Crashed Hard Drive - Put it in the Freezer ???

[TestGuyCT]

From NY Times article here: Text I haven't tried it myself, but may be a last resort technique.

"Crashed Hard Drive

If ? no, make that when ? your PC?s hard drive crashes and can?t be read, don?t be too quick to throw it out. Stick it in the freezer overnight.

?The trick is a real and proven, albeit last resort, recovery technique for some kinds of otherwise-fatal hard-drive problems,? writes Fred Langa on his Windows Secrets Web site. Many hard drive failures are caused by worn parts that no longer align properly, making it impossible to read data from the drive. Lowering the drive?s temperature causes its metal and plastic internals to contract ever so slightly. Taking the drive out of the freezer, and returning it to room temperature can cause those parts to expand again.

That may help free up binding parts, Mr. Langa explains, or at least let a failing electrical component remain within specs long enough for you to recover your essential data. "

 

[Juddog]

Originally posted by: TestGuyCT
From NY Times article here: Text I haven't tried it myself, but may be a last resort technique.

"Crashed Hard Drive

If ? no, make that when ? your PC?s hard drive crashes and can?t be read, don?t be too quick to throw it out. Stick it in the freezer overnight.

?The trick is a real and proven, albeit last resort, recovery technique for some kinds of otherwise-fatal hard-drive problems,? writes Fred Langa on his Windows Secrets Web site. Many hard drive failures are caused by worn parts that no longer align properly, making it impossible to read data from the drive. Lowering the drive?s temperature causes its metal and plastic internals to contract ever so slightly. Taking the drive out of the freezer, and returning it to room temperature can cause those parts to expand again.

That may help free up binding parts, Mr. Langa explains, or at least let a failing electrical component remain within specs long enough for you to recover your essential data. "

I actually do this all the time when dealing with laptops that have crashed. Just make sure to put it in a static free bag and tape it shut to try and eliminate moisture from building up.

 

[Warthog912]

Originally posted by: Juddog

Originally posted by: TestGuyCT
From NY Times article here: Text I haven't tried it myself, but may be a last resort technique.

"Crashed Hard Drive

If ? no, make that when ? your PC?s hard drive crashes and can?t be read, don?t be too quick to throw it out. Stick it in the freezer overnight.

?The trick is a real and proven, albeit last resort, recovery technique for some kinds of otherwise-fatal hard-drive problems,? writes Fred Langa on his Windows Secrets Web site. Many hard drive failures are caused by worn parts that no longer align properly, making it impossible to read data from the drive. Lowering the drive?s temperature causes its metal and plastic internals to contract ever so slightly. Taking the drive out of the freezer, and returning it to room temperature can cause those parts to expand again.

That may help free up binding parts, Mr. Langa explains, or at least let a failing electrical component remain within specs long enough for you to recover your essential data. "

I actually do this all the time when dealing with laptops that have crashed. Just make sure to put it in a static free bag and tape it shut to try and eliminate moisture from building up.

QFT- Anti-static bag (static- duh) + ziplock (moisture) + freezer for 10-15 minutes = couple minutes of disk spin-up to recover data.

 

[Lanyap]

I've tried it twice but it did not work. I did have a friend who did it and it worked. Had another friend who dropped the HD from an inch above a table. It temporarily unstuck whatever was frozen (not from the freezer, LOL). Low level drop would be last resort.

 

[Ausm]

I wonder if this method would work with my External Hard drives that took a dump....might have to try it

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: Ausm
I wonder if this method would work with my External Hard drives that took a dump....might have to try it

Yeah, looks like I'll be trying this too.

 

[Lemon law]

Any zero money trick is worth a try, but logic somewhat tells us it will not work.

I remember getting a computer I has stored in an unheated garage in winter. The computer would not boot until the hard drive warmed up, disk platters tend to contract when temperatures drop well below the room temperatures when data was originally written, meaning the HDD read heads will not find the information where it was before.

But if something is stuck, either a jar, or a big temperature swing, may bust whatever is stuck loose. After all, it can't hurt the sealed hard drive.

 

[jackschmittusa]

It's a really old trick (think I first used it on a 20mb, yeah mb not gb drive), used originally when spindle bearings went bad. I think it worked once out of 3 or 4 drives over the years.

 

[RiverDog]

I've used the freezer trick a few times and it worked, other times not. Something that Lemon Law said about temperatues swings made me wonder about putting one in an oven at low temps 150-200 degrees for a short time and then plugging them in. I wonder if that would have any effect. If the drive is crashed I don't see it would hurt to try it.

 

[Laputa]

It is worth the shot if your data is not that really important and you want to experiment with the drive to see what happens to it if doing this.

 

[fishfrog]

Obviously, this will only work in the particular situation where tolerances happen to be off, and that's the only problem.

Unfortunately, most of the hard drive failures I've dealt with are due to servo failure on the hard drive head, sending it crashing into the platter. Cli-Cli-Clank. Cli-Cli-Clank.

Not a sexy sound.

 

[Exterous]

In my experience it doesn't work often but then it really doesn't cost anything to try