JS|DB                      Magnets Messing Up Laptops?
[snips]
JS|DB  Let's assume that something up there is erasing hard drives. The
JS|DB  airlines say it wasn't a tray table. But what was it?
On a fleet of airplanes, weight-wise, magnets in preference to (say)
velcro makes no sense at all. I suspect that the heads' tension are
set for 'normal' air pressure. At altitude, the decreased cabin pressure
reduces the hovercraft effect and the drives become more sensitive to
vibration than at ground level. It should also be borne in mind that
hard drives are extremely resistant to external magnetic fields. A
lesser possibiity (in my mind) is that the data is being corrupted by
radiation, usually absorbed by the ionosphere.
The first question then rests on whether any physical damage has been
done to the disks' surfaces.
Dave
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