An old question... hard drive freezing trick.

[wacki]

How does it work? I know it will occasionally work, but why does it work at all?

 

[Bassyhead]

Modern hard drives have billions of bits per square inch on a platter and as the drive's temperature changes, the physical positions of these bits change dramatically and thus the drive must compensate. The hope is that the lower temperatures of freezing will somehow allow the drive to better access data stored on the platters by bringing the drive back into tolerance ranges.

 

[sjwaste]

Is this a trick for fixing a "broken" drive or something? I've never heard of it.

 

[Bassyhead]

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Is this a trick for fixing a "broken" drive or something? I've never heard of it.

Yes, it's very commonly regarded as a last resort for drives that can't read data for some reason. In these cases, the drive may show up in BIOS and pass SMART status but for some unknown reason cannot access data on the platters.

 

[Peter]

... and professional data recovery enterprises say it's somewhere between an urban myth and screwing your data up terminally.

 

[Mark R]

I tried it for a laugh on a couple of my dead drives.

In both cases, the bearings froze and the drive wouldn't spin up (one didn't seem to want to start at all, the other didn't seem to able to get up to operating speed) until it thawed out. At which point, it was exactly the same as before.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Bassyhead
Modern hard drives have billions of bits per square inch on a platter and as the drive's temperature changes, the physical positions of these bits change dramatically and thus the drive must compensate. The hope is that the lower temperatures of freezing will somehow allow the drive to better access data stored on the platters by bringing the drive back into tolerance ranges.

How does a drive know the temperature has changed to adjust itself? Or does it somehow recognize the physical positions of these bits have changed? And what kind of adjustments does it make?

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I've used the freezer trick on 5 drives that died. It saved 4 of them.

One of which I still use to this today. (nothing critical though)
Two lasted for about 4 days.
The other one lasted for maybe an hour or so before it started clicking again.

And of course the commercial data recovery places will tell you not to use it, they wouldn't get as much money if people knew about it 😉

 

[Bassyhead]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: Bassyhead
Modern hard drives have billions of bits per square inch on a platter and as the drive's temperature changes, the physical positions of these bits change dramatically and thus the drive must compensate. The hope is that the lower temperatures of freezing will somehow allow the drive to better access data stored on the platters by bringing the drive back into tolerance ranges.

How does a drive know the temperature has changed to adjust itself? Or does it somehow recognize the physical positions of these bits have changed? And what kind of adjustments does it make?

I'm not sure. I don't think the drive actually monitors temperature through a thermistor or temperature sensor of some sort as this wouldn't be precise enough, although many hard drives' temperatures can be monitored in software. The actuator is analog in nature, so I suppose somehow during each seek it first determines where it is in respect to the platters or something along those lines. I've tried the freezer trick on a relative's dead drive before, but no luck although I think the drive was beyond hope anyhow.

For all those considering the freezer trick, just make sure you don't do it like this guy did 😉:

http://www.arrowsmash.com/1hd.jpg
http://www.arrowsmash.com/2hd.jpg

 

[icarus4586]

I've heard anecdotal evidence of this providing a temporary fix for drives that start clicking or other things like that. I've never really heard anything specific for what kind of problem it helps with, or why it helps.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Peter
... and professional data recovery enterprises say it's somewhere between an urban myth and screwing your data up terminally.

I've used it personaly and for me it worked. I was getting a clicking sound like the head was stuck, bios would only recognize the drive half the time, couldn't access any data. Stuck it in the freezer in a ziplock bag for an hour, hooked it back up, stuck a frozen meatloaf on top of it, and recovered all the data. Strange thing is, the drive has worked ever since..I'm typing on the computer from the computer with that drive..

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Bassyhead

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: Bassyhead
Modern hard drives have billions of bits per square inch on a platter and as the drive's temperature changes, the physical positions of these bits change dramatically and thus the drive must compensate. The hope is that the lower temperatures of freezing will somehow allow the drive to better access data stored on the platters by bringing the drive back into tolerance ranges.

How does a drive know the temperature has changed to adjust itself? Or does it somehow recognize the physical positions of these bits have changed? And what kind of adjustments does it make?

I'm not sure. I don't think the drive actually monitors temperature through a thermistor or temperature sensor of some sort as this wouldn't be precise enough, although many hard drives' temperatures can be monitored in software. The actuator is analog in nature, so I suppose somehow during each seek it first determines where it is in respect to the platters or something along those lines. I've tried the freezer trick on a relative's dead drive before, but no luck although I think the drive was beyond hope anyhow.

For all those considering the freezer trick, just make sure you don't do it like this guy did 😉:

http://www.arrowsmash.com/1hd.jpg
http://www.arrowsmash.com/2hd.jpg

Awesome pics!

 

[ub3rnewb]

I'd be afraid of water dripping onto the molex pins and shorting everything, or some other thing happening and getting the system FUBARed.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: ub3rnewb
I'd be afraid of water dripping onto the molex pins and shorting everything, or some other thing happening and getting the system FUBARed.

You're supposed to put the drive in a plastic bag while in the freezer to prevent moisture/condensation issues. The pic with the drive in the block of ice is pretty funny, though. 😛

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Bassyhead

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: Bassyhead
Modern hard drives have billions of bits per square inch on a platter and as the drive's temperature changes, the physical positions of these bits change dramatically and thus the drive must compensate. The hope is that the lower temperatures of freezing will somehow allow the drive to better access data stored on the platters by bringing the drive back into tolerance ranges.

How does a drive know the temperature has changed to adjust itself? Or does it somehow recognize the physical positions of these bits have changed? And what kind of adjustments does it make?

I'm not sure. I don't think the drive actually monitors temperature through a thermistor or temperature sensor of some sort as this wouldn't be precise enough, although many hard drives' temperatures can be monitored in software. The actuator is analog in nature, so I suppose somehow during each seek it first determines where it is in respect to the platters or something along those lines. I've tried the freezer trick on a relative's dead drive before, but no luck although I think the drive was beyond hope anyhow.

For all those considering the freezer trick, just make sure you don't do it like this guy did 😉:

http://www.arrowsmash.com/1hd.jpg
http://www.arrowsmash.com/2hd.jpg

LOFL...


dare I ask, did it work?!

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

As a retired mechanic, my first thoughts when I heard of the freezer trick focused on the
lubricant and bearing clearances.
The lube would thicken and the OD of the bearing would shrink more than the ID, causing
a reduction in running clearance. This would help stabilize loose platters. Just my 2cents.

This would not explain a long term positive result of using the freezer trick.


...Galvanized

 

[patentman]

The freezer trick generally is used as a last resort in an attempt to fix a head crash (typically referenced as a "clicking noise" such as mentioned above. The reason it works occasionally is as follows.

The platters in a hard disk drive typically consist of a polycarbonate substrate that has been coated with one or more thin layer of Co or Cr based alloy, i.e. CrTi, CoCr or CoCrPt. The head materials closest to the surface of the drive are typically a heavy metal alloys, most commonly permalloy (NiFe), molyperm (MoNiFe), or Coballoy (CoFeNi) soft magnetic alloy. Anyways, all you really need to know is that the head material and the disk material are different. Because they are different, they have a different thermal coefficient of expansion (they contract and expand to differing degrees upon the application or withdrawal of heat).

With the above in mind, when a hard drive that has suffered a head crash is placed in the freezer, the metal film on the disc and the metal materials making up the head contract, effectively pulling one away from the other (and, in the process, unsticking the head from the surface of the platter). If the head crash was not severe (meaning the head just got stuck in the perfluoropolether lubricant layer on the surface of the disk as opposed to going through that layer and digging into the surface of the platter), the drive may be fully recoverable and be no worse for wear. If the head dug into the platter (scratched it) the drive will likely work for a while but is much more prone to crashing in the same spot.

 

[Beller0ph1]

I promised my girlfriend that I would rescue the data off her laptop hard drive that started having the click of death back in May. I didn't get around to it until Thanksgiving. Anyway, it was sitting in the laptop, in my car when the weather was around 0 that day. I took it out to finally take a look at it, so I popped it in my external enclosure. Lo and Behold! It started working without any further prompting from me! I testify to the awesomeness of the Freezer Trick.

 

[wacki]

Thankyou patentman and GalvanizedYankee!