That I'm not sure, I know the premise is that data is read and written magnetically, which would lead me to believe there is some kind of ferrous metal in there somewhere, but I couldn't tell you the actual composition of the platters.

[–] Micromot@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

A quick google search resulted that the actual platter is a non magnetic material like glass which is covered in a magnetic coating

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

Interesting, thanks for that. So perhaps folding the drives like that may indeed shatter the platters.

[–] EtherWhack@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

It depends.

With tearing apart drives over the years, 3.5" always used aluminum platters, while the 2.5" ones used glass. (With greater data density and higher speeds however, this may have changed)

[–] clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

In principle yes but I never managed to shatter or break a disc platter... But then I never had a sledgehammer