Now, a couple of rudimentary experiments hardly constitute a reliable data set, but it would seem that instant destruction is not an inevitable consequence of opening up a drive (of course, it helps that these old, low-capacity drives have generous track dimensions and head-platter separations; I doubt that modern drives would be anywhere near as forgiving). That, in turn, gives us some hope that a "clean box" that a weekend experimenter could economically construct just might suffice.

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