[philso]

We attacked a bunch of dead hard drives this afternoon. We broke 5 of them by trying to shear them off by striking them. We broke another one by trying to shear it off by applying pressure with a pair of vice-grips.

We got two off intact when I found an industrial heat gun at work. It took about two minutes of heating on high. The magnet shifting with a gentle tap means that the glue has been sufficiently weakened. The magnet can then be removed when cool (as my son found out).

Hope that helps.