Software can damage Harddrives Pyisical?

[abisha]

oke it might be far fetched

But a HD is a plate made of magnetic material when data get write on the disc it exists out of

and random Binary numbers and not focus the magnetic plate

 

but if i write program that format the whole disc into only focused binary number say makes any number 1 the whole plate get in basically magnetized

and so doing can damage the head that get pulled to the disc so basically software that can damage Harddrives Pyisical.

 

is this just nonsense or is it really possible?

[mora]

If the goal is to damage the hard drive, you can do it by just writing data on it over and over again, because it has a life span and can take a limited number of read/write operations. If the goal is to write 1 in each memory cell, I am no expert but I doubt it is possible.

[Dekan]

The difference between a "0" and a "1", on a computer HD disc, is a difference in magnetism.

So a "1" may have strong magnetism, and a "0" have weak magnetism, or no magnetism at all.

 

Suppose the "1" does have stronger magnetism. And the HD disc is filled mostly with "1"s. Then the disc will have stronger magnetism than if it were filled with weak "0"s.

 

This stronger magnetism might cause physical damage to the head - by inducing magnetism in it. Making it unable to accurately read data.

 

Wasn't there a similar kind of problem with the old audio-cassette tape players - their heads could get magnetised by constant contact with the magnetic tapes, and have to be degaussed. Mightn't that also occur with computer HD magnetic discs?

Edited February 8, 2013 by Dekan

[StringJunky]

It makes no difference whether the disk is full of 1's or 0's to its maximum potential service life. The data bit units on a hard drive platter are just segments of magnetizable material that have their containing particles uniformly aligned one way or the other. depending on the read/write head's polarity at that particular moment it passes over.

 

Probably, in the old cassette heads, they were prone to accumulating residual magnetism which has since been alleviated in newer technology.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-drive-magnetic-storage-hdd,3005.html

Edited February 8, 2013 by StringJunky