Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!udel!udccvax1!sun.acs.udel.edu!sjm
From: sjm@sun.acs.udel.edu (Steve Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Is this odd?
Summary: Using a bulk eraser.
Message-ID: <5994@sun.acs.udel.edu>
Date: 15 Dec 89 16:04:53 GMT
References: <3309@hub.UUCP> <1487@uwm.edu>
Reply-To: sjm@sun.acs.udel.edu (Steve Morris)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 21

In article <1487@uwm.edu> mamba@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Paul A Deisinger) writes:
>>In article <814@jc3b21.UUCP>, fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) writes...
>>>     A trick that I've used successfully with disks that wouldn't format
>>>clean is to pass them over a bulk tape eraser.  That seems to erase more
>
>Wouldn't this have the sideaffect of magnetizing the metal hub and shutter
>on the disk?  This would be *very* bad I would think.
>
NO! if the process is done correctly. A bulk eraser is designed to
restore the tape to it's >UN<magnetized state. It will therefore do the
same to the metal parts of the disk case. In fact I have used one to
demagnetize a screwdriver.

A bulk eraser generates an alternating magnetic field. If an object is
removed from the field slowly, the magnetic particles will tend to align
in a random order, ie an unmagnetized state. If, however, the field is
removed suddenly, the object will be magnetized in the direction of the
field before it's removal. This can be used to create a magnetized
screwdriver if needed.

-Steve