ASUS E203 or HP Stream 11.6"

[vrdiver]

Undo the 2 screws and attach it to the new SSD. ... I was tempted to use a magnetic screwdriver, but thought better of it.

But surely you could have used one? SSD drives are not sensitive to magnets -- no moving parts.

Slarti: "Thank you Ted. I did not know that."

Slarti exits, stage left, followed swiftly by smashing noises and primal scream of frustration.

[Slarti]

Undo the 2 screws and attach it to the new SSD. ... I was tempted to use a magnetic screwdriver, but thought better of it.

But surely you could have used one? SSD drives are not sensitive to magnets -- no moving parts.

I thought that all electronics was sensitive to magnetism? As in you can corrupt memory (ROM) with magnets.

Slarti

[TedSwippet]

I thought that all electronics was sensitive to magnetism? As in you can corrupt memory (ROM) with magnets.

ROM, RAM, EEPROM, SSD and similar are all non-magnetic storage devices, so static magnetic fields aren't a problem. A rapidly fluctuating one might be, but it would have to be an extremely strong one. On the order of an MRI superconducting magnet say, not a feeble fridge magnet.

Even for traditional magnetic disk storage, a pretty strong field is needed to affect its storage. A laboratory degausser would do, so somewhat less strong than an MRI. But again, a fridge magnet or similar won't have any effect. A magnetised screwdriver would have a lesser field than even a fridge magnet.

So when are magnets an issue around computers? Two instances off the top of my head. Old-style CRT displays can be discoloured semi-permanently if you accidentally (or maliciously!) magnetise the colour mask. And laptops often use a magnetic lid switch to sense when it is closed or open, so sticking a magnet in the wrong place fools the laptop into sleeping -- you can often see this if you stack one open laptop directly on top of another closed one.

[Infrasonic]

^^ Yep.
Anything 'modern' is going to be pretty much impervious, although (showing my age) I did manage to corrupt a small box of floppies many years ago after leaving them near a CRT monitor for far too long. (I kept reminding myself to move them and then thought I better check them for integrity first, oops...)

[vrdiver]

I did manage to corrupt a small box of floppies

which reminded me of an incident in the office from shortly after the 5.25 floppies were superceded by the more rugged 3.5-inch diskettes...

A South African colleague called out across the office in a loud voice "HAS ANYONE GOT A STIFFIE?" 'cos that's what the 3.5s were called in South Africa.

There was always a sense of irony that a floppy was bigger than a stiffie

VRD