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<> wrote in message
news:...
>I stopped by a friends house the other day and he wanted to show me his new
> computer. I was tajen by surprise when I noticed he had a couple of
> refrigerator
> type magnets on the side of his (apparently steel) case, a couple holding
> notes,
> I asked him if he thought it was a good idea and he said how strong could
> those
> magnets be? My question is how storng does it take to screw things up? I
> just
> had to ask. Thanks.
>

The magnetic field will take the easiest route from N to S - which will be
directly along the steel case from pole to pole, very little field will
radiate inside the case.

Oscilloscope tubes are very sensitive to magnetic fields, the problem is
solved by enclosing the tube in a soft iron outer casing, a PC case encloses
the innards in much the same way.

Years ago the guy at the local scrap yard told me the magnetic crane they
lift cars with sometimes wiped their computer, but it was an old plastic
case Amstrad.

Back in those days HDDs had stepper motor head positioners (no servo write)
so they could just run Debug to re-low level format - but all their data was
long gone.