Harddrive Failure

[mysts]

I lost one of my harddrives. Luckily it was not the C drive. After searching Google-someone suggested sticking it in the freezer. Has anyone tried this? This is a frightning situation.
Thanks.

[thevoelk]

It does work. Make sure you seal it in a bag, preferably an anti-static bag.

I use it all the time at work, and I felt the same way as you do when I first heard of this.

[ROF]

Allow it to sit in the freezer inside a sealed bag as suggested to prevent condensation from forming on the drive. When you remove the drive quickly hook it up and boot up, preferrable if you can use a USB or firewire external enclosure or cable set to do this rather than put the frozen drive inside your warm case. The drive will more than likely only be alive long enough to get some data off of it. Immediately dump any important data to another drive. if it fails again allow the drive to completely thaw and then re-freeze the drive if more data removal is necessary. I have done this numerous times for alot of people. It doesn't work 100% of the time but has saved alot of people from paying hundreds of dollars to retrieve their data. For reference I charge $20 for this service.

[joy]

It does work. Make sure you seal it in a bag, preferably an anti-static bag.

I use it all the time at work, and I felt the same way as you do when I first heard of this.

don't you think the condensation that takes place after you take out the hd from the freezer and then plugging this into a power supply cause a short circuit?

[ROF]

It does work. Make sure you seal it in a bag, preferably an anti-static bag.

I use it all the time at work, and I felt the same way as you do when I first heard of this.

don't you think the condensation that takes place after you take out the hd from the freezer and then plugging this into a power supply cause a short circuit?

That is why you use a sealed bag. The condensation forms on the bag and not the drive.

[ViRaL1]

There may still be condensation on the inside, BUT regardless of where it is (considering you might not be able to see it), the rule of thumb is to leave it set out for a few hours to 1/2 a day to make sure any moisture has dissipated before reinstalling it in the computer.

[ROF]

There may still be condensation on the inside, BUT regardless of where it is (considering you might not be able to see it), the rule of thumb is to leave it set out for a few hours to 1/2 a day to make sure any moisture has dissipated before reinstalling it in the computer.

Once you leave it out you will have lost the benefit of freezing it. The drive usually dies once it gets to room temperature which can be anywhere from 5-15 minutes if data is being extracted.

[mysts]

To ROF

How long should it remain in the freezer-overnight maybe. Where do I send the $20.

[Nelson37]

Yes, freezing does occassionally work, as can slamming it very hard onto a firm surface. (Do this LAST). Depends on if your problem is stuck heads, slow spin speed, warped platters, etc.

When you say you lost it, do you mean that you previously put it somewhere and now cannot find the drive? Or is there some definable symptom which causes you to believe that there is something wrong with it?

You may very well be making a simple problem unsolveable by taking a totally unecessary action.

[mysts]

To Nelson
It is still in the computer where it has been all the while. It went kerplonk, kerplonk about a half dozen times then it died. No autopsy as yet.

[ROF]

To ROF

How long should it remain in the freezer-overnight maybe.

I usually leave it in overnight yes. After about 6 hours though you are not really going to get any colder so it depends on what you have time for. I usually tell my customer that I will work with it and call them tomorrow. When I can fix it they are usually quite happy to hear they can pick up their dead drive and the DVD with the info I burnt from it. This freezer thing is only a temporary fix. It won't last so get the data off ASAP.

[mysts]

To All

Thanks for all the advice. I will try the freeze thing tonight and let you know how it turned out sometime tomorrow.

[Nelson37]

Have you simply let the PC sit, then fired it up and tried to copy files?

Sort of a knocking sound as opposed to a marble dropping onto glass (Like in the old pinball machines)?

The noise you are hearing is the heads actually smacking into the side casing of the hard drive, the motor driving the head arm has lost track of where it is. This rarely self-repairs, though simply waiting is worth a shot. If the freeze does not work, the slam trick does on occassion knock the heads back into their proper location. If you get if fired back up, ASAP copy important files, get a directory ready beforehand and think about which files you want to get first. You may have a few minutes to a few seconds.

[Mitchum22]

This is such a funny thread!

It reminds me of the classic Dick Van Dyke episode where Buddy arranges a call to Rob about a malfunctioning telephone. It ends with the recommendation that Rob go out onto the front lawn, swing the telephone over his head, and scream like a chicken.

Try that with your hard drive! :P

[mysts]

To ROF et all

!!!!! IT WORKED !!!!!

I put the harddrive in a ziplock bag then into the freezer overnight. The next morning I hooked it up to the computer using a USB connector. I was able to copy the entire hd to another hd in about 45 minutes. All the dread is gone I am happy once again-now I can concentrate on the war.

Thanks again guys

[ahhaa]

aw, come on! somebody give out a theory as to why it works...

any theory! congealing lubrication? shrinking the disc sectors? frost on the heads?

[Wile_E]

Here check out this thread with pics. They encased a drive in a solid block of ice! LOL!

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1028112728

[ROF]

If you think that is a bizarre way to bring back a dead drive wait until someone tells you to rub your favorite brand of toothpaste on an optical media to fix scratches enough to retrieve data.

Your drive will smell "minty fresh" as it extracts the previously unretrievable data.

[Nelson37]

I have read and heard a number of theories on why this can work, none backed up by any strict research. Mainly focusing on contracting metal giving greater clearances. The platters themselves are usually not metallic based so contraction not such a great issue, though the center spindle or bearing sufaces are metallic. Usually the multiple knocks indicate a head mechanism that has traveled beyond the outer edges of the platters without stopping, the knock is the heads whacking the side of the drive case as I mentioned earlier. I have actually felt the impact, though if it was caused by exactly that I could not say. You can definitely feel the knock on the drives outer case. Why freezing would solve this, I have no guess. The limit is supposed to be set by the stepper motor and I don't see how cold would affect this, though I have not disassembled this area with any real purpose in mind. If you are looking at these parts, the drive is toast.

The firm surface whack was used usually in cases of the heads not moving at all, as a method to free the travel of the head mechanism.

[mysts]

Hello again ROF

I have a dvd that I wrote several months ago that has decided that it will not read anymore.
Do you think the toothpaste will help?

I have used this dvd many times since then but suddenly it refuses to read. The drive keeps saying to insert a disk. I tried several different drives and all said the same thing.

[ahhaa]

The toothpaste thing is just polishing the coating to remove scratches. Your local DVD rental spot can do the best job with their experience & 'pro' machine, usually free if you are a good customer (lotsa late fees promptly paid )

myst- you prob'ly have a defect in the info data track, where its telling the drive this is a DVD...
I read on the Lightscribe site that the disks labels are good for 'at least 6 months' if kept in total darkness. Home burned DVDs are light sensitive; did you leave it out?