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Path: utzoo!attcan!ncrcan!becker!geac!jtsv16!uunet!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!jarthur!wilkins
From: wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Mark Wilkins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Magnetic storage and X-ray machines.
Message-ID: <3103@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 17 Nov 89 20:25:42 GMT
References: <5850@lindy.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: wilkins@jarthur.UUCP (Mark Wilkins)
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Distribution: usa
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Lines: 18

In article <5850@lindy.Stanford.EDU> romeo@lindy.UUCP (Patrick Goebel) writes:
>
>(2)  Is it true IN THEORY that magnetic storage media are safe from
>these devices?

   A while ago I made the comment in this newsgroup that I thought that disk
drives were safe from soft X-rays because of their RF shielding, which is
required by the FCC.  And yes, I do know that X-rays and radio are not the
same... :-)
   However, you ask about floppies and tapes.  Magnetic media which are
passed through an x-ray machine are definitely at risk.  The reason I made
the comment about hard disks is that they are shielded quite well.
   Unshielded magnetic media definitely should not be passed through the
x-ray detector.  Although I haven't heard of any problems, the chances for
difficulty are at least 100 times greater than with fixed disks.

 -- Mark Wilkins
    wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu