Woot! Putting dead HD's in the freezer actually works!

[BlueWeasel]

I woke up early this morning to a noise that sounded like someone was using an electric shaver in my room. After wondering "WTF?", I realized my Maxtor 60gb primary drive was the noise.

The BIOS does recognize the drive, but it lists it as "CALYPSO" at the BIOS screen. I still get the drive failure at startup, though.

I have already got a new 80gb WD SE drive to replace it, but I was wondering if there is anyway to recover some of the data from the Maxtor drive.

Well, at least I learned my lesson about backing up data to my second HD

 

[bacillus]

never tried it myself but try putting the hdd in a sealed plastic bag & put it into the freezer.
when it reaches freezer temp quickly slave it to your pc.
some folk swear that it'll give you a short time to copy over your data but it really depends what's wrong with your hdd in the first instance.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Cool....I'll try that...thanks

 

[PepperBreath]

I know it might seem like a long shot but you might want to try another IDE cable before thinking it's the drive. My 8GB "died" on me just a few days ago. It sounded like it was constantly trying to park itself causing my whole system to slow down(it wasn't my primary). The BIOS screen showed weired characters where the drive model # would normally be as well. Coincidentally, the very next day I received a 120GB Maxtor that I had ordered from Staples.com and it did the exact same thing when I connected it to the same cable as a slave.

Turns out one of the connections went bad and the 8GB was just fine after I tried the new cable that came with the 120GB drive.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: PepperBreath
I know it might seem like a long shot but you might want to try another IDE cable before thinking it's the drive. My 8GB "died" on me just a few days ago. It sounded like it was constantly trying to park itself causing my whole system to slow down(it wasn't my primary). The BIOS screen showed weired characters where the drive model # would normally be as well. Coincidentally, the very next day I received a 120GB Maxtor that I had ordered from Staples.com and it did the exact same thing when I connected it to the same cable as a slave.

Turns out one of the connections went bad and the 8GB was just fine after I tried the new cable that came with the 120GB drive.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I know its not the IDE cable. The new 80gb HD is running just fine on the same cable that the dead Maxtor was running on...

 

[RyanM]

Hey, lemme know how that freezer thing works out. I have a 40 GB Western Dig that died after a year, causing me to lose 90% of all my graphics design and other personal documents. I still have it sitting in a foam box, ready to get shipped out for data extraction if I can ever afford the $1000 cost, but if this freezer thing even allows me to grab 200 of my files - I'll be happier than a clam.

 

[PepperBreath]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I know its not the IDE cable. The new 80gb HD is running just fine on the same cable that the dead Maxtor was running on..

So did I. I had a 20GB Master and an 8GB slave. The 20GB Master was fine but the 8GB would constantly park on the same cable so I just assumed it was the drive. It wasn't until I connected the new 120GB to the same cable as a slave to the 20GB master that I realized it was the cable. A brand new 120GB wouldn't constantly try to park like an older 8GB. *shrug*

The 20GB worked fine throughout the whole thing.

Like I said, it's a long shot and probably not the problem but at this point, what could it hurt? What if it is the cable and you end up freezing that drive.

 

[kursplat]

i just had a friend call me about a dead drive (20 gig WD) and told him about freezer trick. worked great for him , managed to recover all his important stuff. he even (not realizing he could skip it ) let it run scandisk at boot since it crashed the last time he had it on.
good luck

 

[BlueWeasel]

Woot! Hell yeah!

The freezer trick worked great and I was able to get of the important data moved over to another drive. Ironically, I always thought the "frozen drive" theory was a myth....

Thanks guys....now I don't have to spend hours on hours re-downloading the pr0n that I thought I had lost...

OMG! Did I just say that??!!

 

[MarkFahey]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
Woot! Hell yeah!

The freezer trick worked great and I was able to get of the important data moved over to another drive. Ironically, I always thought the "frozen drive" theory was a myth....

Thanks guys....now I don't have to spend hours on hours re-downloading the pr0n that I thought I had lost...

OMG! Did I just say that??!!

HOLY CRAP!

As Batman's arch enemy Mr. Freeze would say, "Vild... Simply Vild!" Great call bacillus!

 

[nick1985]

thats friggin sweet

 

[zippy]

Any idea on why the freezer trick works?

 

[gregor7777]

now I don't have to spend hours on hours re-downloading the pr0n that I thought I had lost

Ahhh, and once again pornography fuels innovation.

How can we ever thank you porn?

 

[zephyrprime]

It worked once for me too with a drive I had many years ago.

 

[RyanM]

Note to self. Do this tomorrow. Make sure to recover the graphics design files first, the school documents archive second...wait, scratch that. The porn second...

 

[Mday]

um, ?????

??
????

sorry, that's all i can say. i hear you can fix a broken car by kicking it.

 

[bgeh]

well, it's like one of the strange things that you can never explain in life.....................
it was like the time when my computer refused to boot and i took 3 hours to rewire and re-seat every thing carefully but yet it refused to boot. gave it one angry kick and tried pressing the button again and 'shocks' it booted:Q
don't ask me how it ever happened

 

[DX2Player]

Ya, one time on of the pixels on my monitor died so I threw it out my second floor window and walaa, good as new.

 

[JonBarillari]

Originally posted by: zippy
Any idea on why the freezer trick works?

I found this...

"5. Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, (head geometry, electrical resistance lowered, electrical contact points adjusted, etc., assumed to be the miracle here)."

here

 

[thorin]

More info here:

200 Ways to Revive a Hard Drive
If you don't have a Tech Republic account use:
UID: at2001@my.net
PASS: at2001

Thorin

 

[Bovinicus]

I guess it makes sense, but I never really thought that trick would work upon initially hearing about it.

 

[Mist]

The freezer trick worked for me too, a while ago. I put the HD inside a plastic bag and left it overnight in the freezer. Then in the morning, I slaved it and transferred the data.

The way I figure it worked was because by freezing it, I compressed everything, cold makes things shrink, right?

So, I only had a very short time to transfer the data before the disk warmed up and expanded again.

Interestingly, the same technique also works with CDs, by the same principle, in that by freezing them, the data 'pits' contract making them sharper and more precise.

If you don't believe me, try it if you have a faulty CD. Leave it in overnight, though, and then be fast.

Michael.

 

[alkemyst]

Theorem i: COLD = SHRINKAGE
Theorem ii: SIZE MATTERS
Theorem iii: COMPUTERS HAVE FEELINGS.

Deduction: Since the HD was shrunk it knew it's vast Pr0N collection would go to waste, thus feeling bad it relented and decided to share again one last time .


It has to do with the thermal calibration stuff, and that it all gets set down to the minimums once the drive is 'frozen'.

 

[Mist]

Theorem iii: COMPUTERS HAVE FEELINGS.

LOL!!

That's funny, because I have believed for a long time that there is some kind of 'relationship' going on between me and my PC.

Test it, if you're in a bad mood, your PC won't behave as it normally does, if you're in a good mood, your PC will do everything and more, than you would expect it to do.

I honestly do believe that it's very much like having a pet dog.

And wait until they start producing CPUs with microbes shifting the data. Then the 'living machine' will become a reality.

Michael.

 

[dkozloski]

Hard drives are very sensitive to temperatures because the tolerances are very critical for the placement of the heads over the data tracks. When you power up a drive some of the sounds you hear are a series of trial seeks to calibrate the mechanism that positions the heads. The click of death, often heard, is the sound of the heads hitting the stops because the correct data track cannot be found and the head goes beyond normal travel to the mechanical limits. Putting the drive in the freezer puts the calibration mechanism in a state beyond that of room temperature and possibly into a range where it can work at least temporarily.