Do freezing temps damage HDs, when inactive?

[VirtualLarry]

Just wondering. I left a 500GB SATA HD in my car overnight a few days ago. Would that hurt it? Could ice crystals form on the platter and damage it?

http://ask.metafilter.com/111307/Will-the-cold-kill-my-hard-drive
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/can_cold_temperatures_adversely_affect_electronic_gadgets.html

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/...esktop/Barracuda%207200.11/100452348g.pdf

Ambient temperature
0° to 60°C per hour max (operating)
–40° to 70°C per hour max (nonoperating)
Temperature gradient
20°C per hour max (operating)
30°C per hour max (nonoperating)
Relative humidity
5% to 95% (operating)
5% to 95% (nonoperating)
Relative humidity gradient
30% per hour max

That's the drive in question, a Seagate 7200.11 500GB. According to the specs, I guess I should be ok.

 

[alaricljs]

The biggest question is did you wait for it to return to room temperature before turning it on? I had quite a few users killing their laptop HDDs this way back when I supported that sort of stuff.

 

[C1]

Besides maximum temperatures, there are the issues of temperature rate of change as well as amount of exposure to humidity. In all probability, quickly heating up a frozen HDD facilitates internal formation of condensate as it is understood that drives are vented to atmosphere.

 

[nanaki333]

The biggest question is did you wait for it to return to room temperature before turning it on? I had quite a few users killing their laptop HDDs this way back when I supported that sort of stuff.

i recently had a problem with an entire laptop at work. someone brought in their laptop to get some software installed and left it in their car. turned it on and it went off. then they handed it to me and it was like a brick of ice!

thank goodness for dell accidental warranty 🙂


EDIT: dude.. your post count is 666. you better post something quick!

 

[killster1]

virtual larry always has some funny posts.. this was actually a techniq to fix a warped hard drive back in the day.. put it in ziplock put it in freezer then take it out and copy the files off.

 

[alaricljs]

I've done the freezer trick myself... but for some reason it doesn't work so well when you freeze a whole laptop. 🙂

 

[nanaki333]

I've done the freezer trick myself... but for some reason it doesn't work so well when you freeze a whole laptop. 🙂

that was definitely a "there's your sign" moment

 

[bryanl]

I believe a more important risk is exposing the drive to temperatures at or below the dew point.