Shocked and horrified

[CAlvarez]

Imagine my surprise when I emptied out the iSight package by my PowerBook and one of the included stands went flying towards and stuck itself to the PowerBook. :eek: :eek: It's magnetic, and very powerful. Someone, please tell me that the hard drive is NOT located in the left corner closest to the front...

Other than that, the iSight kit is impressive.

[rberry88]

If the PowerBook turns on and your data is there then you have no problems.

[hayne]

Although Apple does warn about letting the iSight magnetic stand get near your hard drive, I think damage to the info on the drive is relatively unlikely. There is, after all, a pretty strong magnet inside your hard drive that functions as part of a stepper motor - see e.g.:
http://www.dansdata.com/magnets.htm

[CAlvarez]

So you're all going to keep me in suspense and nobody is going to tell me where the hard drive is located inside this thing...? :p

[schwartze]

So you're all going to keep me in suspense and nobody is going to tell me where the hard drive is located inside this thing...? :p


Looks like it's smack dab in the middle under the track pad.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/powerbook_g4/PB_G4_HD_upgrade/pb_g4_hd_upgrade2.html

[DeltaMac]

which Powerbook?
The 15" (titanium and also alu) are all under the touchpad, in the middle.
The 12 and 17 alu hard drives are all are under the left front.

[CAlvarez]

Oh good, right where the magnet stuck itself... True, *probably* no harm done, but it's not a given.

[notaclone]

I had a user who's drive kept dying to a flashing question mark. Oddly, a simple driver update would cure it.
After the third round of this, I came to inspect the computer myself.
He had one of those thin magnets TAPED to the front of his CPU, right over the hard drive.
Sadly, when I related this story to my brother after he showed me a MONSTER magnet he got from the office, he decided to return the magnet to work upon resigning... and left it right next to his boss's CPU.

[CAlvarez]

Long ago in the days of DOS, I had a client who kept complaining that her 5.25" floppy disks would always become unreadable after a few days' use. Since they cost about $1 each in 1984 dollars, that was a big deal. I finally went to her house to see how she was using them. I asked for the latest disk, and she went over to get it off the refrigerator door...

[stottm]

Another good one from the Days of Floppy Disks are leaving the disks in their paper envelopes on your desk amongst papers held together with paperclips!

Except, not just any paperclips, but paperclips retrieved from a magnetic dispenser!

i.e. the paperclips were magnetized by the magnet in the paperclip dispenser and the floppies would invariably rest under or on top of a paperclip and then your data bits get flipped from 1 or 0 in the shape of the paperclip and your data goes bye bye... :)