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From: mangler@cit-vax.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: Re: Erasing magnetic media
Message-ID: <4567@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Tue, 17-Nov-87 04:24:57 EST
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.4567
Posted: Tue Nov 17 04:24:57 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Nov-87 04:39:49 EST
References: <7566@reed.UUCP> <1175@cup.portal.com> <6964@pur-ee.UUCP> <590@bucket.UUCP>
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 11
Summary: disk servo track

Heating a disk pack past its Curie temperature will erase the
factory-recorded timing information on the servo tracks, which
the drive depends on to mark track and byte boundaries.
(Low-density disks like floppies don't have servo tracks).

Heating a whole Winchester drive past the Curie temperature
will demagnetize the permanent magnet in the head actuator.

Don't heat a hard disk unless you're going to incinerate it.

Don Speck   speck@vlsi.caltech.edu  {amdahl,scgvaxd}!cit-vax!speck