Right, assuming the flare is strong and long enough it is possible for UV and above to reach the surface. Still you can take an x-ray of your HDD or SSD withou

Right, assuming the flare is strong and long enough it is possible for UV and above to reach the surface. Still you can take an x-ray of your HDD or SSD without data loss. There might be sweet spots of certain energies, that might cause data corruption. The big guys, a barrage of protons and neutrons has much more potential to mess with the drives. Should whipe them out clean. But there are still a lot of molecules in the air, which will fend them off. Against this throwing the hard drives into the swimming pool, would yield better protection.