Actually, there's a curious situation with hard drives, in that many drives of varying size all have the same number of platters.

For instance, a typical 40Gb drive might consist of a double platter, ie, two thin metal disks joined together but separated by 3-4 millimeters.

But a 20Gb drive might also have the same double-platter arrangement.  Obviously, in the case of the 20Gb, the extra capacity has been somehow disabled.

For anyone with an enquiring mind, I suggest you ask your local computer store for an old hard drive that they were about to discard.  They're easy enough to open, a couple of screws and a bit of tape is all that holds them shut.  It's quite insightful to peer inside one of these intricately simple devices.

Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: c.hemming.verizon 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 7:03 AM
  Subject: [PCBUILD] Wiping hard drive clean


  to the List

  For what it is worth, my opinion is that the magnetic data is stored on disk
  platters forever.  You can never erase it.  There is a residual signature.

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