Patent ID: 8014096

Claim:
A combined bulk thermal-assister and bulk eraser for erasing recorded information on a magnetic-recording disk, said combined bulk thermal-assister and bulk eraser comprising: a bulk thermal-assister, said bulk thermal-assister configured to produce a temperature in a magnetic-recording disk in a hard-disk drive when said hard-disk drive is disposed in said bulk eraser, wherein said temperature is about equal to a second temperature greater than a first temperature of said magnetic-recording disk in said hard-disk drive; a bulk eraser, said bulk eraser configured to erase recorded information from said magnetic-recording disk at said second temperature in said hard-disk drive; wherein said second temperature lowers a coercivity of said magnetic-recording disk in said hard-disk drive so that, when recorded information is erased from said magnetic-recording disk in said hard-disk drive at said second temperature, recorded information on said magnetic-recording disk is erased from a second magnetic-recording track in closer proximity to an inside diameter of said magnetic-recording disk than a first magnetic-recording track from which recorded information on said magnetic-recording disk may be erased, if recorded information were erased from said magnetic-recording disk in said hard-disk drive at said first temperature; and a chiller, said chiller configured to lower a temperature of an enclosure of said hard-disk drive to a third temperature less than said second temperature of said magnetic-recording disk.