putting a hard drive in the freezer

[budz]

Has anyone ever done this? I was asked to try this method to retrieve some data off of a dead as a doornail IBM Deathstar 20gb hd. My cousin has his wedding stuff on that hd. I've googled and some have said it does work for about 20 - 30 mins.

I'd like to know if I have to let the frozen hd thaw a bit cuz of the condensation. Or do I immediately install it back into the pc to retrieve the data? I don't wanna get electrocuted by the condensation of the hd. Any advice/comments will be appreciated. Thanks.

[redwudz]

Freeze it for a hour or so in a sealed Ziplock bag, then take it out and immediately plug it in and try to retrieve the data. You can do this several times. You may get up to 5 minutes read time before it locks up.

You can also give it a light whack on the side with a hammer or just whack it down sideways on a table top to free up the read/write arm. You probably won't hurt it if it won't read anyway. Don't do this while it is running, though.

No dangerous voltages in a PC except inside the PS cage. But there is quite a bit of DC amperage there, enough to melt the end off a screwdriver if you make contact between a PS lead and ground. That usually kills the PS, though.

[budz]

Thanks redwudz I'll give it a try tomorrow.

[thecoalman]

enough to melt the end off a screwdriver if you make contact between a PS lead and ground.

And you know this how?

If all else fails they have services for this but I'd imagine it's not cheap by any means.

[budz]

enough to melt the end off a screwdriver if you make contact between a PS lead and ground.

And you know this how?

If all else fails they have services for this but I'd imagine it's not cheap by any means.

Yup, I know it's very expensive to retrieve data from a dead hd. I told my cousin I'd try it and see if the data can be saved. It's only the "My Documents" folder so hopefully the transfer of the files to the secondary 160gb hd will be fast. His HELL PC, oops I mean DELL PC is quite slow, P4 1.5ghz.

[redwudz]

I did it a few years ago with a unplugged ATX PS trying to change out a fan. You need to let the PS capacitors bleed off or be very careful with metal objects around high current devices.

The average PS these days can put out 30Amps in a short circuit situation. But not for long.

[fLYtRap]

Has anyone ever done this? I was asked to try this method to retrieve some data off of a dead as a doornail IBM Deathstar 20gb hd. My cousin has his wedding stuff on that hd. I've googled and some have said it does work for about 20 - 30 mins.

I'd like to know if I have to let the frozen hd thaw a bit cuz of the condensation. Or do I immediately install it back into the pc to retrieve the data? I don't wanna get electrocuted by the condensation of the hd. Any advice/comments will be appreciated. Thanks.

200ways.pdf

[budz]

Thanks fLYtRap!

[Soopafresh]

BTW, if it clicks, forget it.

[Richard_G]

I've succesfully got data off a Hitachi laptop hard drive by putting it in the freezer (in a sealed poly bag) for an hour or so and then running it standing on its edge. This equalises any load on the bearings in case it is a mechanical problem.

[Bulldog57]

Thanks fLYtRap for the 200ways pdf .

will give it a go on me old 80 gig drive

cheers

[Ditka1985]

I've actually had several successes using the "chill" technique. However, it certainly isn't a guaranteed solution -- it hasn't worked every time I've tried it.

Several things to consider:

1) Is the drive spinning? If the drive doesn't spin up (and stay spinning), additional recovery steps are pointless. There are many reasons for a drive not spinning up, including a weak motor winding, flat spot on the bearing, etc. Some drives spin up, but spin down if they don't like some condition they are detecting. (On these drives, some manufacturers include a jumper setting that may override this feature. However, it is often difficult to get solid documentation on which jumper actually accomplishes this, if any.)

Chilling will sometimes temporarily fix the no-spin problem, but not as frequently as the "conservation of angular momentum" technique. This technique involves holding the drive vertically in front of you using both hands and quickly flicking your wrists downward (almost like a karate-chop action, but while holding the drive). The idea is to quickly apply an angular force that breaks a stuck condition free. If this works, the drive will spin up, and you should be able to recover all the data. Do NOT trust the drive beyond recovery. It *will* stick again. Of all the problems that drives have, I've had the best luck recovering from this one.

2) Is the drive clicking. This is frequently referred to as "the click of death" in my department. It is very rare that this condition can be overcome with any non-recovery techniques. You can try chilling in this case, but I don't hold out a lot of hope.

3) Spinning, no clicking, but not recognized, etc... These miscellaneous conditions can be caused by anything from a bad controller, a bad cable, to a fried chip on the drive. In these cases, obviously one must eliminate controller and cable as the cause of the problem. Once that is done and the problem persists, chilling is an option to try.

In my experiences with chilling, I believe there are two fundamental explanations of why it works.

A. Thermal intermittent components. Sometimes an electronic component will work when it is cold, but fail as it heats up. I saved a guy's business data once using the chill technique on a drive that had this problem. It would run about 15 minutes before the heat got to be too much. I recovered about 75% of his stuff in one pass, cooled the drive back down and got the rest.

B. Expansion/Contraction. From poor solder connections to mechanical components, it is possible that thermal-based issues have something to do with expansion when heat is applied. A questionable solder joint may work when cold, but as things expand, contract is lost.

My most ambitious recovery involved a failed 250GB SATA drive. It wouldn't completely spin up, so no recovery was possible. After a lot of research, I managed to find the drive's maintenance/test jumper and got it to stay spinning -- but no data. It was at this point that I tried chilling the drive, and was able to get some life out of it... very briefly. I used component chiller (spray) periodically to keep the drive electronics cold while I transferred the data.

Good luck!

[budz]

BTW, if it clicks, forget it.

According to my cousin he never heard any clicking noises and when he brought the pc to me I heard nothing as well. Originally the hd wouldn't even spin up. This morning I did the 1 hour freeze and the drive is spinning up but I couldn't get it to boot windows or to go into safe mode. I'm going to leave the hd in the freezer overnight and try again tomorrow morning before going to work.

I wanna say thanks to all of you who've replied to my post. I do appreciate the advice/comments. I need some divine intervention since my cousins wedding plans are all on that hd.

[Richard_G]

Freeze it and then add it as a slave drive and not master. Or, add it as master on the secondary IDE channel. Don't try and boot from it just try and read from it once the machine has booted. That way, with any luck, you'll be able to coax it into life long enough to copy the data across to the other drive.

[budz]

Freeze it and then add it as a slave drive and not master. Or, add it as master on the secondary IDE channel. Don't try and boot from it just try and read from it once the machine has booted. That way, with any luck, you'll be able to coax it into life long enough to copy the data across to the other drive.

Even if the hd is the boot drive it has to be set to SLAVE? I'm a bit now. All I want is the MY DOCUMENTS folder. So what you're saying is I'm going to clone off the data from that dead hd to another hd?

[nic2k4]

First go in your PC's BIOS and set all the drives to auto-detect, then take the drive out of the Dell and put it in your PC, either as a slave to your boot drive or as a master alone on the secondary channel. When all is done don't forget to reset the BIOS to what it was set to in the first place.

[edit] BTW it doesn't have to be in the PC, you can just have it sitting on the desk next to the PC.

[Ron B]

I've done the freezer trick on a few hard drives. It does work, but it's a last resort tactic to get your data off the drive. Once the drive starts to heat up again, which usually doesn't take very long, it will start to choke. Get the most valuable data first and work your way down. I've found that about six freeze/heat up cycles is all you get. Of course this is an inexact technique, so your mileage may vary.
Condensation problems? Stick a few tampons in the ziploc baggie with the drive.

[buttzilla]

I've done it and it does work sometimes not all of the time. Sometimes you need to freeze the drive more then once to retrieve all the data your trying to retrieve.

[Soopafresh]

"Condensation problems? Stick a few tampons in the ziploc baggie with the drive. "

Excuse me?

[Richard_G]

Freeze it and then add it as a slave drive and not master. Or, add it as master on the secondary IDE channel. Don't try and boot from it just try and read from it once the machine has booted. That way, with any luck, you'll be able to coax it into life long enough to copy the data across to the other drive.

Even if the hd is the boot drive it has to be set to SLAVE? I'm a bit :? now. All I want is the MY DOCUMENTS folder. So what you're saying is I'm going to clone off the data from that dead hd to another hd?

Whenever I need to copy data off a suspect master drive from another machine, I disconnect my secondary IDE cable (which usually goes to my DVD drives) and connect the suspect drive onto the secondary IDE port. Alternatively, you could change the jumper on the suspect drive to Slave and connect it as Slave on either IDE port. I don't fix the drive into the case, I stand it on end next to or in the bottom of the case. No need to go into the BIOS as my normal boot drive is the Master on the Primary IDE channel so it boots as normal and, with any luck, the suspect drive shows up in Windows Explorer as the E: drive. Find the My Documents folder on this E: drive and copy and paste it onto the C: drive.

Is it that difficult? You don't say you are trying to run from it instead of your normal boot drive? You know it doesn't work in your cousins machine, what makes you think it will work in yours?

[budz]

Freeze it and then add it as a slave drive and not master. Or, add it as master on the secondary IDE channel. Don't try and boot from it just try and read from it once the machine has booted. That way, with any luck, you'll be able to coax it into life long enough to copy the data across to the other drive.

Even if the hd is the boot drive it has to be set to SLAVE? I'm a bit now. All I want is the MY DOCUMENTS folder. So what you're saying is I'm going to clone off the data from that dead hd to another hd?

Whenever I need to copy data off a suspect master drive from another machine, I disconnect my secondary IDE cable (which usually goes to my DVD drives) and connect the suspect drive onto the secondary IDE port. Alternatively, you could change the jumper on the suspect drive to Slave and connect it as Slave on either IDE port. I don't fix the drive into the case, I stand it on end next to or in the bottom of the case. No need to go into the BIOS as my normal boot drive is the Master on the Primary IDE channel so it boots as normal and, with any luck, the suspect drive shows up in Windows Explorer as the E: drive. Find the My Documents folder on this E: drive and copy and paste it onto the C: drive.

Is it that difficult? You don't say you are trying to run from it instead of your normal boot drive? You know it doesn't work in your cousins machine, what makes you think it will work in yours?

:P Sheesh, it isn't difficult okay. I've never tried to bring a dead hd back to life which is why I asked about it in the first place. BTW I've already tried what you & others have suggested. I had the dead hd attached to one of my pc's (hanging off the side of my pc case) and it showed in the BIOS but didn't show up when my pc booted into windows. I'm leaving the dead drive in my freezer overnight and will give it one last try maybe with some whacks to it.

If you're going to be sarcastic by telling me, "You know it doesn't work in your cousins machine, what makes you think it will work in yours" then don't give me any advice/comments. Everyone else has been helpful including you up until now. :P

[stiltman]

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic328138.html?highlight=freezer

[Richard_G]

If you're going to be sarcastic by telling me, "You know it doesn't work in your cousins machine, what makes you think it will work in yours" then don't give me any advice/comments. Everyone else has been helpful including you up until now. :P

I didn't intend to be sarcastic (you'll know when I am!), but you seemed surprised at my suggestion of putting a boot drive in as a Slave. This suggested to me that you were trying to boot from the faulty drive. The drive that a machine boots from is set by the BIOS, so, if you set it to boot from HDD0 (Master on Primary IDE), it will boot from that. Any or all drives can be bootable and a machine can be set to boot from any in the BIOS. All partitions on my drives are bootable in case I have a boot sector failure. I simply go into the BIOS and tell it to boot from a different one.

I don't expect you to try and clone the whole drive. Boot from your normal good drive and then go into Explorer, find the Documents and Settings, {User Name}, My Documents folder and simply copy and paste it onto a folder on your C: drive.

If the drive shows up in the BIOS, but not in Explorer, assuming you are running XP Pro, go into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disc Management and you will quite possibly find the drive is showing up but is marked as Unmounted. Mount it and you should now be able to see it in Explorer. If the drive is showing but is shown as unformatted, then you really are in trouble.....

[Ron B]

"Condensation problems? Stick a few tampons in the ziploc baggie with the drive. "

Excuse me?

Sounds a little unusual, but it works. We use them in our waterproof camera housings all the time. Video and digital still cameras generate heat, the water is usually cool or cold, that makes for condensation on the inside of the housing. We used to use folded up paper towels inside the housing, but tampons work way better.
The links in my sig will show you some of our camera stuff.

I think a frozen drive will heat up and die before you can clone it, might be a better call to try and get any data you might have on there to another drive.

[budz]

I didn't intend to be sarcastic (you'll know when I am!), but you seemed surprised at my suggestion of putting a boot drive in as a Slave. This suggested to me that you were trying to boot from the faulty drive. The drive that a machine boots from is set by the BIOS, so, if you set it to boot from HDD0 (Master on Primary IDE), it will boot from that. Any or all drives can be bootable and a machine can be set to boot from any in the BIOS. All partitions on my drives are bootable in case I have a boot sector failure. I simply go into the BIOS and tell it to boot from a different one.

I don't expect you to try and clone the whole drive. Boot from your normal good drive and then go into Explorer, find the Documents and Settings, {User Name}, My Documents folder and simply copy and paste it onto a folder on your C: drive.

If the drive shows up in the BIOS, but not in Explorer, assuming you are running XP Pro, go into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disc Management and you will quite possibly find the drive is showing up but is marked as Unmounted. Mount it and you should now be able to see it in Explorer. If the drive is showing but is shown as unformatted, then you really are in trouble.....

Unfortunately everything that was suggested failed. It didn't show up in the disc management as unmounted or unformatted. When I tried it again before going to work the hd no longer showed up in the bios of one of my computers. So it's dead as a doornail.

Thanks again to all of you for all the suggestions and help. It's much appreciated.
I did learn something new about dead/failed hard drives!
My cousin told me he and his fiancee have learned a good lesson from all of this. They'll be backing up important data on a rewriteable dvd disc and to a second hard drive.