Originally posted by: sjwaste
Is this a trick for fixing a "broken" drive or something? I've never heard of it.
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.
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?
Originally posted by: Peter
... and professional data recovery enterprises say it's somewhere between an urban myth and screwing your data up terminally.
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
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.
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