Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffB17
Have you tried a magnet. Permanent magnet. As big as possible?
The AC demagnetisers get hot over time as they're used, so there is a short length of time to do the job, esp if you want to erase a few tapes, doing both sides to make sure, but this does not apply to a perm magnet. Sit tape on a table, put magnet on top, and leave for an hour or so. You don't need a perfect erasure, just enough to destroy the images, as in make unwatchable.
If you've got a suitable magnet, try one and see. When I've erased tapes (cassette and spool) or computer disks with a magnet (just a 1" x 3" bar magnet) I've done both sides, and also moved the magnet around in a circular motion. I've regularly needed to do this with computer disks that are used on different machines as stray data on the edge of a track (from computer A) might not be erased by a recording on computer B so when the disk comes back to A it might read garbage.
Geoff
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Thanks. But how does leaving the magnet in place for an hour so help? I thought that it was a question of magnet strength and maybe frequency etc, but not
time? I'm happy to be proved wrong of course!