subways and computer disks

[raisinbread]

I’m going to be in the NYC area soon and I was reminded of an odd event that always seemed to happen to me.
I had a web design job and brought along copies of my work on disc, not wanting to drive into the city I would take NJ transit to the PATH and hop an uptown subway.
When I’d get to the NYC office, the discs would be unreadable. The first time I figured that it was a fluke. The second time I tested the disc on two computers, before getting on the trains, and it worked fine but once I got into the NYC office the disc was unreadable.
Is there enough electromagnetic radiation in the NYC subways or on trains that it’d completely ruin my discs? It’s not like I was rubbing the things along the third rail or anything bizarre like that. Could it affected the saved games on my gameboy advance cartridges too?

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Big electromagnetic field?

http://www1.od.nih.gov/cbthtml/pchwsw.htm

If you place a floppy disk on top of the monitor or near any electrical appliance, the magnetic field can erase or damage the files.

Metal detector?

http://www.nmclites.edu/infotech/its/how/diskettes.htm

Keep your floppy away from devices that produce magnetic fields – like your monitor, speakers and, yes, refrigerator magnets. Floppy disks are not in any danger when X-rayed by airport security. X-rays are not magnetic. (They are electromagnetic energy but then again so are visible light rays.) But do watch out for the metal detectors: most employ a weak magnetic field to find metal.

Cell phone next to floppy in backpack?

Robert McMillen

Info constantly disappears from floppies.

Check to make sure there are no electromagnetic devices near your floppies. A telephone, a hair dryer, or any other household appliance can erase the info on a disk if it’s too close. A safe distance is about 12 inches.