35 replies to this topic

[serverph]

all of a sudden, you see, my loyal hard drive decided to retire about a week ago. i had to buy a new hard drive to replace it, and resume my computer tasks. my old drive is just lying around in my room after that, and i'm wondering how to at least get ahold of my files there (at least the most recent ones -- mostly downloads -- which i failed to backup before it decided to die down on me), if it's still possible.

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?

[bureX]

Hey, you've got nothing to lose! Besides, while doing it, you can take some pictures and post them here, or create a small "Freeze you HDD - HOWTO" page

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.co...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!

[Abhay]

Here are some drive recovery tricks that have worked for me, in the order that I do them. Try booting the
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.

[Moolkye]

That's pretty funny. I have never seen anyone take the "Freezer" trick to that level before. I wonder if it worked

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

[fffanatics]

The freezer trick works wonderfully. Yes, some problems with hard drives will not allow this trick to work due to it being a more mechanical issue rather than sector problems. However, we use it at work for every hard drive that dies (we have over 700 employees so there a ton of dead hard drives) and it has only failed me once in the past 3 months. Leave the hard drive in the freezer for atleast 1 hour. Then try to use it. If it doesnt work try putting it back in the freezer for few more hours and try again. If it still doesnt work, then you know its a mechanical malfunciton and dont waste any more time waiting for it.

[Zero Ziat]

But...That Hard Drive trick sounds REALLY crazy, wouldn't it do any kind of short circuit or something else?

Those images left me actually clueless.

[t3jem]

awesome, I'm going to try this trick when my harddrive dies, sounds like it would work because when you freeze it the conductors are closer letting the electricity flow better, heating it up wouldnt work because if there is a crack or gap in the circuitry it will only make it bigger and prevent any data from being processed.

[PlugComputers]

Haha I have no idea how that would work. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Ipods work using a hard drive like device to store songs. If I leave my Ipod in my car overnight or something and it gets really cold it actually works worse in the morning cold then when it warms up. It has a hard time switching songs/finding songs while cold, but after a few minutes of heating up it seems to work much better.

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.

[Galahad]

Heck, I would try it, if I had to...

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?

[jtmcpherson]

dude i would totally go for it 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.........

[dawgs]

does this trick really work???

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 .

[iGuest]

I've researched this with a lot of hard disks I purchased for the experiment.

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

[iGuest]

hard drive freeze
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

[harshcpu]

The freezer trick is a funny story. It has been said to work and Personally It did not exactly work. Stuck it in a freezer bag to prevent condensation and put it in the freezer for about three hours or so to cool it down. I had read somewhere that the point of the freezer trick is to cool off the components on the board of the drive. If the components get cooled off you MAY get lucky and your drive may work for a couple of mins until the chips and components warm up again and it stops. This may be just enough to get your information backed up. My suggestion would be to try it What do you have to loose. Also if you do get it going again dont waste any time back up your stuff immediately because this is not a permanent fix. Good Luck

[iGuest]

Replying to PlugComputers
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.

[iGuest]

Replying to serverph

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)

[iGuest]

broken laptop HDD - how to recover data?
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.

[iGuest]

crashed hard drive with data recoveryHard Drive Freezer Trick

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 $50  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!

[iGuest]

Hard Drive Freezer trick.Hard Drive Freezer Trick

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 $15 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

 

[iGuest]

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.

[iGuest]

Works only sometimesHard Drive Freezer Trick

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.

[iGuest]

Platter damaged on external hard driveHard Drive Freezer Trick

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

 

[nirmaldaniel]

i guess this thing can be tried out taking some good risk , the thing which needs to be taken care is that there is proper sealing in the place where the power cable is plugged and that water dosent seep in. Still onething that confuses me in that pic is that where and how to drain the water . Keeping a Box in the ice cube size will be fine . Now my mind runs up to to some thing else . The design the cooling stuffs of a processor with so much care and effort. Why cant there be one like where you have a freezer box attached to your CPU in which the hard disk is kept and water has to be filled . Power supply can be given seperately to the freezer box alone. And by this im sure maximum cooling can be obtained though it sounds crazy. And if such a thing can be done hurry patenting it . 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 .

[iGuest]

It really does workHard Drive Freezer Trick

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.