I got my old lap top running out at the hangar. I spent some time today fooling around with it and deleting a bunch of stuff that had accumulated over the years. Now I am in business to run my AD software.
As one with experience in things magnetic, I can state with confidence that magnetically-influenced particles on a hard drive weigh the same whether lying down (file is erased) or standing up (file is available). This applies to the laws of physics in Texas too.