I used a magnetized screw driver...

A

ashdavid

Member
I used a magnetized screw driver to install my hard drives and even though there is a 1" gap between the driver and the where you screw the scew into, I was wondering if this would affect the HD?
 
That would depend on the amount of magnetism seen the tool there. Running a magnet over a drive will not only wipe data but can easily render a drive useless. Being that magnetized screwdrivers are not usually anywhere as strong as an oridinary magnet you may not have seen any harm. But avoiding the use of any magnetized tools is the common sense approach when working around anything like a magnetic hard drive.
 
Using a magnetized screw driver on a computer anywhere is not a good idea. Using it on the case or installing the P/S or installing a dvd/cd drive might not hurt anything but around the harddrive or motherboard or anything that attaches to the motherboard is not a good idea.
 
That can be easily likened to walking across a carpeted floor and handling memory or a cpu without discharging yourself first. Magnetism and pcs simply don't go together.
 
Take into account: the earth has a magnetic field. The drivehead is magnetic. When running electrons through the wires, magnetic fields are created.

So the very small field coming from a scewdriver can hardly do anything to a computer.

Static electricity is something else than a magnetic field.
 
yeah it will not do anything. i have accedentaly put the strongest magnet know to man (neodymium) on top of one and nothing happend
 
brian said:
yeah it will not do anything. i have accedentaly put the strongest magnet know to man (neodymium) on top of one and nothing happend
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You were simply fortunate not to have seen any damage.

Other dangers
Caution must be taken when using neodymium magnets. A neodymium magnet is powerful enough to destroy the contents of a floppy disk to such an extent that the information is unrecoverable, a guarantee not present with techniques such as formatting the disk. In addition, neodymium magnets are one of the only materials that can successfully erase the information contained on the magnetic stripes of credit cards. Neodymium magnets are often strong enough to not only magnetize color CRT shadow masks, but also physically deform the mask itself. Such damage is typically not repairable by degaussing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet

How about a quick way to see a drive erased in only seconds.

Permanent magnets for erasing magnetic media have been available since the dawn of disk drives, but the team found that commercial systems were either magnetically too weak, too large and heavy or could not meet air-safety standards. Instead, the team crafted a new generation of super-powerful magnets to penetrate hard disk enclosures to quickly erase magnetic media. Special high-strength magnets as powerful as those in medical imaging equipment proved sufficient for permanently erasing all information on a disk drive in a single pass.
To create a magnetic field strong enough to penetrate the metal housing around a disk drive and erase the magnetic media inside, the researchers designed a neodymium iron-boron magnet with special pole pieces made of esoteric cobalt alloys. A motorized mechanism pushed disk drives past the magnets; a back up twist-knob allows operators to manually pull drives through the magnetic field. http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=97378
 
A floppy disk is considerably less shielded than a hard drive. Still I wouldn't go sticking a magnet on your hard drive for fun. A magnetic screwdriver should be OK, I've used them on more than one occasion.
 
The shielding on a drive itself would normally protect it from the small field when simply tossing the fasteners on a drive. That grabs at the fasteners themselves. But for general purposes working inside around anything sensitive along bringing any magnetic source close to a drive would be strongly advised against.

Try leaving some floppies around on a desk where you might a magnet there for some reason. I still have a ton of old 95/98 floppies to go through as well as ubuntu boot managers to see how those held up on their own after these years and to see what can be retrieved off of them without magnets around. The original 98SE startup was toast when tried lately. :P
 
i use a magnetized screwdriver and it's all good. i used it on my friends' dell and hp computers, my sony laptop, my old build, my new build, and furniture. it's only magnetized when the screw head fits into the slot. so i'm guessing it's weak.

if you want to de-magnetize it just bang the screwdriver on something hard.

if you're super paranoid you can buy those "certified" demagnetized screwdriver sets.
 
I use one all the time.. Daily. I haven't buggered a drive yet. Mind you, ten years ago it was a slightly different story. Some drives were sensitive to them and would be adversely affected.
 
I only have like 3 screwdrivers or so :P and they are all magnetic. never damaged anything with it, so I'm fairly sure its ok to use them.
 
I use my magnetize screw drivers all throughout the whole pc

Maybe this is the reason every computer I touch blows up B00M!

And I thought it was me... >_>

Nah Jok!ng :P XD

serious... Ive never had Pc components malfunction

I don't believe it can cause harm

innocent until proven guilty ;)
 
hells3000 said:
innocent until proven guilty ;)
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True, I,ve just never used them. Didnt (think) it was a good idea. But since so many people say they have used them with no problem I would say its ok. I would still be carefull around the harddrive and motherboard.
 
For lying tools around next to a drive or on top while assembling a case would be the time that any long term exposure would be seen. For simply fastening things in generally you are moving at a fast pace. How long does it take to toss in a few fasteners?

The advised practice and preference by any service personal would be "never" using any magnetized work tools period. The old drives were more sensitive to things like that simply from not seeing the shielding you would now see since drive manufacturers took notice. For practical purposes you still want to use a little "common sense" to avoid any possibility of damage even if it seems remote.
 
Wow, thanks for the replies guys! I have the PC up and running and everthing seems to be in order, so hopefuly there has been no permanent damage(dosen't look like there is) . :)

I can understand the intel site, as using a magnetic tip driver was a breeze when installing the MOBO.
 
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