may degaussing harm the computer?

[Qwintin]

As i understood, the degaussing is also used to erase data from magnetic storages... and hard drives that stores the data in our mame stations are magnetic storages. Moreover, some monitors have an automatic degaussing feature!

So, my question is simple: is there any risk? Should some precautions be taken  (like only degaussing when the computer is switched off, a minimum distance to respect...)?

Thanks,

[ark_ader]

No.  But if you are worried just degauss before May. 

I had colour imbalance in one of my old CRTs (I keep at least one in the closet) and I had some speakers that was not shielded.....  Hard Drives are fine unless you are using one of these...

[Fursphere]

No.  But if you are worried just degauss before May. 

I had colour imbalance in one of my old CRTs (I keep at least one in the closet) and I had some speakers that was not shielded.....  Hard Drives are fine unless you are using one of these...

It takes less than that most to kill a HDD. 

[Slippyblade]

Well, degaussing is only used on CRT monitors, so if you are using LCD or anything like that, it's not an issue.

As far as a hard drive is concerned, they are wrapped in metal plates, top and bottom, so I don't think it should be an issue.  It would most likely take one heck of a field to not be absorbed by the Faraday cage of the shell of the drive.  I may be wrong though.

I used to work in for a community college as a comp tech.  One of the toys we had was a manual degausse ring.  Basically a metal ring about a foot wide with about 20k feet of magnet wire wrapped around it with a cord and a plug.  When we plugged it in, you could watch the color drain from all the monitors towards the ring in about a 10' area.  Never had any issues with hard drives.  Any floppies in the area became coasters though.

[PL1]

This old thread has some very good info.

Generally speaking, distance is your friend -- if the HDD is within a few inches of the degausser, you are far more likely to corrupt the magnetized info than if it is several feet away.


Scott

[ark_ader]

No.  But if you are worried just degauss before May. 

I had colour imbalance in one of my old CRTs (I keep at least one in the closet) and I had some speakers that was not shielded.....  Hard Drives are fine unless you are using one of these...

It takes less than that to kill a HDD. 

FTFY

I just remembered Breaking Bad and that laptop.....

Most monitors have a Degaussing button.  Other than the odd accidental non-shielded speaker, I have NEVER EVER used a magnetized ring to perform any colour calibration of a monitor.  No HDD problems after 26 years of desktop support.  Wiping floppies....well that is a totally different story.