Magnet to Hard Drive

[aaps59]

Few minutes ago I stuck a magnet to the palm rest of my friends 15 Inch Macbook Pro Uni and the hard drive died, wont boot, makes clicking noise and is most likely wiped. Im asking is there any way to fix this? If not, any suggestions for where and what to buy for a new HD. 320gb 7200 RPM's

 

[spinnerlys]

What kind of magnet?

This one?

​

Or more like this one?

​

I'm just asking, because it takes a lot of magnet to do any harm to any HDD.

 

[Some Guy 555]

Highly doubt you can accomplish that with a conventional magnet. I have tried this before and failed with the hard drive OUTSIDE of the case.

However newegg.com is a good place to look for HDD's. $65 for a 640gb if memory serves me correct. SSD's... different story though

 

[Covart]

Few minutes ago I stuck a magnet to the palm rest of my friends 15 Inch Macbook Pro Uni and the hard drive died, wont boot, makes clicking noise and is most likely wiped. Im asking is there any way to fix this? If not, any suggestions for where and what to buy for a new HD. 320gb 7400 RPM's

Would have had to have been one powerful magnet to degauss a hard drive and make it non-functional.

 

[aaps59]

Nah it was a magnet connected to a weird light. Dont really know the strength but its nothing major I can assure you.
Here ya go.

 

[spinnerlys]

Nah it was a magnet connected to a weird light. Dont really know the strength but its nothing major I can assure you.
Here ya go.

That one will not do any damage. It has not enough power, as it seems.

It's probably just the drive, that gone bad.

MacSales and Newegg are trusted online vendors for HDDs, just make sure to look for 2.5" S-ATA HDDs.

 

[aaps59]

Lol I believe it did. Is there anything we can test? It wont boot at all. It was working fine before my idiocracy.

 

[spinnerlys]

Lol I believe it did. Is there anything we can test? It wont boot at all. It was working fine before my idiocracy.

Where did you get the magnet or what does it say on it? Maybe some numbers to discern the model or the power that goes through it?

 

[Mars478]

Hey I'm the "victim" of the magnet and I can confirm that the magnet pictured murdered my hard drive. It was applied and worked fine and then it hung once I tried using spotlight. Now all I get is the prohibited sign at boot and it hangs there. It also violently clicks.

 

[aaps59]

http://www.aervoe.com/paints_coatings/LED-Road-Flare-Kit-6-pack.html

Powerful magnet to attach to metal surface.
It may be attached to a magnetic metal surface, including cars, trucks, and signs, using the heavy duty N35 magnet

From the site.

 

[spinnerlys]

Hey I'm the "victim" of the magnet and I can confirm that the magnet pictured murdered my hard drive. It was applied and worked fine and then it hung once I tried using spotlight. Now all I get is the prohibited sign at boot and it hangs there. It also violently clicks.

http://www.aervoe.com/paints_coatings/LED-Road-Flare-Kit-6-pack.html

Powerful magnet to attach to metal surface.
It may be attached to a magnetic metal surface, including cars, trucks, and signs, using the heavy duty N35 magnet

From the site.

EDIT:

Why is the grade of a magnet important?
The grade of a magnet (N35, N38, N40, N45, etc) is important because it specifies the quality of material used to construct the magnet. All else being equal, the higher the quality of materials used to construct the magnet, the greater the magnets strength.

What things will Neodymium magnets damage?
Neodymium magnets can damage magnetic based storage devises such as hard drives, floppy disks and credit cards. They can also affect computer monitors, VCR's and TV"s. Large magnets can be hazardous to pacemakers.

from http://www.acemagnetics.com/magnet-info.html



Here is a little information on what magnets are required to damage an HDD.
http://www.cobolhacker.com/?p=488

 

[aaps59]

So would that mean that this specific type of magnet is able to wipe the data?

 

[spinnerlys]

So would that mean that this specific type of magnet is able to wipe the data?

I don't know if it can wipe the data, but it can damage the HDD as it seems.

Have you tried any of these steps and seen, if the HDD shows up in some of them?

Mac doesn't boot
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on​

 

[Mars478]

My two hd partitions appear when I hold opt. When I hold cmd+v it says something like "failed to load Mach_kernel".
This drive is done.

 

[aaps59]

Yep.

 

[spinnerlys]

My two hd partitions appear when I hold opt. When I hold cmd+v it says something like "failed to load Mach_kernel".
This drive is done.

Not even a re-instalation (Archive and Install) did work?

It seems more like a "damaged" boot sector than an actually damaged drive, with all content being lost.

 

[Mars478]

Not even a re-instalation (Archive and Install) did work?

It seems more like a "damaged" boot sector than an actually damaged drive, with all content being lost.

Haven't tried that yet but the drive is nastily clicking over and over...

 

[mulo]

reinstall.

 

[aaps59]

Life sucks.

 

[Username02]

Life sucks.

It's not too bad ~ stuff happens. At least you are still alive to experience it.
Silver lining is that this gives you a chance to upgrade your hard drive.

Save yourself a lot of stress ~ if the hard drive is making clicking noises, just give up on trying to fix it. Sounds like that drive is dead.

Head over to your favorite local tech dealer and get yourself a new drive and restore from a back-up. You'll be up and running in a few hours.

 

[aaps59]

There are no backups.

 

[Username02]

There are no backups.

That does suck.

 

[NT1440]

I'm at a loss as to why this hasn't been asked before:
WHY??

 

[aaps59]

Yeah right?