UPDATE: Freezer trick worked! well sortof.

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Crescent13

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2005
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THE FREEZER TRICK WORKED!!!!!! well sort of. The drive was completely dead to begin with, after about 40 min of freezer, THE DRIVE WAS DETECTED!!!! I reformatted, installed windows, and everything was fine. The only problem was that the drive was unformatted, and completely blank so I didn't get any of my info out. Well about 10 minutes after installing windows, the drive made the sound of death:

tick-tick-tick-xhrchr, tick-tick-tick-xhrchr, tick-tick-tick-xhrchr

And after that, it just froze. Took out power, and plugged it back in, nothing but the sound of death:

tick-tick-tick-xhrchr, tick-okay I think you get the idea now

Well the drive is dead again. I think I overheated it (It got up to about 65C the day it died), and I think the heat damaged all of the data. Oh well, the data wasn't too important. Thanks guys.
 
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MangoTBG

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2003
3,101
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I wouldn't mind finding out a solid answer to this question. I have a similiar situation with my 600m's harddrive...it's dead, might as well try it out
 
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Fokks

Senior member
Oct 31, 1999
371
0
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You only need the drive in there long enough to freeze. I guess if you have a weak freezer, or the drive just came out of a system and is hot it could take longer.

A quick google search for recommended time turned this up at PC World.
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,110320,pg,3,00.asp

"Here's a last-gasp trick for copying data from a drive that won't read or spin: Place the disk in a Ziploc freezer bag and pop it into the freezer for an hour. Seriously. Cooling the disk can subtly change the geometry of the head and platters, enabling the drive to pick up data for a brief period of time. Make sure you have a new hard disk installed, as well as mirroring software like Norton Ghost ready to make a one-shot transfer of the old disk's contents.

Still no luck? Here's your final--albeit slim--hope: Use a Torx driver (a screwdriver with a star-shaped head) to remove the cover from the hard drive and then give the drive heads a gentle tap. Hook the drive to your system (yes, with the top off) and see if you can access the disk. "
 
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stevty2889

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2003
7,036
8
81
I left mine in for about 30 minutes, and then I stuck frozen meat wrapped in aluminum foil on top while I was recovering the data to try and keep it cool longer. You did put it in an air tight bag to prevent condesation right? There are no gurantee's the freezer trick will work, but to my suprise I was able to recover all 60gb of data from my drive, when it was giving clicks of death, and not recognized by BIOS anymore. Good luck!
 
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imported_i2k

Member
Sep 11, 2005
118
0
71
wow.. good to know guys.. filing this under knowledge I hope I dont have to use one day but great to have!
 
thecoolnessrune

thecoolnessrune

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2005
9,673
583
126
This is weird. I have NEVER had a harddrive die on me. (I've had about 4) even a 7 year old 10GB Quantum Fireball II that still works fine.
 
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Crescent13

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2005
4,793
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Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
This is weird. I have NEVER had a harddrive die on me. (I've had about 4) even a 7 year old 10GB Quantum Fireball II that still works fine.
Click to expand...


This is the first harddrive that has died on me. I've never had one die before this.
 
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stevty2889

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2003
7,036
8
81
Even though your formated your data is probably still there. If you could have gotten it to last long enough you could have probably recoved the data using testdisk, I've had great luck with that program, even recovering partitions that were written over. Strange thing about my hard drive though..after the freezer trick 2 or 3 months ago..it's still working..
 
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JimPhelpsMI

Golden Member
Oct 8, 2004
1,261
0
0
Hi, The freezer trick usually only works for drives that wont spin up. Usually because the bearing are worn,for obvious reasons, or the heads are suffering from STICKTION. It does not repair the drive, but only lets you get your stuff off the drive. Freeze it again and transfer your good stuff quick. Luck, Jim
 
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casualsax3

Member
Mar 14, 2005
85
0
0
I have an old hard drive I found last night, and when I plug it into my system the whole computer shuts off a second after I power it on, like its tripping a breaker. I have to shut the PSU off directly before I can power on again. Why would this happen?
 
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JimPhelpsMI

Golden Member
Oct 8, 2004
1,261
0
0
Hi Casual, The hard drive has a bad short on the +5 or +12. Power supplies have an automatic shutdown circuit for too much current and over/under voltages. The tip off is that you have to remove the AC power to reset the power supply circuit. Luck, Jim
 
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