After doing some extensive research, the answer is "no." Modern drives are not susceptible to the magnetic fields generated by rare earth magnets.

Guess I'm forced to go the adapter route, much as I hate to.

Thanks to everyone!

Jay, I have an external USB IDE case that I don't use. I'm seeing if it's working or not, I'll let you know tomorrow. If it works I'll sent it to you.

Using a magnet like that will likely damage the drive's boot sector rendering the drive inoperative. This can be very difficult to impossible to repair. Most drive boot sectors can only be repaired by the manufacturer or repair disk.

If you still want to use the drive, the best way to remove all data is to use one of the utilities mentioned and wipe the drive w/ all 0s.

I've also used one of those multi-drive usb gizmos that musicvid mentioned, it's a very handy tool.

"Edit: On a more serious note, I think a powerful magnet would destroy some of the electronic components too."

Not likely. The problem with external magnetic fields is 1) It is exceedingly difficult to erase digital data with an external magnetic source. And 2) If you could destroy some of the data on the disk, you would also likely destroy the sector marks which are written to the hard disk in what we used to call "Low-Level Formatting". I don't think any of the disk manufacturers provide software for low-level formatting any longer.

Your best solution is to get one of many eraser programs and an IDE to USB adapter.

Thank you, Friar. That's very thoughtful!

Let's see if it works yet. :)

Whether it works or not, it's still thoughtful of you to offer.

The "thought" is greatly appreciated!

I'd also guess that any field that was strong enough to disrupt the patterns on the platters would probably result in permanently magnetizing the heads too, which would also destroy the drive.

To add weight to the idea that the drives would be very difficult to erase this way, i'll point out that some of the strongest magnets i ever encounter are right inside the drive housing itself. The magnet that is used for moving the head arms is so strong that it can require a screwdriver as a small crowbar to pry them off of a sheet of steel. Get your finger between one and the steel sheet and you'll probably get a nasty bruise. They are wicked strong, and they're merely an inch away from the platters for the entire life of the drive. Yet, even they don't erase anything.

Those drive magnets make AWESOME fridge magnets. kids never lost one. :D

Jay,

I have three of these SATA to IDE Dongles. I have used them in PCs with IDE drives permanently connected to a SATA ports. With this connected, the PC sees it as a SATA connected hard drive. You can connect it to the back of your hard drive, install it in a computer, and reformat the drive to get rid of the contents.

I don't need all three of them. If you e-mail me your address, I'll send you one of the brand new ones.

John

EDIT: You will also need a spare 4-pin floppy power connector for the dongle, spare standard molex power connector for the HDD, and a spare SATA cable to connect the dongle to the motherboard. If you need any of those, I have extras of those as well.

Another thoughtful offer.

Thank you, John!

WARNING: On the subject of small powerful magnets - don't let young kids play with them. There have been a number of cases of little kids swallowing small magnets and when they get in the intestines, they pull two loops together if there are multiple magnets causing serious injury or death to that area of the intestine. Couple of links:
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/644820.html (part way down)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041027143806.htm

Just a warning for handling those small powerful magnets around kids (that tend to put everything in their mouths !! )

mikey

Whether it works or not, it's still thoughtful of you to offer.

I cant get it running. The power supply powers up but it won't turn on. Sorry. :(

Again, I thank you for trying... and for the thought.

When I tried Eraser software, it was very very very very slow. As far as I remember, more than an overnight job per drive.

Yes, very slow. Some of the good ones can take several days. It's a very long process. Set it, forget it, an let it run.

If you're not trying to cover up government secrets, a format followed by filling the drive with copies of a very large file is more than good enough for friendly purposes, and pretty fast too.

If you're not trying to cover up government secrets, a format followed by filling the drive with copies of a very large file is more than good enough for friendly purposes, and pretty fast too.

it's pretty simple to write a program that writes a file full of carriage returns & doesn't stop until it runs out of space. :D

To make data truly unrecoverable just place the drive on a bed of sand (one of those metal fire buckets full of it will do), place a couple of ounces of thermite on top of it, light it with a piece of magnesium ribbon, and stand back. Caveat, do this outdoors and away from anything flammable.

To make data truly unrecoverable just place the drive on a bed of sand (one of those metal fire buckets full of it will do), place a couple of ounces of thermite on top of it, light it with a piece of magnesium ribbon, and stand back. Caveat, do this outdoors and away from anything flammable.

AND VIDEO TAPE IT! :D

Jay,
after all this,
here is a free version of a DoD certified program that might be just friendly enough for you... with just enough seriousness to ease the anxiety on both of you ...

Kill Disk

Another one is: CyberCide ... no free version unfortunately, but very inexpensive... 30 USD ...
* * *
Although I don't always understand what I know about things, here is what I know about data wipes... even if you rewrite over data (as recommended by ChienWorks ... there is still a residual identity of the previous written data that can get uncovered. In order to make sure the data residuals have been completely overwritten and undetectable, each bit must change from one state to the opposite state (zero to one and back to zero again) at least nine times (the military and government recommendation - from what I remember) ... so a complete wipe consists of making every bit on the entire hard drive a zero, then a one, then a zero, then a one again for nine changes... at that time, the residuals of all the changes completely hides the residual of the original data... and no one can get it. . . we hope. Do I completely understand it? - nope. It's just what I know ... (grin)
Basis: 22 years in the Army as a radio operator and communicator; Master of Library Science in the digital age (NCCU 1998); 10 years in government service here in the US Army as the office network admin; and a sincere desire to help Jay (and others) ease his (their) worries about passing along his (their) old hardware... (wink)

Until that time ... Earl J.

While what Earl J says may be true I think that it would also be true that you would need special equipment and disassembly of the drive to read the magnetic pattern as analog data in order to read anything that had been overwritten once. I have heard that the head may not quite line up exactly each time, thereby leaving a bit of the old data to the side of the new. Also the magnetic strength of a bit may depend on its history, but once converted to digital data inside the disk's electronics this would be invisible to a casual user. I would expect almost everyone would not have the resources to go to such extraordinary lengths. All we need do is overwrite once.