[philso]

The magnets from a hard drive can be sheared off their mounting plates relatively easily. Use a large screwdriver to apply the force to the side of the magnet and tap the handle until the magnet pops off. Sometimes, a small part of the magnet remains stuck to the backing plate. The magnet might break into several pieces if you are not lucky. With the going price of dead hard drives being pretty low, you can afford to try this a number of times. All the magnets I have removed seem to be attached with some sort of cyanoacrylate.

Heating the backing plate with a soldering iron may also work. It will not get the magnet hot enough to damage it. I have put these magnets onto red hot steel as part of a heat treating process and they still work fine.

Phil