Still watching Jericho (after finding about it in this thread, yeah I know it's predictable and some of the characters are shallow, but there's nothing better on the tube), and I was thinking of an EMP's effects on a HDD.

I couldn't find anything relevant with Google (bizarre enough).

So could an EMP erase or modify the data on magentic platters? An EMP works by inducing a current, but the platters in a HDD are isolated I thought (and made of glass anyway), but I guess an EMP would easily render a solid-state HDD a doorstop. And of course, optical storage is safe, but what about Magneto-Optical storage?

Questions, questions Smiley Anyone here done an MSc in Physics who might know the answer?