The other day i placed a small fan (about 10 inches in diameter) about a foot and a half away from my computer. It didn't occur to me at the time that the fan's magnetic field could possibly damage the hard drive. I havn't booted the computer up since the incident ( Its now packed away waiting to be taken home) Is there any chance that the fan's magnetic field was strong enough to erase any of the data on my hard drive ( the computer was not turned on when the fan was placed near it)