itself is not the problem. That is far too
weak to impact the disk. However when the disk spinns, currents are
induced, and they can in turn cause localized, far srtinger fields,
and those can kill data and servo info, it seeems. In the
incidents mentioned, the distance to the magnets might habe been
as low as a few milimeters. These magnets are comparable in
strength to speaker magnets.

So, if you have shielded computer speakers, don't worry. If
it is conventional speakers and the magnets are close to the
place were your disk is, there might be a risk.

Arno

 

[Odie Ferrous]

If they are unshilded, you might destroy your disk. This can also
go slowly over time. There have been a number of cases with laptop
disks and srong magnets in german fold-down train tables.

The magnetic field itself is not the problem. That is far too
weak to impact the disk. However when the disk spinns, currents are
induced, and they can in turn cause localized, far srtinger fields,
and those can kill data and servo info, it seeems. In the
incidents mentioned, the distance to the magnets might habe been
as low as a few milimeters. These magnets are comparable in
strength to speaker magnets.

So, if you have shielded computer speakers, don't worry. If
it is conventional speakers and the magnets are close to the
place were your disk is, there might be a risk.

Arno

Hi Arno,

I think a bit of perspective is necessary here.

The magnets used in current hard drives are *incredibly* strong.

Placed together, it is actually difficult to separate them. (I was
showing my father some such magnets the other day, and I had to use a
pair of pliers to separate them.)

I believe that magnetism causing problems with hard drives is generally
a case of scaremongering, and it's incredibly unlikely (in my experience
at least) that local placement of speakers is going to cause any
problems whatsoever.


Odie

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi Arno,

I think a bit of perspective is necessary here.

The magnets used in current hard drives are *incredibly* strong.

Placed together, it is actually difficult to separate them. (I was
showing my father some such magnets the other day, and I had to use a
pair of pliers to separate them.)

I know. I have disassembled broken drives.

I believe that magnetism causing problems with hard drives is generally
a case of scaremongering, and it's incredibly unlikely (in my experience
at least) that local placement of speakers is going to cause any
problems whatsoever.

Actually I though that too. But laptop drives were broken by
the magnets in these train fold-down tables. Takes some time
and the drive has to be spinning.

As to the magnets in the moving coil assembly, yes, they are very
strong, but they are some way from the platters (probably an external
magnet can get closer for a laptop drive) and they are sort of
shielded bu the magnetic, but not magnetised top and bottom
plates.

I think you have to have three factors:
1) Very strong magnet
2) Spinning platters
3) Magnet very close to platters

With these conditions, most real-world situations should be safe.
I also don't think this works for desktop drives, since you cannot
get the magnet close enough to the platters.

Arno

 

[Alexander Grigoriev]

Hi Arno,

I think a bit of perspective is necessary here.

The magnets used in current hard drives are *incredibly* strong.

Placed together, it is actually difficult to separate them. (I was
showing my father some such magnets the other day, and I had to use a
pair of pliers to separate them.)

Be careful. Besides that they might pinch you (not really the worst), they
might shatter of impact, to very sharp shards.