freezing a dodgy hard drive does work!

[Fat Tone]

I had a friends drive that was seizing up. It wouldn't stay up long enough to even change the file permissions before copying could start.

So I left it in an airtight bag in the freezer over the weekend, and hooked it up this morning in a plastic bag and a wine-cooling jacket. Not only have I had time to take ownership and copy all the data, it is still running 30 minutes later!

If it didn't come from a household with kids (a.k.a. spyware/virus magnets) I think I'd be tempted to ghost the drive to its replacement.

[ZokesPro]

Hehe, if he was in Canada, take his hard drive outside and it would work for half the year!

[Fat Tone]

LOL. I suspect the new hdd is cheaper than the airfare

[The PIT]

Used the trick for a few years now. The race to get the data before it goes tits up is always fun.

[Technoid]

I had a friends drive that was seizing up. It wouldn't stay up long enough to even change the file permissions before copying could start.

So I left it in an airtight bag in the freezer over the weekend, and hooked it up this morning in a plastic bag and a wine-cooling jacket. Not only have I had time to take ownership and copy all the data, it is still running 30 minutes later!

If it didn't come from a household with kids (a.k.a. spyware/virus magnets) I think I'd be tempted to ghost the drive to its replacement.

hm...I have some drives at work I could test that on

Tho I'd throw in a few of those silica gel bags in with it in the plastic bag after taking it out of the freezer

[Nowhere]

Hmmm...I might try this with one or two drives when I'll have sapce to quickly transfer data...

BTW, "freezing" here means "below 0 C (usually around -18 I think)" or just typical "few degrees above 0"?

[Fat Tone]

@technoid - good idea with the dessicant bags. I did do my best to prevent condensation but you can't be too careful.

@Nowhere, -18C in my freezer. Probably below the operating spec but you can't deny the results.

I suppose an alternative might be to keep the drive in the freezer and put the PC right next to it (for the duration of the recovery).

[Claymonkey]

dry ice and a cooler?

[Belwarrior]

i live near the equator, i usually wrap some old newspapers and put it in a zip lock bag and leave it in the freezer (around 0 degrees C), they normally last 30 mins or before you get to hear the loud clicking sounds

[cjolley]

Timely post FT

I didn't know about this trick.
Giving it a try on Becky's HD even as we speak.
It went out this evening.
Pray for us.

[Fat Tone]

Good luck Chuck

And don't forget to guard against condensation as well as you can when it comes out the freezer! I think I was pretty lucky. Fingers crossed.

[cjolley]

Is there a such thing as too cold?
I've tried the drive on 2 PCs and it isn't even recognized.
Though it wasn't in the frezer but about 4 hours.

I was thinking about making a dry-ice sandwich out of the thing.
Would putting it on a 40 pin cable help?

It's out of warranty so I'm ordering a pair of drives and will mirror them.



PS The sound you hear is the barn door closing after the horses have escaped.

[Fat Tone]

Mine was mechanical failure - bearings overheat and seize. If yours was electronic failure then I don't think any amount of cooling will presuade the magic smoke to return

I had a close escape myself yesterday. the D: partition on a drive started to pretend it wasn't formatted, and it contained the only up to date copies of three experiments and data from an entire afternoon's testing. Fortunately I persuaded it to come back and the horse is back in the barn

[cjolley]

Well, it does click.
In fact it clicks for a few minutes before it gives up.

I'll experiment around.
Heck, I couldn't make it anymore brick-like than it is right now.

[Kooldino]

Used the trick for a few years now. The race to get the data before it goes tits up is always fun.

^Ditto.

Well put.

How long do you guys typically freeze for? I just do a couple of hours.

As for the wine cooler thing...how did you prevent condensation?