> I'm interested in the original question about erasing a harddrive > using a magnet. Is it possible to erase data on a hard disk drive with a > powerful magnet, but then be able to use the drive and the PC again?
It probably is possible, but at my company, we tested one product which purportedly could do this, with a relatively low drive-failure rate. After zapping the the first drive, the drive had many bad sectors, and the sectors that were readable still had original data on them. (eg, I could see the Windoze boot-sector and partition table and partition header.) So, until I see one work, I am skeptical. I could still see value in using something like this on a drive that won't spin anymore, but if you really want to erase the data on a good drive, you should overwrite it with a wiping utility. tim _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
