Hi, I am new here and this is my first message. I confirmed that that putting a magnet doesnot wipe out yr HDD. I accidently put my notebook next to a speaker driver (woofer) overnight, in my desk drawer. Note : I had to change the driver due to some speaker problems. Didn't realise that till the next morning. When I took out the notebook and the driver was directly beneath the HDD part of the notebook

Notebook still working and I still have my data.