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How Magnets Affect Computer Disks Essay Research

How Magnets Affect Computer Disks Essay, Research Paper


How Magnets Affect Computer Disks


BackGround


One of the most commonly used Computer data storaged mediums is a


Computer Disk or a Floppy. These are used in everyday life, in either our


workplace or at home. These disks have many purposes, such as:


Storing data: Floppies can be used to store software/data for short preiods of


time,


Transferring data: Floppies are used to transfer/copy data from one computer to


another.


Hiding data: Floppies are also sometimes used to hide sensitive or confidential


data,


because of the disk’s small size it can be hidden very easily.


Advertising: Because floppies are cheap to buy, they are used to advertise


different types


of software, such as: Software for the internet advertised on America Online


Floppies.


Floppies are also considered to be very sensitve data storage mediums.


These Disks have numerous advantages and disadvanteges. Even though floppies are


used so commonly they are also not very dependable. They have numerous


conditions under which they should normally be kept. For example: the actuall


magnetic disk inside the hard cover of the disk must NEVER be touched, the


magnetic disk inside, must be protected by the metallic sliding shield, the disk


must always be within the temperature of 50? to 140? Fahrenheit and the disk


must never be bought near a magnet! (3M Diskettes)


There are many such hazards to computer disks. Problems caused by


magnets are very common. A floppy can be damaged unknowingly if it is kept near


a magnet, that may be in the open or inside any device, such as a speaker phone


in computer speakers or stereo or a telephone. And becuase of the common use of


magnets in everyday life, more and more floppies are damaged everyday.


Even though protective coverings against magnets and other electrical


hazards, are available for floppies, they are not used very commonly. Therefore,


floppies are not a very safe media for storage, even though they are convienient.


Some of the most commonly used diskettes are by 3M and Sony and other


such companies. The floppies are sold in boxes with instructions on them to not


to bring floppies near magnets and other instructions of DOs and DONTs. These


instructions must always be followed.


Floppies have different capacities such as 720 KB (kilobytes) and 1.44


MB (megabytes). Floppies also have different sizes, 3.5″ and 5.25″. The most


commonly used floppy is usually 3.5″. It is not soft and cannot be bent, where


as a 5.25″ disk is soft and can be bent!


A floppy is a round, flat piece of Mylar coated with ferric oxide, a rustlike


substance containing tiny particles capable of holding a magnetic field, and


encased in a protective plastic cover, the disk jacket. Data is stored on a


floppy disk by the disk drive’s read/write head, which alters the magnetic


orientation of the particles. Orientation in one direction represents binary 1;


orientation in the other, binary 0.


Purpose


The purpose of my experiment was to test Floppies to see how delicate


they are near magnets and how much damage can be done to the disks and to the


software on it bye a single magnet. I also hope my project will help others to


be aware that computer disks are very delicate and sensitive to temperature,


weather, magnets…etc.


Hypothesis


When the magnets are bought near the disk, the disk should be damaged


internally along with the software in it. And the weakest magnet should cause


the least damage and the strongest magnet should cause the most damage.


Experimentation


Material: <

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Four 3.5″ Floppy Diskettes.


Four different Magnets


One Personal Home Computer


Printer


Software:


Windows95


Norton Disk Doctor


Dos (Ver 4.00.950)


Procedure:


Every Floppy Diskette has 2874 sectors. This was calculated by dividing


the total number of bytes on a disk by the number of bytes every sector occupies.


There is a total of 1,457,664 bytes on every Floppy, and every sector occupies


512 bytes. Therefore, 512 / 1457664 is 2874, ie. the total number of sectors on


every Floppy.


First, I obtained the four 3.5″ IBM formatted floppy diskettes (Highland?


). Next I obtained the four different magnets of different strengths and sizes


and tested and verified their strengths by bringing iron filings near each of


them and observing how much of iron filings each one of them attracted and then


noting which magnet was the strongest and which was the weakest in order. Then I


tested each of the disks for existing errors by using a program called Norton


Disk Doctor (NDD) which has the ability to detect and fix error on a disk. There


were no error on any of the four disks.


Next, I decided to hold the magnets near the disks for the


experimentation for about 30 seconds at about the same place on the disk. I did


so on all of the four disk.


Then, I brought the disks home and tested all four of the disks in a


disk testing and repair program called Norton Disk Doctor. I notices that each


one of the disks suffered damage.


Every one of the four disk was numbered. The Floppy with the weakest


magnet was “Disk 1″ and the Floppy with the strongest magnet was “Disk 4″


respectively. This was done to avoid possible confusion in the disks.


Result


Every Floppy Diskette has 2874 sectors. This was calculated by dividing


the total number of bytes on a disk by the number of bytes every sector occupies.


There is a total of 1,457,664 bytes on every Floppy, and every sector occupies


512 bytes. Therefore, 512 / 1457664 is 2874, ie. the total number of sectors on


every Floppy.


After every Floppy had been tested, I noted all the results. The results


were as follows:


Disk 1:


Total Bytes on Disk: 1,457,664 Total Bytes in Bad Sectors: 3584 Total Number


of Sectors: 2874 Total Number of Bad Sectors: 7 Total Number of Good Sectors:


2867


Disk 2:


Total Bytes on Disk: 1,457,664 Total Bytes in Bad Sectors: 5632 Total Number


of Sectors: 2874 Total Number of Bad Sectors: 11 Total Number of Good Sectors:


2863


Disk 3:


Total Bytes on Disk: 1,457,664 Total Bytes in Bad Sectors: 15360 Total Number


of Sectors: 2874 Total Number of Bad Sectors: 30 Total Number of Good Sectors:


2844


Disk 4:


Total Bytes on Disk: 1,457,664 Total Bytes in Bad Sectors: 19968 Total Number


of Sectors: 2874 Total Number of Bad Sectors: 39 Total Number of Good


Sectors: 2833


After the testing, I discovered that even the smallest of the Magnets


could cause bad sectors and damage both, the disk and the data on the disk. Even


thought the damage wasn’t very big, it was big enough to corrupt any program on


the disk, becuase every part of the present file would be necessary for its


correct use and any bad sectors would almost destroy the file and make it


worthless.


Conclusion:


In conclusion,this experiment proved that floppies are very sensitive


to magnets and should not be brought near them at anytime. When the magnets were


brought near the floppies, the disks were damaged and the weakest magnet caused


the least damage and the strongest magnet caused the most damage.

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