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Hard Drive Freezer Trick - have you ever tried it? | ||
Discussion by serverph with 35 Replies.
Last Update: February 1, 2012, 8:29 am ( View Rated (2) ) (View Latest) | Page 1 of 2 pages. | ||
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my old harddrive can't be detected in the bios, and it makes this clicking noise on boot up. i remember this hard drive freezer trick i read before, but i'm wary to try it on my own.
even if i can chalk it up to experience, i'm still scared on what will happen if i do. anybody among you tried this freezer trick? i want to have first-hand info from my peers in this forum, and not just those posted in some other sites claiming it does work.
see, there is one who tried the trick and here are images of his attempt:
funny images, you see?
obviously, that guy wasn't doing it right. what's your experience?
You should try this:
Put your broken HDD somewhere in your room so that it adjusts to your room temperature. Next, put your HDD in a plastic bag and place it in your freezer for a few hours (or overnight). While the HDD is "chilling"
, you need to prepare your existing system for the recovery process... Make sure that there is enough space left on your working HDD because you don't want to run out of it while you are copying all of your files! Also, try to copy the most important files from your damaged HDD first before doing the rest...Remember, this is a very time-crucial process! You can only do this a couple of times before the HDD finally stops responding even to this treatment!
Read this before continuing.
http://www.pcmech.com/show/harddrive/664/7
http://www.trisweb.com/archives/2005/06/15...-freezer-trick/
PS: The worst thing that can happen is that the HDD doesn't get detected by the BIOS
But, the best thing that can happen is that you can get your data back!
Good luck!
drive and copying the data off after every step.
1. Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Vertical is also
another option.
2. Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the drive).
3. Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle worker here).
4. Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2.
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).
6. After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your knuckle this time.
7. Repeat all of above steps on next day, as sometimes I've gotten data off drive simply by trying again.
Personally, if the data is not that important, what's the point? Just to do it?
I have tried this, and I have to admit, it hasn't done squat. I don't know who came up with this idea, or if it is just a myth.
Physics say that metal, cold or frozen condenses or contracts. Hence putting more pressure on the drive. It would be better to heat the drive up., freeing up and friction because the platters and all the metal would expand. But then that could also add more problems to and already bad situation.
There is a way to copy data from a drive one bit at a time. But you need to get the drive to a bootable state. If this can not be done, I don't know of any app or trick that can fix that. That is why there are companies out there that make lots o money from data recovery.
Just my opinion
Those images left me actually clueless.
This is pretty funny though, and you're right, you dont have anything to lose. Your hard drive is screwed anyways so why not try and freeze the damn thing. Haha. I wouldnt recommend leaving it ontop of your computer like that guy did though due to the fact that it will melt all over your motherbaord and stuff. Haha that wouldn't be too good. Worth a shot.
Better try this rather than losing all your data.
The way it works, in my understanding of electronics, and physics is: electrical resistance of a material lowers, the cooler that material is... That's due to a fact, that atoms move erradicly around, and the lower the temperature is, they are slowing down... When they are still (or close to a halt), that allows for more electrical current to pass trough, and the drop in voltage or power is lower... I'm sure I made an error somewhere in this text, but the principle is that...
That's why this freezer trick won't work on mechanical problems... It may help bypass blown capacitor, or bridge some broken connection, but it can't fix any mechanical problem... In fact, it may even worsen it...
But, since the drive is dead anyways, and I'm sure you don't have big bucks to take that hard drive to a company that rescues your data for a living, you have nothing to lose by trying this... Take some pictures, and make some proof of whether this works, or is just a myth... Maybe we should have Myth Busters try this?
it's not proven to work but hey other people say that it works to just have at er'! you have nothing to lose. but i don't see why you would want to freeze your hardrive as most hard drives become un-operational below 10 degrees. thats why a computer wont run in the freezing cold. so i've heard.........
this trick is freaking me out, this is unusual, there is a lot of data recovery software you can buy out there that let you recover your data but that would be expensive, if this trick really work then i think it will be great, you can have your data back without losing money. anyways i don't have a broken harddisk so i guess i won't be needing this trick
.
I Discovered the following:
If the motor driver chip is fractured (It won't spin up)
You can indeed help by freezing the drive.
HOWEVER, you stand a chance of condensation with this method.
a shot of freeze spray will do the same trick without as much danger to your platter. (You can turn a can of dusting air over to become freeze spray.)
I do recovery for a living and DO NOT RECOMMEND this method if you care about your data. The chip can be replaced by desoldering and resoldering a new chip on the board with better success.
I have a cooler bay I use to hold the drive and keep it cool during transfer.
This is a steel cage you screw the drive down in that has 8 pizeo electric coolers & cpu fans attached to.
This keeps the drive cool and extends the time you have to pull data off.
(Heat is your enemy for sure)
Again, If your data is important to you and you wish a professional job,
Seek professional services.
-CoreDataRecovery.com
Hard Drive Freezer Trick
I have been having a problem with my hard drive in an external usb enclosure. I had tried everything and had heard about freezing it.
I was very concerned about putting it in the freezer so I did the next best thing,I put it outside. It is a very warm 32 degrees right now. I let the hard drive "chill" for about an hour and now no problems!
-sparkette27
Thats because your ipod had condensation (water in it) so you had to wait for it to warm up, hence the need for a plastic bag when you put your hdd in the freezer. The hard drive trick works, and works well. Also on the stubborn ones, you can put them in the oven on about 250, then put the in the freezer for an hour.
Don't Freeze it into ice like that, just put it in a ziplock bag, get all the air out you can and then freeze it. Quickly take out the drive and put it in as a second drive in a system...Use something like linux or perhaps norton ghost with -FRO (you need something that can ignore bad sectors if there are any as your time is limited)
Hard Drive Freezer Trick
My laptop hard disk endured a shock a few days ago. It worked as normal for about a day, but a slight whirring noise was noticeable when the laptop was tilted. This got gradually worse, and it eventually got to the point where the whirring was a lot more violent and sounded as though the disk might have been scraping (or perhaps slipping on the spindle?) Later that day the hard drive would not stop the violent whirring noise, despite being on a flat surface, and the laptop bluescreened. When I attempted to restart the machine, the laptop would not boot from the hard disk. No more whirring was heared, but the HDD fault icon appeared on the Toshiba boot screen. I tried taking the drive out, re-inserting, but this did nothing. I could hear a normal quiet whirring when I put my ear to the drive, but I could not boot from the disk. I replaced the hard drive with a spare, and installed a fresh copy of XP onto the spare drive, and the laptop is now working fine, however I am very keen to recover my data from the old drive. I have read several reports, all suggesting different data recovery techniques, but I am not sure which to try. I have purchased an external USB caddy for the drive to try to recover files from it, however I'm not sure if there are any precautions I need to take first. The freezing method sounds promising, however I am worried that if I use this it may just make the fault worse (I have read that this can damage the protective film on the disk platters). Perhaps I should try using the dive in the external caddy before freezing it? I am aware that the fault in the drive must be mechanical because of the sounds being produced as the drive was dying, so if data is recoverable, I may only have a limited recovery period before the drive becomes completely unrecoverable. I have also read about daisy-chaining it with a healthy hard drive, and using FDISK to make a copy of the contents. This is not going to be simple, as it is a laptop hard drive, however I will attempt this if it is the best way to go about data recovery. My guesses are that either the internal spindle has come loose as a result of the shock (as was suggested by a professional) or that the drive has endured a head-crash. Either way, when put back into the laptop, no irregular noises are heared, just the normal quiet whirring that it has always produced (yet the HDD failure icon still appears on the screen). I would be most appreciative of any suggestions or advice, because the data is quite important and very irreplaceable. Thanks in advance.
I crashed a hard drive on my laptop. Bought an enclosure for the sick drive, used the program that I found online: Recover Data...About found almost everything (around 95%of my original files) I am a happy camper! but this experience was stressfull! I learned a valuable lesson...BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP!
Just received a WD notebook ATA drive with a stuck spindle (sister's bf stepped on her laptop doh!). She had not backed it up like I recommended when I rescued it from a botched Vista SP1 update last time, so she faced losing all of her data.
I placed the drive in an aluminum USB enclosure that I picked up from newegg for and popped it into the freezer for ~3 hours.. Bingo-Bango!
I'm backing up the data now with no errors. Didn't even have to leave it in the freezer and run the cable out to the counter.
Initially, I got the same "spindle is stuck" sound, but a couple of gentle taps on the side (NOT the top or bottom) were enough to unstick it.
My opinion: If the drive is toast anyway, why not give it a shot?
-reply by Chris T
Your ipod didn't work that well because it has a BATTERY. Batteries work better when warm and the loss of voltage has more of an affect than the increase in electrical efficiency that the cold brings. Liquid water getting in your ipod wouldn't make it slow, it would make it not work as it would be shorting circuits. Ice in your ipod wouldn't do much of anything until it melted.
I got a dead hard drive and am definitely using this method as soon as I get a new drive to put the stuff on.
This will only work if the electronic components go out. When that happens microscopic wires break and freezing them allows them to shrink and reconnect but as soon as it heats back up they disconnect again. This will not work for a clicking issue unless the clicking is not what caused the problem in the first place. Clicking is the head crashing into the platter because of an uneven surface. freezing will do nothing to correct that.
What are the chances of recovering data from an external hard drive in which the platters are severely damaged? Does anyone know any data recovery centers in the US who are experts in handling a situation like this? Please provide with names and phone numbers.
-reply by antika
. If at all that can be done the fact is that the electricity bills will go high due to the use of that freezing equipment which will be fitted in the CPU. Still instead of keeping a computer in the Air Condition and paying the Electricty bills for the Air condition it can be spent on a Freezer if that works out successfully .
I just tried the freezer trick and it worked for me. I have a 500GB Seagate Agent Desk external hard drive. I have only had the hard drive for about a month and only put about 1.5GB of music on it. The drive was not detected by my computer. I wrapped the hard drive in a paper towel then put it in a plastic ziploc bag and then placed it in my freezer for 30 minutes. After I plugged it back in it took about 2 or 3 minutes for it to power up. It worked for about 5 minutes which was long enough for me to retrieve and files I had stored on the drive. It is now dead again. Hope this helps anyone in need.
Thanks!
QUOTE (adam)
hi, i recently spillt water on my laptop and now when i try to start it, it does not detect the hard drive - even in bios mode. i was wondering if this freezing trick may work in this situation?? or if anyone has any other suggestions? thanks.
Link: view Post: 493544
Did you have a look inside the laptop ??
Did u take the hard disk out of the laptop and test it ???
If you have not tried the above then you need to.... And this is ONLY if you can...
Turn the laptop over and find the cover with the hard disk symbol on it...
It will be approx 3.5 inch the normal size of a laptop hard disk....
Once you find the hard disk do not unscrew it directly...
Turn your laptop on and try to listen to the hard disk if its making weird sounds or if it sounds normal...
If it does make weird sounds you can go ahead with the freezer trick... Basically if your hard disk has a ticking sound, Its damaged..
Buy or 3.5 inch external hard disk case... It will help you transfer the data through usb and you do not need to take the risk of running a condensing hard disk in your laptop....
With the 3.5 inch case you can confirm if your laptop hard disk is damaged and you need to do consider the freezer trick...
If the above does not work and you have to use the freezer trick... Follow all the ways to do it but do not insert into the laptop...
I tried the freezer trick and was actually able to recover my data for about 10 minutes which was enough time for me to get what I needed. It's a very simple easy trick. If you are still nervous to try it check out this link. I bought this auction for $1 entitled Hard Drive Recovery (199 Solutions to access your dead hard drive), this is where I got the freezer idea that worked for me but maybe one of the other ways will work better for you.
http://www.solutionauctions.com/Buy_Hard_Drive_Recovery__199_Solutions_to_access_your_dead_hard_drive__in_Buy_Solutions_Computers/5492/#ask-seller
Good luck!
The freezing idea is great if you are planning to lay down electrical cabling and can put a water-tight covering all around it and cover it up with snow because resistance decreases with lower temperatures (read about super conductivity) but I cannot say that it would work with a hard disk drive.
If you do need to keep a hard disk cold while it is running, you could try using liquid nitrogen. There's still the condensation problem that you would want to work out.
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