So umm... stick the hd in the freezer to bring it back to life?

[shabby]

I was in the middle of backing up a maxtor drive and it just stopped copying, after a couple of reboots windows now thinks this is a new drive and is asking me if i wanna format it... of course i said no.
So would sticking it in the freezer bring it back to life, if so how long should it be in there?

 

[imported_Stew]

The fact that windows wants you to format has nothing to do with the hardware of the drive itself.

It has to do with the fact that the drive stopped while copying.

If you're not concerned about your old data, just format it.

 

[John P]

It could be a software or hardware error. Hopefully you have access to a working computer. Try this:

1) Plop drive in a working computer as slave or secondary master. Don't let chkdsk scan it and don't reformat it if windows asks to.

2) Use software like File Scavenger to recover any data you may need off drive.

3) Use Maxtor diagnostics software to determine if drive is going bad or not. If drive shows good reformat and you're done.

 

[jimbob200521]

Originally posted by: Stew
The fact that windows wants you to format has nothing to do with the hardware of the drive itself.

It has to do with the fact that the drive stopped while copying.

If you're not concerned about your old data, just format it.

i disagree. if windows wants to format a drive after hes already copied stuff to it, ANd it stopped in the middle of a copy, then i think it is hardware.

as for whether or not sticking it in the freezer will work, i doubt it. ive heard that before, and its never worked for me, not saying that it wont for you. generally speaking, though, the only problem that sticking a drive in the freezer could really fix is a heat problem, where something on the drive is getting too hot, and that usually means the drive is going and probably wont be back. hope i worded that heat thing right.

 

[eXx08]

Originally posted by: Stew
The fact that windows wants you to format has nothing to do with the hardware of the drive itself.

It has to do with the fact that the drive stopped while copying.

If you're not concerned about your old data, just format it.

 

[TWills]

My A+ instructor swore up and down by the freezer trick.
Ironically, my dad tried it once and it worked for him. It never has for me.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Originally posted by: TWills
My A+ instructor swore up and down by the freezer trick.
Ironically, my dad tried it once and it worked for him. It never has for me.

It works.

 

[CQuinn]

Originally posted by: JustAnAverageGuy

Originally posted by: TWills
My A+ instructor swore up and down by the freezer trick.
Ironically, my dad tried it once and it worked for him. It never has for me.

It works.

In certain situations. It is not a cure-all for every hard drive problem.
Particularly problems of partitions disappearing, which would indicate
a failure of the MBR or MFT from which you may need to use other recovery
software to help with.
If the drive is overheating while you are attempting data recovery, then
you might consider some measures to cool it down.

 

[Blain]

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, The freezer trick is for drives that wont spin up. It fixes the driver temporarily so you can get your files off of it. Jim