Can a magnet erase, ruin files or otherwise harm a flash drive?

RickJ · #1 May 5, 2007, 06:46 AM

I read both yes and no. Can anyone point to an authoritative source on the real answer?
Thanks!

ANETGames · May 5, 2007, 06:52 AM

From a personal experience with some of the strongest magnets, No.

- Harddrives, Yes
- Floppy Disks, Yes
- CD's, No (Safest Means of Storage, unless it gets scratched.)
- Flashdrives, If they use a RAM-Type chip, then usually No. However, if you use the flashdrives with microharddrives in it, then yes.

I know harddrives arent usually affected by magnets, because I had a Harddrive magnet inside my pocket, and a flash drive in the same pocket for almost 3 hours!
It still worked just fine, with no loss of data.

But hey, it may be different for others.

RickJ · May 5, 2007, 07:20 AM

hehe I just found an old one I don't use anymore, and I've got a fairly strong magnet that will pick up 200 pounds...

I think I'll do a little experiment

RickJ · May 5, 2007, 09:58 AM

I rubbed all sides of it with the big mag...and it did not harm the files in any way. Thanks guys.



At Ask Me Help Desk you can ask questions in any topic and have them answered for free by our experts. To ask questions or participate in answering them you must register for a free account. By registering you will be able to: Get free answers from experts in any of our 300+ topics. Accept money for answers that you provide. Communicate privately with other members (PM). See fewer ads. Sign Up!