Sam Price's dashboard

If its just the bottom half then you all you need to do is take the top cover off and take the latch mechanism out (held down by adhesive tape) and also unplug the cable for the sleep light and put it in your laptop with some glue (I used glue instead of adhesive.

Hope that doesn't sound too complex, all you really need is a small screwdriver for the top cover and just go for it!

I did get there in the end, after a few times trawling through ebay I managed to get a broken powerbook that was for spares and salvaged the magnet mechanism/lid button. You can find some good guides around- Ifixit.com or something

And they have magnet for the lid. I mean it would literally be two thin strips on top of the casing to enable it to close. I wouldn't think it would be strong enough to corrupt data on the hard drive?