Will a Magnet Erase my PC's Hard Drive? - Let's Find Out

[@amoghsolo]

However I don't think playing minecraft is the best to see if the hard drive is working. Cause the game is already loaded on the RAM. Interesting video none the less.

[@misaalanshori]

The world save file is probably not fully loaded in ram... And there are probably other things that is not loaded in ram and will stop working If the bed is not working...

[@WarpedYT]

You're right, I should have actually transferred a large file like someone else said in this comment section. But I know it is still accessing the disk constantly and I didn't have anything else on this computer.

[@misaalanshori]

*HDD not bed... Autocorrect

[@kepa219]

In Minecraft closeby world chunks are loaded to RAM when world is opened. One should move few chunks to some direction in the world to make Minecraft to load more chunks from hard disk. @@misaalanshori

[@misaalanshori]

@@kepa219 that's what I thought too after realizing he's not moving the character, but there's probably _something_ that's not loaded into ram.... Right?

[@Zukirin77]

"minecraft, that should eat up some cpu" (9% CPU Usage)

[@DomWPC]

that's because he's using the shitty Bedrock version that's meant for use on phones

[@lawnside82]

Lmao

[@batery5156]

It was a bedrock editon it i's bad

[@HaydenH]

Bedrock edition is better.

[@Reolzomic]

@@HaydenH lol nope

[@jaymaster103]

Copy files instead of playing Minecraft, it’s a tiny game it could all be cached in memory. Otherwise good experiment.

[@eduardoavila646]

Windows itself would hang up if the hdd does not respond, minecraft would be just a indicator of the usability of the machine. And as shown when it dies, minecraft died too, no matter if its cached on ram, because it depends on the OS itself, and actually world generation writes and reads data from the hdd a good part of the time anyway.

[@stormy4752]

the game limits itself to 1gb of ram that it can use, (you can see that as a preset in the launcher) the game itself is actually a little bit larger, While maybe not the best game to try possibly not the worst

[@jovcacreaper5446]

@@stormy4752 i use 6gb ram for Minecraft

[@FarmYardGaming]

How small is it? Yes, I'm an absolute degenerate peasant, gloss over that for a bit

[@insanitylol]

Stormy he’s using bedrock, its meant for,phones and it’s bad

[@Pistolero]

The strong magnet, dont kill the disk data, but this magnet is interfere for reading head i guess.

[@Apti-Erhan]

True that

[@Apti-Erhan]

Hdd have neodinium magnet it

[@gabrielvieira6529]

Pistolero it kills everything

[@iaincowell9747]

The magnet can move the position of the read write head, they only have around a few millimeters of space between them & the platter

[@megametx6541]

the write head automatically close whenever it sense strong magnetic field that could collapse the plate and the head,Most HDD today have that ability

[@maksphoto78]

I think what happened with the strongest magnet is that it pulled the disks up towards itself, making reading and writing impossible.

[@byte6d653]

It actually has to do with the HDD platters being made out of Aluminium and spinning at high speed in the magnets magnetic field, if you do a search for magnetic field effect with Aluminium, you will find a lot of videos and research on it. the basics though is while aluminium is not magnetic, it does interact with the magnetic field of a magnet and will act as a brake for a spinning disk of aluminium or if you just try to slide a magnet down a sheet of aluminium at a steep angle.

[@robson6285]

@@byte6d653 no it was just the fysical shock from the magnet hitting the hdd. A hit with a stone would have had that same effect. The readhead on the arm skips some tracks and the hdd has to find his track and required speed for it again and thats all of the delay, all thats seen here.

[@victornpb]

maksphoto78 no it just interfered with the reed switch that makes the drive spin at correct rpm

[@ashishdutt1914]

@@byte6d653 Eddy's current

[@maksphoto78]

@@byte6d653 I see, thanks. So the magnet stopped the discs spinning.

[@SkyNines]

Pretty sure you're talking about the movie "The Core"

[@WarpedYT]

Yes, for the life of me I couldn't remember the name of the movie. That's the one

[@Fresh_Biscuits]

Same movie where the hacker got the guy unlimited long distance "for life" by blowing into a gum wrapper while on the phone.

[@WarpedYT]

Really, how did that work?. I'll have to look that up, I don't remember that part

[@Fresh_Biscuits]

@@WarpedYT oh yes lol kzbin.info/www/bejne/d2PKmZaPe8SFY5I

[@kaasimmir8971]

Haha I remember that phone part, I think he wrapped up the chewing gum wrapper and whistled into it...then was like you have unlimited phone calls lol

[@DrHouse-zs9eb]

The biggest problem is the impact when putting the magnet on. This can cause a head crash

[@WarpedYT]

Well according to the label on the hard drive, the warranty is void if the hard drive experiences impact shock of more than 350 G's , I highly doubt not a magnet hitting the drive will exceed 350 g's of shock. I'm not going against what you said but that's what the label says on the drive.

[@DrHouse-zs9eb]

Interesting, maybe that applies to a stillstanding drive? During operation, a shock is way more problematic.

[@Petex90]

That reading must be for unpowered disk. Remember my friend accidentially dropping an AA battery From 30cm to HDD and the drive died..

[@dylanharding5720]

@@Petex90 I'm pretty sure that's a server grade drive, so it's a lot tougher

[@gazzacroy]

if he turned it off first so disk not spinning would have been better

[@darkwinter6028]

Modern HDDs have magnetic domains on the platter that are too small and powerfully magnetized to affect with typical permanent magnets. If you are looking to destroy the data in a way such that it positively cannot be recovered, you need to physically destroy the platters. Thermite works well for this purpose, but just putting the drive in an oven that can exceed the curie point of the media will do quite the number on the magnetic domains on the disc (even if the drive remains otherwise intact). SSDs, being more-or-less immune to static magnetic fields, would require thermite to totally destroy.

[@WarpedYT]

That's exactly what I learned here, thanks for the info. The funny thing is that before I did this video I went to the computer store to buy an SSD, I told one of the associates that help me that I had a magnet to close to my hard drive, just messing around, they all jump and said oh my God your data is going to be destroyed you need to be very careful. it was at that moment I knew making this video was a good idea...LBVS

[@dylanharding5720]

Or, just stop the disc from spinning

[@darkwinter6028]

UselessDood - if you really want the data GONE, that won’t work: the platters can be transplanted into another mechanism and read. Granted, this isn’t a threat scenario for most people; but if you have nation-state level adversaries... 🤔

[@WarpedYT]

@@darkwinter6028 that's interesting, I'm working on a how to video where I show how to remove the platters and put them into a new drive to recover data. I always knew that was possible but have never seen it done.

[@thebush6077]

or just hit it with a hammer you fucking mad man

[@E-virtuosEu]

There is a neodymium magnet inside a hard drive, so it should erase everything all the time if you think like this.

[@AnimMouse]

No no no no. That magnet is properly placed to prevent interfering with the platters.

[@pcchannel6294]

the magnet is placed in between two metal holders which stop interference

[@DaneH64]

Yeah, but it's out of the way of the platter, the most the magnet can do is move the head the way it's supposed to...

[@JohnSmith-xf1zu]

Those magnets also usually have a special double polarity configuration that makes the magnetic field generated much smaller.

[@blackturbine]

Hard drive *heavy breathing*

[@tubaloot1508]

SSD master race.

[@tubaloot1508]

SSD master race.

[@nopeoofnonoman3344]

Lol

[@blacklist2595]

They dont breathe they spin instead say "heavy spining"

[@Roeclean]

Dang. Now if only I could afford one

[@NextGeneration9501]

has 750gb hdd as daily driver *sees 1tb hdd getting destroyed* 😧😨

[@BavarianM]

Common dude they are cheap

[@bottomtext5872]

Dude, the WD Blue used is around $50

@@bottomtext5872, 50$ are much for some persons.

[@noddlecak3279]

@joshua broughton-herrick yeah you already edited it because you can't speak English either but you spelt peasant wrong.

[@axellepatriadi5162]

joshua broughton-herrick in third world countries, 50$ is a lot of fucking money

[@JovanLemon]

The only thing i am concerned about is the minecrsft version... You sure it didnt work?

[@WarpedYT]

Lol.

[@starlii10]

The Minecraft game is loaded into memory on startup, so disk data does not matter after that unless you load a world.

[@akeylawhite9217]

The strong magnet was likely just preventing the read head from properly moving across the platters surface and didn't effect the polarity of stored data. Now a powerful electromagnet on the other hand could invert some bits of data.

[@michaelsteinbach]

Lenz's Law. Though the Aluminum platters don't attract the magnet on their own, the magnet induces a magnetic field in the platter, attracting the magnet and creating resistance (slowing the platter). Similar to how if you drop a strong magnet through an aluminum tube, it floats slowly through on it's way down. I guess the harddrive senses the slowdown and pauses activity until the motor can spin it back up to normal speed.

[@WarpedYT]

Are those platters aluminum though? I thought they were silicon....

[@michaelsteinbach]

@@WarpedYTMy quick search earlier said that most desktop use Aluminum and smaller drives for laptops are glass. I guess it just depends on the manufacturer and quality of the drive. I'm guessing the glass ones wouldn't slow down much.

[@ujiltromm7358]

@@WarpedYT Silicon in a disk shape is typically used as wafers for semiconductor-based integrated circuits, including CPU/GPU dies and memory chips among other things. These get manufactured through lithography and cut to size before being packaged, conditioned and sent to users of those chips (like RAM stick manufacturers.) That's why there's no need to use silicon for a platter that's not used as a base for semiconductor technology. The platters are coated with a magnetic film, so it can be pretty much anything that retains this coat at high rotation speed and isn't magnetic. Aluminum can fit the bill.

[@eduardoavila646]

@@michaelsteinbach Glass? There is something wrong there...

[@andrewmcallister4151]

they are not aluminum platters, they are platinum

[@DJAtom]

Guy: *puts magnet on hard drive* Guy: nothing, still working! Drive: *0 disk usage*

[@ITSTayvionAvery]

Lol

[@DampusOnCampus]

Also drive: 100% disk usage

[@vishnuk8782]

The disk slowed down when you put 40lb magnet over it due to developing of eddy currents in the disk which tried to oppose its rotational motion

[@ConcernedCitizenPPCA]

Naw it slowed down and would eventually stop because it's triggering sensors used for fall detection. ThioJoe did a video where he was shaking hard drives in use and it exhibits the same behavior of freezing and queuing up requests for when it detects everything is fine again.

[@vishnuk8782]

​@@ConcernedCitizenPPCA as far as what I know, when fall detection sensors are triggered then the read write head would move away from the disk and park itself. But in the video it didn't.

[@wut462]

-I can feel the hard drive working- *Are you powered up by hard drives?*

[@wut462]

Mal McKee Issa joke

[@Fate5591]

" You Say Run "

[@Theportraitdude]

Aha, the old “Rare Earth magnet while playing Minecraft in a garage” test. A classic to be sure.

[@freedustin]

all the magnetic field is for is controlling the read/write apparatus. it works much like a speaker's voice coil. all you are doing is interfering. also the enclosure is shielded, that's why no effect until you bring a really strong magnet.

[@polygorg]

There's a video of a guy with a really strong magnet. That's pretty cool

[@DaneH64]

You'd need a 100-200lb magnet, that would bring the platter to the head and scratch it, too

[@Doodle128]

HDDs work via magnetic coating on a ceramic or glass disk, you would need around 140 pounds of force to magnetically erase one. SSDs work via chips that hold electrical charge, a magnet isn't going to do anything unless you're using it to smash the drive, the best way to kill an SSD would be to remove the charge or overload it.

[@ankabest9751]

magnet.exe can take 100% disk now try it on a ram

[@shadowxxe]

Ram is non magnetic it wont work

[@bislo1191]

@@shadowxxe do you know what is .exe? or you just simply want to ruin the joke?

[@shadowxxe]

@@bislo1191 .exe is an executable program used by windows to execute an operation and yes i did want to ruin the joke

[@bislo1191]

@@shadowxxe please don't, appreciate creativity 👍

[@shadowxxe]

@@bislo1191I appreciate creativity its just this isn't the most creative of jokes

[@MrMattumbo]

Yeah I saw this coming, thankfully modern HDDs are pretty durable cause I once set a 100lb strength rare-earth magnet right on top of my laptop's HDD without thinking and it locked to the metal laptop surface and I heard the drive making a very distressed sound, but after I quickly pulled it off everything was fine and I got another year out of the drive before it started acting up (which may have just been age).

[@WarpedYT]

Wow, that must have been scary for sure, especially if you had important stuff on the laptop.

[@MrMattumbo]

@@WarpedYT It was terrifying! I saw my digital life flash before my eyes that day lol

[@gendragongfly]

This is crazy, I put a horseshoe magnet on a hard disk back around 2005 (it was already an old drive then probably from around 1998) and it erased it completely. There was nothing left of any file on there. They managed to proof a harddrive against that 🤔

[@alexx1986-h3c]

6:24 the reason for the disks slowing down is because the magnet induces currents inside the disks (only possible when spinning) and those currents create opposing magnetic fields slowing down the disks. if it were the actuator arm getting attracted to the disks it would have destroyed itself in a second (head crash)

[@stoiannicusor3766]

3:25 hahah, that's how my pc works

[@HungryGuyStories]

My guess is that the magnet merely held the read/write head in place, preventing it from moving, without changing any of the data. The computer acted wonky because the hard drive suddenly disappeared.

[@RyeOnHam]

Okay, that was unexpected. When I was in the Military, we used to destroy drives with a box that you put the drive in and then it zapped them with an EMP. That was military grade.

[@WarpedYT]

I know, I should do another video and try and EMP. While the computer is running

[@69strokefasterthanyourmum]

Sounds interesting!😉

[@joshuathompson4162]

No, you microwaved them. Totally different man.

[@freedustin]

no it was not an EMP or microwave... it is a degausser.

[@RyeOnHam]

@@freedustin You might speak a different version of English, but Microwaves are a form of Electromagnetic radiation. The machine we used was definitely an EMP generator. Took about 10 seconds per drive. You could fry just about any magnetic media with it. Floppies, VHS Tapes, cassettes, etc. What is your definition of a Degausser? Does it generate an magnetic field with electromagnets for a short period of time? One might say a 'pulse' of the electromagnetic type? An EMP? Either way, you're wrong. Fuck off.

[@nekophoenix9078]

I placed a magnet on my laptop and it stopped working RIP

[@terrygoyan]

Same. Killed a 2010 MacBook Pro with a neodymium magnet. Much smaller that the one in this video. The computer refused to reboot and the hard drive made a clicking sound afterwards.

[@NCXitlali]

Fucking magnets! How do they work!?

[@thesole_randomguy]

@@NCXitlali Magents don't work! they don't have a degree. unlike Thermometers that have many and are overqualified!

[@NCXitlali]

@@thesole_randomguy fucking magnets! How do they work!? 🤣

[@lanzipmikazingmei207]

Me too, it's gone now😂😂😂😂

[@beedslolkuntus2070]

4:24 The most beautiful thing ever

[@kakaAraAiub]

Agreed

[@beedslolkuntus2070]

Jake Playz XD

[@John__-ie3od]

You should use a fishing magnet with 1000 lb magnetic force.

[@HakarDoski]

"disk begging for help at 100% usage" *opens Google Chrome* do you wanna blow up a city or what? you can't be doing that

[@Flashbang_Photo]

The reason why it did stop working until you removed the magnet is because when the platter is stopped, the head does normally touch it, so to avoid damage, if the speed of the platter is under the nominal speed of the disk, the head gets parked for safety. The only thing that makes it float is the air moved by the platter itself, which is the reason there isn't vaccum drives yet, but instead of that helium sealed drives do exist to increase the data density by stabilizing the air currents inside and making a tighter fit between heads and platters.

[@haravikk]

It's really cool that you took the time to try some of this, but really what you're demonstrating is interfering with how the disks operate; i.e- you stopped the drive from being able to physically spin and read/write normally, which is why the PC locked up then resumed again, rather than showing any kind of corruption. If you want to show corruption then the easiest way would be to fill the disk with large files, and generate checksums for these. After attempting to corrupt the disk, you can then generate the checksums again to see if they changed, which would indicate corruption. Admittedly not as amusing to watch though 😉

[@RalphyTheCoyote]

Warped perception: 40 pound magnet me: price or weight??

[@firenado4295]

ah its refreshing to see someone that doesnt try to dramatise everything and fill the video up with unnecessary junk. but rather just do what they set out to do and accept whatever outcome there is. you have my respect and a new sub.

[@69CamaroSS]

8:56 Do you see that half circle mechanism directly behind the read/write arm? There’s actually 2 of them (top and bottom) and they each contain an AWESOME rare earth magnet which powers the arm’s movement as well as provides magnetic force for the actual reading and writing to the platter(s). I’ve taken *A TON* of of them apart to salvage these incredible magnets out of them (my wife’s company regularly has to destroy many of them as they outdate and contain sensitive info....I keep a STACK of these magnets for fun and projects. Your powerful magnet is disrupting the control of the arm and read/write head at it’s other end by disrupting the magnetic field which “tells” the HDD controller WHERE the arm is....effectively blinding the controller. No disruption of data occurred.....or the computer would no longer boot or function correctly (known as corrupted sectors on the drive).

[@MaverickSpawn]

The movie he is referring to is called "The Core".

[@MaverickSpawn]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJazc4F9ot2JgZo

[@Donald_Shaw]

Totally enjoy your video and the content of them. Great job as always.

[@TheMechanicalKoopa]

the movie you watched was called "the core" :-D

[@WarpedYT]

Oh yeah..."the core" I couldn't remember for the life of me, Thanks!

[@KTHKUHNKK]

I just subscribed. I always wondered about the same thing if a magnet would affect it but I never would ever attempt to do what she did. Awesome video buddy. Keith

[@rigby.other2w]

All you have seen was in RAM, the magnet only damage the mechanism of the HDD.

[@Shikoyyan]

Wut r u stoopid

[@rigby.other2w]

@@Shikoyyan sorry?

[@Shikoyyan]

@@rigby.other2w sorry

[@okaro6595]

8:56 On the base of the arm there is a pretty strong magnet so it is natural that a magnet would not easily mess the data,

[@beedslolkuntus2070]

By the way, when the magnet is there in your HDD. that’s how usually my PC responds with no magnet...

[@reki353]

When the HDD detects any kind of shock, it parks the read / write head until it detects that it's still again... It takes a few seconds until it read data again.

[@djpro1788]

Me: *Laughs in SSD*

[@destiny_02]

Say hello to Killer USB 2.0

[@dcmk4683]

ok

[@joltaikv2340]

fr

[@nil8659]

@@destiny_02 killer usb without the killers. I want this to happen.

[@GodlikeIridium]

Cool test. Though i have some comments: 1: Minecraft isn't ideal to test hard drive function. It will crash if you destroy data, but not instantly. Since the actually used data will be in RAM, destroying data on the hard drive will only cause problems randomly delayed. 2: The moment the system crashed may be caused by the impact and therefore fast movement of the drive. Especially since it ran normally again after a restart. But data may still have been damaged, that's impossible to know without scanning it all. 3: The magnet slowing down the platter spinning is very interesting! I would guess this happens because of the strong magnetic field disrupting the ones inside the electromotor driving the platters. Very cool footage i have never seen before!

[@razakmubafar5687]

What if we use electro magnet. In one of the episode in 'Breaking bad' they destroy the evidence using strong electro magnetic. Is that possible?

[@Electronic4081]

It does erase the data if it’s big enough and close enough, a few people have tested it, including mythbusters

[@ThomasGrillo]

There's one more magnet you should try. It's called a bulk eraser, and we use them in commercial radio and television to erase an entire cart, or open reel. I think it sends an alternating polarity through the media. Should work on an HDD. Pretty sure any magnet placed directly under a CPU will disrupt it's operation, too. Caught a wild tech doing that to one of my client's PC when I was in the service field, back in the 90s.

[@laithqasim]

I am pretty sure that in the movie you watched the hacker used an electromagnet which has a job of wiping disks and ruining tech.

[@WarpedYT]

Yes, it may have been an electromagnet

[@Ktulu789]

4:00 You just killed the disk by impact not from the magnetic field. The metal in which the disk is encased is a type of metal that reflects magnetic fields, nothing magnetic can get through it (I don't remember the name of the metal now). But if you hit the disk while it's operating, 1G could easly misalign the heads and you will have that behaviour. The previous hit also made some damage and thats why you saw a little increment in disk usage. On the other hand, the disk usage meter doesn't measure usage, just amount of pending read/write operations. When you hit it the previous time it probably lost some RPMs and resetted the heads position and maybe some damage went into the disk itself so R/W was slower. Last hit could make the heads hit he disk, slowing it down or scratch the plates hardly. Some disks, when the RPMs drop just stop for protection. I hope you didn't make the recovery into the same disk xD

[@Ktulu789]

6:20 The stopping happens because eddy currents are generated on the moving metal that oppose the magnetic field. That's what some exercese bikes use to slow the pedals. No friction brakes. Same principle behind magnetic brakes.

[@lawabidingcitizen5153]

I think eddy currents may have slowed down the disk, they don't have a very strong motor anyways

[@marty2872]

yeah- i'd say the magnet may not affect the data but certainly messed with the motor as seen when it slowed down while open. Electric motors are based on magnetism.

[@Vylkeer]

This is what I was interested in finding out. Someone pointed out that a transfer of data would've been more effective for a demonstration and that's true but ... the fact is Minecraft was installed on the HDD as everything else I imagine and there was no data loss, which is the part I was interested to discover. I'm not sure if a powerful enough magnet would corrupt or erase data beyond recovery, I think that if the magnet is capable of flipping the data blocks and remagnetize them, everything will be gone forever. Although it is encouraging that it would take a powerful magnet and even then, all that caused was the platters to slow down and it resumed functioning after that, with all the data still intact. I have a few drives that were manufactured 10+ years ago, so I don't know how differently they would handle this same test. Good to know that newer HDDs are, among other things, more resilient to magnetism. Nice test!

[@TheCryptoMiner]

Your more likely to break your drive by the impacts you were doing to it. You have to be careful with shocking it to make sure the test is not tainted. I know this because I've been working on them changing out heads to recover data from them.

[@dipp9120]

What happened when you put the strongest magnet to the harddrive is the harddrive had a safety feature where if it feels a certain amount of gforce or movement, it'll completely stop reading and writing like you saw when you took the cover off and when you release it, it'll resume whatever you had in queue which is why a bunch of the applications you clicked opened up. With an SSD, it won't affect it at all because it's all electronic and not mechanical.

[@Puwpl]

Minecraft helped the Hdd live.

[@rohansingh1057]

The reason why the disk platter slows down is most probably due to a phenomenon called Eddy currents. It causes dampening by converting the kinetic energy to heat energy. Moving conductors of electricity in a magnetic field slow down due to small induced whirlpools of currents. Hard drives in fact use Eddy currents to control the reading pin. Since it is moving very fast, it is very easy to overshoot the sector you are trying to read. To avoid this, the backside of the pin us under magnetic field and eddy currents damp the quick acceleration to provide more accuracy.

[@inflict5192]

8:13 ssd*

[@CaptainJunior]

@joshua broughton-herrick 🤣

[@shadowxxe]

@joshua broughton-herrick Its, not a disk idiot it has no moving parts

[@shadowxxe]

@joshua broughton-herrick NO its classed as a drive not a disk drive thats why its called solid state DRIVE and not solid state DISK

[@nicholaslubinda]

The strong magnet interfered with the spinning disk's motor's magnetic field. In order for the DC motor to work, it needs power in the windings that'll produce a magnetic field. But if you put a strong magnet near the center of the disk which is where the motor is located, your magnet's magnetic field will start cancelling the motor's magnetic field which if the motor's magnetic field and the magnet's magnetic field cancel each other to zero, the disk stops spinning completely. For more info just search for " how a DC motor works". As for the actuator, the reason why it stopped working is because it only starts reading the Plata after the disk reaches its maximum revolutions per minute (RPM) which can be either 5400rpm or 7200rpm depending on the manufacturer's design, otherwise the actuator arm will retract to its resting position which in this case the center of the Plata. Newer hard drives' actuator arms rest on a compartment outside the plata. At full speed, the Plata creates like an air barrier or cushion that prevents the actuator arm from scratching the Plata when it's accessing data on the Plata which when it does scratches the Plata will result in bad sectors or inaccessible data or permanently damaging the Plata or the hard drive's storage area.

[@gametaticks7681]

A 100 pound per square inch would destroy the hardware

[@bpark10001]

The reason the magnet slowed the hard disk has nothing to do with the pull. The disk substrate is aluminum, which is a good conductor. When there is on a strong magnetic field, current is generated in the disk, like in a generator. This acts to produce a drag on the disk, as if you pressed your hand against it, which is more then the motor can handle, so it slows. Removing the field eliminates the drag, and the disk works again. (Some drives use glass for the disk substrate, so those should not slow.) If you were successful in erasing the disk, it would become useless because in addition to the data, there are "clock tracks". (Some drives embed the tracks with the data, while others dedicate a single surface of the stack for this.) These are the "roads" upon which the data are written on an otherwise featureless surface. Erase those, and the drive becomes a piece of wall art. When the drive is newly-made, these are written in by placing the drive in a "million-dollar machine" at the factory. (Have you seen the jumpers labelled "factory use only, do not connect? That is set during the initialization.) You know that little curved hole on the drive with tape over it? That is open during this procedure so the machine "knows" where the heads are, to allow writing the "lane markers" onto the disk. That is done only once at manufacture.

[@robson6285]

Byte 6d65 no it was just the fysical shock from the magnet hitting the hdd. A hit with a stone would have had that same effect. The readhead on the arm skips some tracks and the hdd has to find his track and required speed for it again and thats all of the delay, all thats seen here. And indeed, there is a supetstrong neodyniummagnet half an inch beside the platter inside the cover. That cover that diverts the strong enough fieldlines to destroy data easally around the platter.

[@jimbert50]

I agree - he should have turned off the computer so that the HDD heads would be off the platter or in a landing zone on the platter, then applied the magnet. Of course, the final result would be the same.

[@WarpedYT]

Well I did try the magnet on the platters themselves more toward the end of the video, I'm going to hook that hard drive up again and see if the data is okay. I'm pretty sure even the steel cover on the hard drive provides some sort of magnetic shielding.

[@jimbert50]

@@WarpedYT Yes, you are right about the shielding. I'm sure it is intentional on the drive manufacturer's part.

[@supimzazz]

I really got to give you props for putting the things to practice rather than doing a whole investigation to theorize what might happen and then put it to practice. Which could get a lot of backlash from the elitists who already knew that or found out what would happen by doing some simple research beforehand and feel the need to point out that the result was obvious and also props to those who know about them and respectfully explain the reasons to share the knowledge. I guess the simplicity of doing to know what will happen appeals me more than knowing what'll happen and put to practice.

[@WarpedYT]

Funny that you say that, a lot of things that I do sometimes I start researching them, just out of curiosity, I spend a lot of time researching and sometimes I think to myself, "can't we just do it and see what happens" I'm not even going to pretend like I thought nothing was going to happen oh, I thought the drive would be toast, so did every computer guy I talked to. Now I reached back out to those people and told them what happened, sent them the video, they are totally confused... These are IT guys I'm talking about.lol

[@WarpedYT]

Thank you

[@supimzazz]

@@WarpedYT Lol, that sounds really cool, funny how you taught your friends something new too! And thanks to you for the content as well man, keep up the good work man :D

[@ishaaq1214]

*FBI wants to know your location*

[@lbergan2]

I've often wondered about this since I have memories of accidentally ruining a reel-to-reel tape years ago. Thanks!

[@dcd11mc60]

this is why SSDs are better

[@WarpedYT]

After making this little video I was thinking about doing as episode on hard drive vs. SSD. Ssds are the bust

[@dcd11mc60]

@@WarpedYT yeah basically

[@jonasgrill1155]

but SSDs can have quicker data rot because they need an internal battery to keep your data when the drive is off, because SSDs use electrical charge to store data. This also means that if yhe internal battery dies then you basically can’t shut off the computer because the data will be lost extremely quickly. So for now I’m on team HDD.

[@jonasgrill1155]

That’s for DRAM-SSDs btw

[@vile1009]

yea dude I hate when my 40 pound magnet attaches itself to my hard drive and crashes my pc, wish I had an SSD then I wouldn’t have this issue

[@jacksonschanneljohannsen6478]

Also disks in a harddrive is covered with a protecting coating :) Which contributes to preservation. I read an article saying that in theory it would, but it requires a very strong magnet, that common people generally cant get a hold off :) If you wanna hide your porn collection from the world when you throw out hdd, drill a hole through it and dump it in water before tossing it, or seperate disks from hdd and drag a knife over all the layers. Also, you can take off the bios from the pcb board (curcuit on the back of the hard drive (just destroy all chips)) to make it near impossible for anyone to read. Since all hdd has specialized bios chips and it would therefor be very unlikely that people would be able to recover anything, even if they swapped the disks, due to incompatibility. For all those of you who came here to find out if you could dispose of it using magnets.

[@MatrixEmpire08]

Now I want to play Minecraft

[@scellyyt]

Modern hard drives have a protection system where if strong magnetic fields are detected it will shut down the hard disk to prevent further damage. That's why it did not work when the magnet was on the hard drive. When the magnet went away, it automatically resumed what it had to do and it opened all the programs.

[@romelian3754]

4:10 "Try To Open Up Bowser"😮😮

[@gabestew262]

A magnet physically blocks the transmissions of data in a computer, and youd need a pretty strong one to rip through a hard drive. Thats why you saw the computer start working again after you took it off, and while its definitely not a good idea it (probably) wont destroy the data burned into the hard drive (probably). The second air leaks in its dead tho. Remember that scene from indiana jones where the guy crumbled when exposed to air? Think of it like that

[@andyroid5028]

First-time watcher here. There is something about this guy - it just feels like he's gonna say "Fuh-get about it."

[@Beevreeter]

Very instructive, I know you always had to be very careful with floppy disks in the old days but I've never heard of a hard drive being damaged by an external magnet - what probably happened with your neodymium block magnet is that it disrupted the mechanical movement either of the platters or the head temporarily, creating the symptoms you saw, but did nothing to the magnetic data on the disk.

[@DampusOnCampus]

The reason is because modern hdds have a feature where if the drive is shaken, or comes in contact with a magnetic field, the drive will stop reading and writing, and Windows will set up a queue of processes when the drive is ready to read again. That is why all of the programs opened when he pulled the magnet away.

[@bjgo7818]

For everybody who doesn't understand, why does the platter stop spinning. The answer is, the hard drive has sensor to prevent them to kill it self. When the magnet get close th read/write had returns to the initial starting piont, the platter slows down, and the OS send disk queue, to the controller, and that's why when he removes the magnet, Windows do all thing.

[@ethanl9656]

A weak magnet on a bracelet killed one of my driver's in a laptop. The movement of the magnet over the head mechanism eventually caused it to fail mechanically. It's not the data that's at risk exactly, I recovered all my data slowly, but the mechanical function of the drive.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

It killed one of your driver's _what_ things in a laptop computer?

[@Bluswede]

Explaining what is seen with the open HDD, the disc is Aluminum, a conductor, and spinning it in a strong magnetic field turned the HDD into a really good eddy current brake. I built something similar for my stationary bike...3/8" aluminum disc 6 " in diameter soaks up all I can put out and barely gets warm!

[@WarpedYT]

That makes sense, because each of the magnetic regions on its own wouldn't really attract the magnet since they cancel each other out, but the disc as a whole has magnetism.. very interesting

[@Bluswede]

@@WarpedYT Find yourself a very thick-walled aluminum tube and a ball or cube magnet that will easily fit thru it...as in able to just drop through by hand. Test to make sure the tube is aluminum by touching the tube in several places with the magnet...it should NOT stick. Now hold tube loosely by one end so it hangs vertical and drop the magnet in, letting it fall on something soft. It'll make you go "Hmmm"!

[@katheymann2334]

I know someone who worked for the IRS and they used electromagnets to damage harddrives. They used electromagnetic wands that plugged into regular outlets that didn't totally erase the drives but corrupted the data to the point the disk couldn't be used again. He was told they used to have special rooms with electromagnets even more powerful to try and erase the data. Don't know if it's true. It's what he told me.

[@Asdnatux]

The Movie was "The core". That HDD's are from 2003 and he used handsized electro magnets (and a microwave for the CDs).

[@DampusOnCampus]

The reason is because modern hdds have a feature where if the drive is shaken, or comes in contact with a magnetic field, the drive will stop reading and writing, and Windows will set up a queue of processes when the drive is ready to read again. That is why all of the programs opened when he pulled the magnet away.

[@darkman237]

I had worn my starfleet communicator pin while playing on my 486 with windows 3.1 and dos 6.22. It messed it up big-time. Had to reformat and it never did work quite the same again. Glad they have improved things over the years.

[@WarpedYT]

Starfleet communicator pin ?.

[@darkman237]

@@WarpedYT Yes. I bought one at a show a long time ago. It has a powerful magnet so you can attach it to your shirt.

[@wolfdale_3m]

The lids of modern hard drives surprisingly provide good magnetic shielding against external magnetic forces. However, the guts of the drive aren't immune. A strong enough magnet can still overpower the lid's shielding properties.

[@drfloppa6406]

I didn't even need to finish this video to know the answer of the title, I once dropped a very high powered magnet on my computer and it instantly blue screened

[@mightypirate8769]

Well the video turned out otherwise Your hdd might be an old one

[@thomasmaughan4798]

The cover of every HDD I have disassembled is magnetically shielded. Put as strong a magnet as you like right on it. But uncovered, that's a different story. It does require a strong magnet, but guess what, every voice coil actuated disk drive has two extremely powerful neodymium magnets right there.

[@johng6673]

Internally is magnets for the head actuator. These magnets are actually extremely strong rare Earth or neo magnets. But what would happen when adding a magnet is the head can no longer respond correctly because the magnetic field for the head has moved. Running a game and running Windows will run from memory while doing your tests, so this is why it will continue to run even with a magnet on it. But the impact and the shift on the head can cause the head to scrape the platter. It takes serious magnetic fields to pull the material on the platters. Now, a microwave will kill it extremely fast. But know you know why EM Pulses are not used as weapons for war, since it would only effect power, and it takes serious power to do any damage. We are inside massive magnetic fields all day, and things are built to withhold against magnetic fields large enough to be felt from the moon.

[@muzzamemes3657]

The reason why all those applications suddenly opened up was because you clicked the shortcuts to open the apps while the magnet was attached to the hdd, so they only opened why the magnet was taken off

[@johnh10000]

Well with a spinning disk, it uses a "moving coil" to move the disk heads. I'm guessing here, that your "super strong magnet" was stronger than the moving coil, all 12v of it, so the heads couldn't move, but interesting none the less!

[@rafaelrivera9346]

To destroy your hard drive with a powerful magnet you need to create an oscillating strong magnetic field that will impart eddy currents. For a static field you will need a much bigger magnet. Take a taser and connect one lead to a home made copper wire coiled in 10 or so turns about 1.5 inch in diameter, and place other end of the wire couple of mm (or about 1/8 in) from the other taser end. (Do not let them touch) Technically you will be creating a MP that will end your hard drive and you computer. Disclaimer Keep your phone, peacemaker or other important device away from it. Do not do this at home. Do not recommend you or anyone doing this. This instructional intension only.

[@WarpedYT]

Lol... I was thinking about something like that or a magnetron focused through a proper funnel. just for the heck of it, but I want to do some slow motion stuff with hard drives, so I wrote a different type of episode coming up, something that will apply to everybody that has a computer. Thanks for the instructions for the awesome science project!, I may do some type of EMP generator of some sort, maybe in the future, right now I have a bunch of episodes to catch up on. Thanks for the feedback and thanks for watching

[@bitelaserkhalif]

*pacemaker not peacemaker

[@SeldomPooper]

It is about how further the magnetic fields extend. Magnetic fields get weaker exponentially with more distance. Weak magnets will destroy the data too, if you rub them on the platter. Correct me if i am wrong. Because i don't know much about this myself. Physics Girl did something like that to a card(debit, credit i dunno, it was magnetic stripe) instead of hard drive.

[@georgesmith5201]

The fact that it's still working is very unexpected

[@444Chandu]

It's actually the servo motor which is getting affected due to magnetic field

[@F16_viper_pilot]

I think it’s less about the magnet, and more about you smacking the spinning hard drive around. Also, placing a magnet near an uncovered spinning platter will slow the platter, depending on the material of which it’s made, by creating tiny electrical fields that then repel the magnetic force; it’s called the Lenz Effect. When the metal case is attached, you don’t see this effect, because the magnetic lines flow along the steel case, rather than the platters, as long as the metal is not overly saturated by the magnetic field.

[@direktorsvemira96]

The reason why hard drive disks slows down is because of induced electromotive force created between magnet and disk plate, which is in opposite direction of disk rotation. If you ever tried throw a magnet through copper or aluminum pipe you will see that effect.

[@kadend2496]

So basically the magnet was keeping the platters from spinning so when you took it off it started again

[@jeff1217]

When all the apps loaded up it was because you tried to open stuff while it was frozen therefore unfreezing it after you took it off.

[@prony5145]

Great video man, really wondered how it was bad, now I know. Thanks man.

[@ReLoadedProject]

>creates backup image, on the hard drive to corrupt. Nice. Big brain.

[@ihelpdogs]

There is a super strong magnet inside the hard drive already, to keep the needle from bouncing erratically. If that one doesn't cause damage, I doubt an external magnet will.

[@VJETRA]

Lenz law, the magnet didn't do anything to data but it did slow down the spinning disk which make it impossible to read and write data

[@siddhantrane1227]

The magnets hitting the HDD at that speed will do more mechanical damage than the magnetic field itself. With the strong magnets, the platters slow down and the speed of the HDDs is determined by how fast they spin so that's why Windows hanged. The head (arm you referred to) also probably got stuck because of the magnet but I'm not sure whether its made out of magnetic metals so I can't say for sure.

[@sl21ls]

the hard drive has a failsafe that's why it slowed down and everything froze until you took away the magnet

[@sl21ls]

btw this is purely a guess