The "freezer trick"

[Wadded Beef]

I did it once sucessfully and was wondering if there was a proper "technique" for performing the freezer trick.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Wadded Beef
I did it once sucessfully and was wondering if there was a proper "technique" for performing the freezer trick.

Asked often here, so try Advanced Search, "freezer trick", archived threads.

 

[ribbon13]

Oh noes! Not teh trick again!

 

[VirtualLarry]

All hail our wonderful Freezer Gnome (tm) overlords!

 

[zerocool84]

yup its a neat trick but unfortunately it always doesnt work. worked for me once and on my brother's laptop drive, it sadly didnt work, also i erad on here about dropping it on the floor also

 

[Cares]

Its like keeping batteries in the fridge. Old grandparents do that.

 

[KDOG]

Interesting thing about the batteries - I wrote Duracell once and asked them about that - they said that its a myth.

 

[LED]

Most important thing is to place it in an airtight bag and I recommend leaving it in overnight but less will work...Funny thiing howw this came about...years ago we use to place HD's and CPU's in the freezer when experimenting OCing on S7 Mobo's @ 83FSB/41.5PCI as they wouldn't always do it ...then a HD crashed and was recovered by this method.

 

[Amaroque]

YMMV It worked for me once (about 10 minutes at a time) on an old Segate Barracuda. The exact failure has to be pretty specific for it to work. If you're incredibly lucky, the slight contraction from the freezing will allow the heads to engage correctly, and you just might be able to see the disk.

Also, this will not bring a drive back from a "head crash" You're SOL there.

 

[DrCrap]

you gotta be sh!tting me! LOL

I have another idea for you, if the freezer thing didn't work, try throwing it in the micro-wave for about 25 seconds on defrost settings. Offcourse don't forget to use anti-static bag!
Now you gotta take it out of the micro quickly, and serve it on a plate with some nachos and cold beer.
If that didn't recover that data then you're S.O.L - but look at the bright side, you got some nachos...

 

[BlueWeasel]

It worked perfectly for me

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, Freezer trick is for drives that wont spin up because of bearing or head sticktion problems. The freezer causes extreme shrinkage and expansion of the metal parts and sometimes breaks the sticking temporarily. Leave it in the freeze a couple of hours, let it warm up and then try it. Jim

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: JimPhelpsMI
Hi, Freezer trick is for drives that wont spin up because of bearing or head sticktion problems. The freezer causes extreme shrinkage and expansion of the metal parts and sometimes breaks the sticking temporarily. Leave it in the freeze a couple of hours, let it warm up and then try it. Jim

It works for more situations than just no spin-up.
If the HD has heat related issues, connecting it when still cold is prefered. That way data can be burned before the drive craps out after warming up again.

 

[formulav8]

I have been able to fix 4x Hd's from the freezer trick that are still working to this day. Only 2x hd's I couldn't quite get to work properly. The freezer did make them better but not good enough.



Jason

 

[airfoil]

Originally posted by: formulav8
I have been able to fix 4x Hd's from the freezer trick that are still working to this day. Only 2x hd's I couldn't quite get to work properly. The freezer did make them better but not good enough.



Jason

So you're saying you stuck those 4 HDDs in a freezer, took 'em out and plugged them back in a long time ago and they work even today?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: KDOG
Interesting thing about the batteries - I wrote Duracell once and asked them about that - they said that its a myth.

That lower-than-room temps don't retard slow chemical reactions? Interesting. Especially since photographers also store their exposed-but-undeveloped film in a refrigerator for exactly the same reason.