LifeDrive Magnet

[miked1541]

I had some paperclips on my desk and I put my LifeDrive on top of them and they stuck to the back of the LifeDrive right above the pa1mOne square logo on the back. I tried looking for other magnets but there were none. I was wondering what this magnet was for and if it is strong enough to damage magnetic media (floppies, audio cassettes, or even the microdrive(!), etc.) Anybody know?

[SoS]

maybe the speaker??

[Joel]

I agree with SoS. Might be the speaker, same thing happened to me with the Treo. Just to be safe, don't put the LD near credit or atm cards.

[SoS]

now we just have to wait for the P1 LD case with credit card slots LOL

[trickypuss]

LOL - Actually, there already is one. It released at the same time as the LD. I've kept my cards next to my pda's for a while now, and the only time I've had an ATM card's magnetic strip go bad was when it was next to my TH55.

I have the palmOne LD leather case, and they also use a strong magnetic closure on it. I put it on the roof of my car the other day and it stuck to it right away!

I doubt that a tiny speaker magnet or an enclosure magnet will affect the hard drive. For the hell of it, I once stuck a laptop harddrive to the magnet on the back of my 100 watt bass amp while it was running and left it there overnight. The next day I plugged it in and it booted up fine. Shielding on hd's these days is pretty good.

[carltonb]

Is it not dangerous to the HD to have a magnet so close.

In my brother-in-laws accounting firm, it seemed that almost every Wed. AM when the workers came in that many people had hard drive problems. It took them months to solve it. It seems that on TUE PM when the cleaning crew came in they used very heavy duty industrial vaccum cleaners. They came very close to the PC cases. After the PC were moved off the floor, no more troubles.

carltonb

[Michael Quach]

Yeah... that's a good question. Because of my weird desktop setup, I'm using my subwoofer as an extra desktop space (don't ask :) ) Is it a bad idea to put my LifeDrive on top of it? The subwoofer should have a pretty strong magnet, right?

[MrNako]

I have a car windshield PDA magnetic holder for my Clie. The LD would be dead in a few hours if using it there. It has a strong magnet and it would bounce a lot in the car.

[karasu]

Is it not dangerous to the HD to have a magnet so close.

In my brother-in-laws accounting firm, it seemed that almost every Wed. AM when the workers came in that many people had hard drive problems. It took them months to solve it. It seems that on TUE PM when the cleaning crew came in they used very heavy duty industrial vaccum cleaners. They came very close to the PC cases. After the PC were moved off the floor, no more troubles.

carltonb
That actually sounds more like a static issue than anything. Esp. in buildings with older wiring and poor earth grounds. The magnetic field of most motors lacks the range to physically affect HDDs. Static, on the other hand, is easily created when playing around with carpets...

[trickypuss]

While my stupid HD/Bass amp trick makes me pretty confident that the HD will be fine, it's probably not wise to tempt the pda gods by sticking your LD on top of a subwoofer.

My test of that laptop hd was possible because I really didn't care what happened to it. If you care about the data on your LD I'd keep it away from any really strong magnetic source just to be safe.

[Cyker]

I wouldn't worry about the hard disk - Hard drive magnets are themselves *very* powerful, so some pansy external magnet is not gonna affect it through all the heavy shielding it has.

Google around www.dansdata.com for more magnet-related fun :D

[Kevin Flansburg]

Ive had problems with door keys to hotels going bad with my nx70v and se p900 i usualy go through 5 or six keys in a 1 week stay. I would have thought the magnet would be the hard drive

[krhainos]

Ive had problems with door keys to hotels going bad with my nx70v and se p900 i usualy go through 5 or six keys in a 1 week stay. I would have thought the magnet would be the hard drive

That's odd -- what part of the NX70 has a magnet? aside from the speaker?

I did on the other hand have an incident where my university student ID quit working. I was carrying some neodymium magnets freshly torn out of dead hard drives in the same pocket my wallet was. That was pretty stupid, I couldn't get back in my dorm room or buy food without the card. :mad:

[jbbooks]

I wouldn't worry about the hard disk - Hard drive magnets are themselves *very* powerful, so some pansy external magnet is not gonna affect it through all the heavy shielding it has.

Google around www.dansdata.com for more magnet-related fun :D

I'm a biomed tech maintaining an MRI, and let me tell you, that magnet will kill any hard drive, camera with a mechanical shutter, watches with hands, or anything that is even remotely ferrous!

[Cyker]

Damnit that's cheating!! :D

I mean heck... those things are so ridiculously powerful they can affect the spin of atoms in your body...

Must be a cool job :D (There's a joke about liquid nitrogen in there somewhere...)

[Tam Hanna]

We had this with the Tungsten T3, ...#
Speaker!