Magnetic Shielding

[Trace]

How can one magnetically shield a HDD if it is going to be in a near proximity to a speaker?

[Luke122]

That's a good question.. I did some looking into a similar issue myself, to add shielding to some speakers to prevent them from messing with a television.

Short answer: prohibitively complex and expensive to do.

Long(er) answer: It's unlikely that the magnetic field from the speaker would cause any damage or influence the hard drive in any way, unless you are talking about parking a drive on top of a huge subwoofer, in which case the vibrations would be far more likely to cause failure.

Can you give some details on what you want to do ?

[Trace]

I'm helping my friend build a jukebox PC and he wants to put some speakers in it. I know magnets can adversely affect HDDs, so I would be placing it as far away as possible. Does that help?

[mDust]

I'm helping my friend build a jukebox PC and he wants to put some speakers in it. I know magnets can adversely affect HDDs, so I would be placing it as far away as possible. Does that help?

It should be fine. There are magnets inside HDDs anyway. It should have no effect on it whatsoever. If you're very paranoid about it and the data on the HDD is critical, you can try wrapping in foil that is designed to reroute weak magnetic fields. It's going to be expensive though (read: not worth it):
http://www.magnetic-shield.com/

[SXRguyinMA]

IIRC you can also use some kind of screen, like aluminum window screen or something

[Luke122]

The screen wrap would be more for electrical interference than magnetic.

For a jukebox PC, I'd be more concerned with vibration than magnets anyways. :) Make sure the hdd is mounted with some sort of dampeners to help isolate it from the vibration of the speakers, and try to keep it at least 8 inches away from the magnets, just to be safe. :) Stronger magnets = farther distance.

[blueonblack]

It should be fine. There are magnets inside HDDs anyway. It should have no effect on it whatsoever.

+1 to this

[Trace]

Thanks guys!

[Oneslowz28]

Ultra Perm might do the trick. $10 / sheet

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16600A

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/images/G16600AB.jpg



Large 7.75” x 12.38” x .005" thick sheet of Ultraperm 80 features a peel and stick surface on one side of the sheet. Ultraperm 80 sheet is a nickel-iron alloy (80.3% nickel, 14.3% iron, plus 14.3 %molybdenum). It has very high magnetic permeability (400000 @ 0.73-0.5mm -50Hz maximal permability) which makes Ultraperm 80 very effective at screening static or low-frequency magnetic fields which are difficult to attenuate with other means.The Ultraperm 80 is similiar to Mu-metal but the copper which is added to make Mu metal more ductile is not added to this sheet. This shielding is commonly found around transformers in high end audio equipment, cathode ray tubes in oscilloscopes, photomultipliers, magnetic phono cartridges, hard drives, super conducting circuits, MRI equipment, etc. This is a difficult item to find for the average hobbyist.

[dr.walrus]

hard drives are already magnetically shielded - they have to be in order to work!

How big are the speakers and how close are they?

[Trace]

Nothing definite yet.