On Dec 16, 2009, at 3:24 AM, Boris Gimbarzevsky wrote:
Anyone else have experience of "restoring"
HDD's by freezing them?
I've used this technique before when I've got a HDD that won't spin
up and I toss it in my freezer for about an hour at -10 F and then
connect the power. I can't remember where I read this but I've
successfully used it on 2 drives to get them to spin up long enough
that I can copy their contents. From what I've read on this thread
it might have been a fluke (we're talking about modern sealed
drives here no more than 10 years old).
It's not a fluke. I call it "the freezer trick" and have used it
many times to get "just a little more life" out of a drive, usually
just long enough to retrieve critical data. I've never investigated
why this works, as I've only done it during a crisis, and after
successfully retrieving said critical data I'd usually hit a pitcher
or two of margaritas.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL