How long am I supposed to freeze my hard drive for?

[mugs]

Thanks

 

[redbeard1]

If your in a rush 3-4 hours, otherwise overnight.

 

[Smilin]

The idea is to shrink the components with cold so there is a bit more tolerance in the moving parts. Since the drive is mostly metals and a few plastics it will get cold to the core in just a few hours.

 

[oldman420]

Please explain this concept.
why freeze a hdd?

 

[Smilin]

It's the "freezer trick". Basically it's a *desparate* and last ditch attempt to get some data off a hard drive that has done the click of death and stopped functioning.

You put the drive in the freezer for about an hour, take it out and, keeping it level, smack it on the table once then fire it up. With a little luck it will spin up and once going will stay running until it's shut down again. Let's you grab some data off of it before you throw it in the trash. It only works if the drive has failed due to worn bearings or other mechanical failure.

 

[oldman420]

thank you smilin

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Smilin

It's the "freezer trick". Basically it's a *desparate* and last ditch attempt to get some data off a hard drive that has done the click of death and stopped functioning.

You put the drive in the freezer for about an hour, take it out and, keeping it level, smack it on the table once then fire it up. With a little luck it will spin up and once going will stay running until it's shut down again. Let's you grab some data off of it before you throw it in the trash. It only works if the drive has failed due to worn bearings or other mechanical failure.

Believe me, I'm desperate... My computer started running really slowly and crashing a lot last week, so I copied everything to my D drive and reformatted C and reinstalled XP. It ran great for a couple of days, then it crashed and said my D drive failed. So basically everything I had was on there.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Smilin

It's the "freezer trick". Basically it's a *desparate* and last ditch attempt to get some data off a hard drive that has done the click of death and stopped functioning.

You put the drive in the freezer for about an hour, take it out and, keeping it level, smack it on the table once then fire it up. With a little luck it will spin up and once going will stay running until it's shut down again. Let's you grab some data off of it before you throw it in the trash. It only works if the drive has failed due to worn bearings or other mechanical failure.

Believe me, I'm desperate... My computer started running really slowly and crashing a lot last week, so I copied everything to my D drive and reformatted C and reinstalled XP. It ran great for a couple of days, then it crashed and said my D drive failed. So basically everything I had was on there.

Well, if you copied that data to your other drive, you should have access to it one way or another. Always a good idea to have your data in two separate places if you don't want to lose it. IOW, there's no need for desperation here as I see it. BTW, the thing to do is have copied your data BEFORE things start going bad. A lot of times you aren't so lucky as to get a warning before drive failure.