Put Your Hard Drive in the Freezer to Recover Data
Posted on September 5, 2006
Filed Under Hardware, Tips | 77 Comments
Have you ever had a hard drive that just wouldn’t boot and all you could hear was it making a clicking noise? If you have then you know this is usually a bad sign. However, there is still some hope. In most cases you can use this little trick to retrieve your files. Just follow these simple steps.
The first thing you want to do is remove the drive from the computer and put it in a sealed plastic bag to avoid condensation. Then put the drive in a freezer and leave it overnight. When you are ready, pull the drive out of the freezer and hook it up quickly. Boot up the drive and start backing up the files. Act quickly because you may only have around 20 minutes to do this. I have seen some reports however, of this fixing the problem all together.
Yes I know this sounds crazy and believe me I thought it was until I actually saw it work. I’m not exactly sure why this works but I’m guessing it has something to do with the heads retracting because of the cold temperature. If you have had any experience with this feel free to post about it.
Other Posts You Might Like:
- How to Recover Data from a Crashed Hard Drive
- How to Permanently Wipe All Data from a Hard Drive
- How to Fix a Stuck or Dead Pixel
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77 Responses to “Put Your Hard Drive in the Freezer to Recover Data”
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I am a computer repair technician for a major movie studio and have been fixing computers for over 10 years and I can say that this is the first time I have ever heard of this type of “repair”. However I could see it working, at least in the short term but I seriously doubt it would actually repair the drive for any lenght of time beyond data backup. If this works for you immediately backup your data. DON’T EXPECT THIS TO FIX YOUR DRIVE PERMANTLY OR AT ALL AND REGULARLY BACK UP YOUR DATA, IF YOU DO YOU WONT HAVE TO WORRY! Also I would double or triple bag the drive if you try this because you really don’t want moisture in around or on the drive at all.
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Yes I agree Josh that no one should rely on this to fix the problem permanently. I would just recommend using it long enough to backup your data and restore it to another drive. I did, however, read another article where a guy said his drive was still going strong a year later after doing this. I probably wouldn’t trust it though.
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I have used this technique for many years to recover data from dead drives. If you have a failing electronic component, it may work fine when cold, but dies once heated. If it’s a mechanical problem, cooling down the drive will allow the lubrication in the mechanisms to thicken giving a few minutes of usage to recover data before failure. I had one drive that was so bad once that I had to hose it down with the liquid refrigent from cans of compressed air every 30-40 seconds. I have since relocated my small fridge in my lab next to my test bench with a external USB enclosure in the freezer portion. This is a disaster recovery technique and will not fix a problem with the drive. So once you get the drive operational, get all the data off that you can before it fails again.
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Good idea John with moving the fridge to the test bench. I can also say that I have seen this technique work. As said above, always back up your data so that you don’t have to worry about failing hard drives.
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This is also the same for microsoft xbox hard drive failures. My friend’s xbox died on him and I can’t remember if he called microsoft or if he found it on a wesbite. But it temporarily fixed it so he could get his saved information off of it. So it does work, just temporarily.
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I started using this technique a few years ago when working as a desktop technician for an automotive parts manufacturer. We would often receive laptop from our general managers that would no longer boot (toshiba satellite series). Once we determined that the drive wasn’t spinning, we would place them in an anti-static bag and then inside 2 ziploc brand freezer bags. Once frozen over night, we took them out and transfered all the data and then ordered new hard drives.
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Dry ice?
Thank you for posting this, it sounds like a great trick and makes plenty of sense. Has anyone tried using dry ice instead? The ice does not melt (since it is solid CO2) and should cool the drive to at least -20 to -30 degrees Centigrade, if not lower (the ice itself sublimes at -78 C).
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[...] Another option is to try a very successful method I discussed in the previous article titled Put Your Hard Drive In The Freezer To Recover Data. [...]
I’ve used this process several times. I am always impressed when the drive allows me to pull files from it.
One time when it did not work, I filled a zip lock bag with extremely hot water and placed it on the cold drive. The temperature differential seemed to free the bearings in the drive allowing me to get at the data
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As one who has worked intimately with designers of HDD’s I can tell you there are may things that may cause this to “work”. In the case of “permanent” recovery, the cause is usually a stuck voice coil (moves the heads). Sometimes a surge will cause the voice coil to move farther than it is supposed to, and temporarily “jam” internally. This is a consideration that is usually accounted for when designing HDD’s, although manufacturing tradeoffs can allow it to occur under extreme circumstances, such as when the drive is very hot & the voice coil is overdriven, because of metal expansion the heads can move to a position they normally wouldn’t, causing a jam. One other mechanical problem might be the circuit board itself. One small bad solder joint when heated enough will lose contact due to heat extension, and when cooled make contact again. The same can be true for a crack in the copper trace layer on the circuit board. These can be almost impossible to trace down having done it for HDD mfgr “autopsies” (they want to know why a drive failed too)
One other strange thing involves the silicon electronics. I have been wokring with solid state devices since 1970, and I never cease to be amazed by a phenomen I occasionally see, whereby “silicon” repairs itself. A shorted transistor will un-short, and then perform normally. Usually this is accomplished by cooling the device. I think that the contraction must re-connect the silicon atoms somehow.!? Sometimes they have been subjected to very high voltages, and cooling them has rarely causd them to work again. I have had components that fail under heat & when I cool them with “Freeze Spray” they recover & wokr normally until they heat up again. In rare instances, they never appear to fail again – very weird
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ryan Reply:
February 21st, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I tried the freezer trick with my freeagent external. The first time it didn’t work. The second time I froze it for 2 days, took it out, and was able to transfer one small folder at a time. If I tried to move a big file it started knocking again and I would have to turn it off and turn it back on again. After about 25 minutes it started working perfectly and I was able to transfer large files. I’m now on day two and the drive appears to be permanently fixed. I don’t understand how it works but it does.
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I have a Maxtor that went bad in 6 months. Sounds like the arm is stuck. I am going to try the freezer method, sounds silly but I am ready to try anything to get this thing to work…
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I wonder if anyone has ever put the drive in an enclosure and kept it in the freezer or fridge and ran the cables back to their computer? Could this make it run long enough to recover large amounts of data?
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I want everyone to know about my experience with my hard drive. I had seen this posting about freezing the hard drive to get it to work. I had my laptop hard drive crash after a vacation where I had downloaded all vacation pictures and no backed them up. Besides having around 3000 other family pics plus all my family history material. I had sent my hard drive off to have data recovered. They told me $1500.00. I could not afford this sum. I thought what did I have to lose. I would try this method. My hard drive was majorly damaged they said. The first two times of freezing did not work. The third time I froze the hard drive only in two freezer zip lock bags for 20 hours. When I tried it no such luck it still made the horrible clicking noise and would not reboot. It kept telling me to put in the system recover disk. I left it running for awhile hoping that maybe it was too frozen. After about 20-30 minutes, it quit making the clicking noise but was still giving me the intel boot failed messages. I did CTRL ALT DEL the screen went black. Nothering happened and then I thought maybe it went off. I started the computer again and lo and behold I swear it started booting windows xp up. I held my breath and got my external hard drive plugged in and I swear on my childrens lives I got almost two hours of it working. I downloaded 4,484 pictures and anything else I wanted. I was through so I turned it off. I turned it back on and it wouldn’t work again and of course was making the horrible clicking noise. I can’t still believe it but this is the truth. I am so grateful. To me with my family pictures saved, it is a computer miracle. Thank you Thannk you, Thank you.
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Thank you for the great advice! It worked like a charm! After a hard drive failure, I gave up trying to get my data back and bought a new one. I was ready to toss the old one away, when I read this article. It not only worked long enough to get everything back, it’s still working fine as a second drive. (and I learned to back stuff up more often)
Thanks again.
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I didn’t know how to take the hard-drive out of my laptop, so I just put the entire computer in the freezer over night. I guess I didn’t use enough bags because when I took it out there was condensation all over it. Not wanting to short it out, I let the computer dry out for 48hrs before turning it on. It started up with no problem and it has now been working fine for the last two weeks! Crazy! I have backed-up all my data and was going to toss the laptop, but now I am going to see how much more life I can get out of it. It’s only 7 years old!
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I just found out today that my hard drive is dead. I called every data recovery business and as Beverly stated they want 1500 or more. I have very priceless pictures on my hard drive of my children. What is the best type of zip lock bag should I purchase or do I need to buy something more durable
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A regular zip lock bag should be fine. Just make sure that no moisture can get in.
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So, I have a Western Digital External HDD that stopped working (something about cyclic redundancy?) while I was trying to transfer a massive amount of data from it to a new external. Now, when I turn it on by plugging it in, it tries to boot, but ends up ramping up, then clicking, slowing back down, ramping up, clicking, etc. again and again…so I promptly unplug it…
Any ideas if this freezer thing will work? I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try…do I need to take out the internal part to freeze or can I put the whole thing in there?
Thanks!
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Sam,
You will need to put the whole drive in there. Just make sure you put it in a zip lock bag first.
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I have used the freezer technique twice and was able to recover the data to a working primary drive. I have also tried “Component Cooler” spray also on some drives. I think I’ll try CO2 next and see how that goes.
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Ok, I have the same clicking (I could use a better word) problem. So tonight ill grab a zip-lock and try it. I’m getting different times to keep it in the freezer though. Any accurate or “safe” times to trial this??
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Although this technique works in certain circumstances, there are many cases where it will not. Freezing had gotten a lot of mileage in recent years as a recovery method, but most people that have touted it hve no idea why it works, or when to apply it. Their good luck may be your bad luck if your problem is different than theirs.In 99% of the cases that it works, it is because of the head arm. For those of you that may not know, the heads ride above the surface of the platter at a predetermined distance. When the platter is not spinning, the heads are at rest against the park post, and sitting on the platter. When you power up the drive, the heads and arm do not move away from the park post to 0 sector until the motor is at full speed. This is because the distance between the head and the platter is actually caused by the air currents in the drive. When the platters spin, they obviously create air currents. The inside of the drive, and the aerodynamic design of the arm catch this air current and the air current causes the heads to float at a certain height. If the drive motor slows, or you have a power brown out, the heads can hit the platter, causing a “head crash”. I said all of that so it is easier to understand why freezing works.
If the motor starts to slow from age or whatever, or something happens to the drive that the heads aren’t floating at the right height (too low), they won’t read the sectors properly. When this happens, the drive tries to reset itself by sending the heads back to the park post and then setting out fresh to find 0 sector again. When the heads continue to not find 0 sector, this cycle repeats continuously, and the clicking or knocking you hear is the arm hitting the park post. The clicking itself is not harming anything, although it sounds bad! What the freezing does is increase the distance between the head and surface, re-establishing that gap. It is only in this instance that freezing will work. If the heads have crashed or are dead, which will also cause the clicking because the heads can’t read anymore, freezing will do nothing. If heads are dead, then heads are dead. Here is a little tip to tell if your heads are dead, or if there is still life in them and something else is the problem. Plug the power to the drive without hooking the drive to the computer. Just power. If the clicking starts immediately, either the heads or the controller are dead, and no freezing or anything else will get your data. The only fix for this is a clean room to replace the heads first. If there is a 2 or 3 second or more pause before clicking, or you hear the arm seeking before the clicking, then freeing might help. The problem with freezing is that it is a path of no return. If you freeze the drive and DON’T get what you want, most times the clean room can’t even help you now. So only use freezing as a last resort and when you KNOW the budget doesn’t allow a clean room.
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Hey Ste,
Leaving it in the freezer overnight while you sleep should be sufficient. You could probably get away with leaving it in for a shorter time frame but this is usually how long I leave it in for.
Kevin,
I really appreciate your clarification and insight. It makes a lot of sense.
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I have not tried freezing a drive yet, but was thinking if putting the drive in a bag and using one of those vacuum sealing machines for food storage would be good to keep moisture from entering?
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Everyone talks about drive failure I’m wondering what are some of the failures that you guys are having. I get invalid boot disk. Is this something that a freezer might fix for a few minute
Rick
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One of my college buddies told me that I should freeze my hard drive to recover data and back it up to a new drive. I looked at him like he was messed up on drugs, but I listened to him and decided to give it a shot. To be completely honest it actually worked. I placed my hard drive next to frozen pizza and chicken nuggets and left it there for 4 hours. Than I used this frozen hard drive as an external drive to recover data from it to my new already installed drive in the computer. I was really excited to see that this trick worked, from now on I tell people to do the same and they look at me as I was tripping on something.
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I tried freezing it but all that came up afterwards was ‘invalid boot disk,’ just like before i froze it. Would it work if I froze it and tried again? The only change that occurred was that there was less noise coming from the drive. It used to make screeching noises, and now it does not. If I tried again, would it get better? Please advise. Thanks.
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Hi Lillie,
Unfortunately, this isn’t a guaranteed fix so if it didn’t work the first time it’s probably not going to work if you try it again. Your only other option might be to send it off to a data recovery service.
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Oh, alright, thanks Casey. I hope they can at least fix it for me.
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I’m going to try this later today…I have 160 gigs of precious data(family pictures,videos,years old data) on a Samsung SP1614N I cant retrieve(yes I know back up)
Excellent advice above, after spending ages trying all sorts I stumbled across this site.
I will let you know how it goes
Tcm
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didnt work…….oh f*ck…….deep frozen it for a go next week when i get back from Russia.
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can someone recommend the best software for recovering data from a crashed harddrive. it is showing up in windows explorer but will not let me access it. I want to try use software before putting it in the freezer.
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Snx,
Maybe this article will help. http://www.caseytech.com/how-to-recover-data-from-a-crashed-hard-drive/
Casey
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After a power outage computer would not start.
Bought computer with basic CD rom drive and Xp
Pulled the old hard drive and froze it over night WALLA couldn’t believe it booted when I put in new computer. You are a miracle worker
But now I can’t send files to Cd Rom.works fine reading material on disk but cannot send files to it.
Shows up as F drive. when using SEND TO or SAVE AS ’says Selected drive not in use. Check disk to make sure disk is inserted is inserted”
I’m elated to have my old files back but now I can’t save them on disks in case it ever happens again
Hope this is not off topic. Greatly appreciate any help
Lou
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Hi.
Good design, who make it?
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Hey! Everyone I told about this idea told me that it was the most ridiculous thing they had ever heard-especially all of my tech loving friends. I tried it because I had nothing to lose, and to my shock and happiness I was able to access my drive and pull about 35 gig of data before it failed again. I couldn’t believe it!!!! All of my friends were amazed. Thanks for the advice.
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Also, apparently reading more about my drive this failure for no apparent reason is nothing new. From everything I’ve been reading stay away from Western Digital My Books. Any suggestions on a good manufacturer/external?
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Hi Steve,
Thanks for the comments. I’m surprised that you have been informed to stay away from the Western Digital My Books. We use them at work and haven’t had any issues with them. I especially like the My Books that contain dual hard drives for mirroring. That way, if one fails, your data is still safe on the other. As far as other brands of external hard drives go, I’m not sure.
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Hi Folks,
I have 6 WD HDs, and this Summer I put them away in a drawer for about 2 months. When I plugged them in again last week, 2 of them would spin up, click 3 times, spin down and then repeat that cycle. Both drives would then show up in Device Manager, but not in My Computer or Disk Management. Tried changing USB cables, power bricks, uninstalling all USB controllers etc. No luck! I’ll try the freezing thing now, before attempting to plug them directly into my computer case. WD’s response to me on their support line was useless – basically: “Sorry Guy, sounds like you have bad drives. Bring ‘em to your local computer expert, maybe he can do something”. WD – bah!
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Hi Kilian,
So did the freezer trick work for you?
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RE-FREEZING THE DRIVE
I needed to recover over 100GB of data from my disk. I used the freezing trick and it worked first time but I only manged to get 10GB of data. I therefore returned the drive to teh freezer to refreeze it. This worked.
I have repeated the process over 10 times now and have continued to get data from the drive. HOWEVER, the drive is gradually getting worse (which I am not fussed about cause it is covered by the warrenty).
Finally – in my experience adding a bag of frozen pees to the top of the drive (make sure it remains in the sealed bag) seems to lengthen the usage of the drive….Happy Days.
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I’ve got a 160 gig Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 that does seem to get spinning but then it clicks once
and the data light goes off.
My laptop has Xp on it for an operating system.
When you plug the drive into the USB port It starts to see the drive then it pops up a message that there is a problem with the device.
I have been using a known good external HDD case (brand new in fact)
The reason I know the case works is because I have another drive that does work in it.
Its 6 degrees outside (Ya gotta Love New York weather) so I put the Drive in a ziplock bag and opened up my grill and set it on the bun warmer shelf.
I have 50000 or so songs on this drive.. I hope this works.
I will post my results.
I left it out there for 1 hour I’m sorry to say this did not work.
I am going to leave it out there over night to see if that works.
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My daughters Mac Book, still under warranty, seems to have died, with the whirring noises described in the above postings. All that we want to recover are her photos. Her docs are all archived. When she tries to start the computer all she gets is the flashing “?” mark. It won’t go any further. I don’t know how to remove the hard drive and wonder if i can freeze the entire computer if i seal it properly? Also I wonder if removing her hard drive and reinstalling it will void the warranty diminishing her chances to either get the computer fixed or replaced. Thanks for any advice.
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Casey Reply:
March 8th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Hi Robert,
I’m not sure if just removing your hard drive to recover files off of it would void the warranty or not. Give Apple a call if you want to be certain. If you do want to give it a shot, iFixit.com has a very good tutorial on how to remove a hard drive from a Macbook. http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Browse/Mac As far as freezing the whole computer goes, I have no experience. However, I don’t think I would even try it because I’m not sure what effects it might have on the LCD screen or the battery. Hope this helps!
-Casey
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Mark Reply:
March 14th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Hi Robert,
I have a macbook sitting in front of me with the exact same problem. Unfortunately the freezing trick in our case didn’t resurrect the drive. I would *not* recommend putting the whole laptop in the freezer. You run the risk of condensation forming on the electronics when you take it out, and likely other than the Hard drive failing the rest of the laptop is fine.
Anyway, good luck!
Mark
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hello ! thank you for the great tip ! It has saved the data from my hard drive. I had a LaCie 250GB external drive which had a mechanical failure and thought I had lost all my files. I put in in the freezer for 24hrs wrapped in 2 Ziploc freezer bags, fired it up and recovered the data. I’ve purchased a WD hard drive since, so I hope it is better, I will definitely be backing up more often. Thanks again – good luck with yours.
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I’m going to try this with my 250gb drive, really hope it works and I’ll let you know….sounds crazy to me though!haha! Going to get the ziplocks tomorrow.
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So I’ve just tried this, and ran into a problem immediatly. My computer finds the disk (Im using a swedish version of XP so i dont know all the terms in english) in disk management, but it doesnt show up as a drive when double clicking My Computer. What do I do?
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I just bought a hard drive enclosure and saran wrapped it closed after adding the clicking hard drive in it. I then froze it for 2 hours left it is the freezer and punched a hole where the power goes and the usb plug goes. then attached it to my laptop and was able to copy the data from the drive to my laptop. Thanks everyone for helping me out.
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I have connected a laptop to my harddrive (in an external enclosure) while it is in the freezer. It looks pretty funny with a usb cable running out of my freezer but it gives me unlimited time to backup important files, kinda like Aaron…
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I just took my failing WD myBook and, with firewire and power still attached, wrapped it in saran wrap, then paper towels, then saran wrap again and put it in the freezer of my mini-fridge. I’m leaving it in there for a day before i try to fire it up and get my data. Hopefully I can be another cinderella story like some of the earlier posts…
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Brian Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Hey Paul,
Did you have any luck with putting your MyBook (with power still connected) in the freezer and then pulling the data off?
I want to try this method too – but is there any danger with having a power cable plugged in to something that’s in the freezer?
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Casey Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Hi Brian,
I think Paul was talking about putting the actual hard drive (not the whole computer) in the freezer while the hard drive was attached using a firewire cable. I would not recommend putting the whole laptop in the freezer as this could cause serious problems to the LCD screen, battery, and other components. See Robert’s question on March 8th as well as our replies.
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Casey Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Sorry about that, I misread your comment. I’ve never tried this method and don’t know if there is any danger to this or not. Maybe Paul will be able to give us some insight.
Paul Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Hey Fellas,
Worked like a charm! I took my myBook (the external hard drive) with the power and firewire cables plugged in to the hard drive but not the outlet or computer and wrapped it very very very heavily in plastic wrap and paper towel.
My base layer was paper towel and then I alternated heavy layers of plastic wrap with a layer of paper towel. The goal here was that the paper towel would absorb any moisture that tried to sneak in. I was also very careful to seal the wires with electrical tape so that no moisture could sneak though. Then I left things in my freezer over night.
The next morning, I just plugged things in. I had about 30 minutes of usage. Then back to normal. I was able to get into a routine of a few hours in the freezer to about 30 minutes of usage until I got almost all of my 300gb of files back. I was even able to unwrap the old HD after I was done to send it back to western digital for my refund.
So go for it, and good luck.
Paul
Brian Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Thanks for all the info Paul and Casey – and everyone else, I’ll give it a shot.
Brian
Casey Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Yes, thanks for the reply Paul. Very helpful!
Hard drive making noise, getting to windows progress bar on vista but bar keeps going across and not getting any further. used pre boot diag software and getting error code ‘biohd-8′ and the hard drive fails the test, as well as clicking sound ever 2 – 4 seconds. hard drive in 3 freezer seal bags for last hour. will leave it there for 12 hours.
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able to scan for a problem they get the (Not Responding) thing at the top and will not close till I unplug my external drive. This same thing would happen to the external itself if I try to access any folder on it. The hard drive makes no odd sounds and spins as usual. I have asked if this could be some type of virus and all the times I asked people told me no it’s not one. One thing I know I did before it stopped working was leaving it sitting on top of my laptop over night. I am not sure if the heat could have messed it up or not but I have done this many times before. I would really need to know if anybody has had this same issue and I would need to know if the freezing trick could help or need to know if it could hurt anything.
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I was completely skeptical. I thought this was a joke. I had visions of trying this and looking like a fool. I can NOT believe this worked. This saved my ass… literally. 15 years of assets, gone, now saved. Thank you to the guy who figured this out… you are my hero.
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I got a seagate 500gb sata drive in February and the other day my pc just stopped working. using an older WD 160gb ide i can get my pc going again but the computer wont recognize the sata drive, i have also tried this with a sata drive as well. in the bios it detects the 500gb drive but windows doesnt. i have used PC Inspector File Recovery and to no such luck it did not find the drive either. the drive seems to spin up but does nothing after that. will this work or does anyone have any other recommendations?
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i have a sony vaio vgn-fs630/w. it will start up windows and then freeze (but sometimes respondsive) and sit there making a click click sound every 2 seconds. its deffinitly from the hard drive. does anyone think this might help or have any othere idea of what to do? thanks. any help appriciated
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I’ve a external maxtor basic 1tb for only 6mths and have nearly 700gbs of data on it, recently it made the clicking sound lk every 5 secs and it is totally undetectable, i would like to try the freezing technique but i wonder should i place the entire harddisk with its casing in the freezer? or I must remove the casing and leave only the harddisk itself? Removing the case seems like a bad option as it totally void the warranty, so i have no chance for exchanging it after that…
so, is it ok if i do as mentioned but only thing is to place my entire harddisk with its casing in the freezer? will it work as well?
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Casey Reply:
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Hi Superb88,
You should be able to just leave it in the casing as long as the hard drive itself can still get cold. Hope it works!
-Casey
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thx casey, i tried the trick, leave it in my freezer for 12hrs, didn’t work unfortunately, hard disk still clicks away…and remain entirely undetectable
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Casey Reply:
September 6th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, it sounds like you’ll be forced to send it off to a data recovery service. Although they can be pricey, they usually have a pretty good success rate in cases like this.
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Eric Reply:
September 26th, 2009 at 7:45 am
superb88 were you able to recover your data, it sounds like I have a similar situation.
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So I have a Macbook, with a hard drive failure. Called Apple support and after they scolded me about not backing up my data the guy mentioned that he himself has placed his hard drive in the freezer and been able to retrieve data. When I asked him how, he clarified that he could not recommend this as a solution, and that removing my hard drive would likely void my warranty. But he again repeated, that he has known that this freezing thing works. He suggested 3rd party software – Disk Warrior, which I bought and did not work. I think he was trying to throw me a lifeline with the freezer tip, without losing his job. Is it more or less or just a likely to work or not with a Mac versus a Pc based hard drive?
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Casey Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:08 am
Macs and PCs both use the same type of hard drive, they are just formatted differently. So this technique will work just as well with a Mac formatted hard drive as it does with a PC formatted hard drive.
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I’m having the same problem with my 3 year old WD MyBook 500gb external drive – the clicking noise, and then not working afterwards. I’ll try the freezer idea tonight/tomorrow.
But I was wondering: is there any danger if i plug the power cable (and the usb cable – but not worried about the usb part) into the drive while the drive is still in the freezern and then hook it up to my laptop? Someone mentioned doing it that way above, and it makes sense, since most people are saying that as the drive warms up, it’ll stop working again. So sounds like the best thing would be if you could keep the drive in a “frozen” state while pulling all my data off.
Any thoughts/suggestions?
Thanks a TON for this freezer idea people, i wrote all my data off when i heard the dreaded clicking – but now i’m very optimistic again!
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Casey Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Sorry about that, I misread your comment. I’ve never tried this method and don’t know if there is any danger to this or not. Maybe Paul will be able to give us some insight.
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I’m always hearing of this trick working. My brother’s ipod classic 3g started having hard-drive failure. I knew it was HD failure because I was able to hear the hard drive trying to go on and off, and it just kept restarting itself. Anyways I took the HD out of the ipod, and stuck it in the freezer over night, and the next morning everyone was amazed that it worked. Whats more amazing, I did it 3 months ago… and no more problems at all.
Recently my hard drive started messing around, and I was getting “Disk read error occured” and I couldn’t boot up my PC at all. I stuck it in the freezer, and now it’s been going for a week. Still no problems.
How I think this works is the reading head gets worn away, and loose after some use. I noticed that I could always boot up my computer in the morning. So the freezer might be shrinking what was stretched out over time.
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my problem on my hard drive maybe different but its always a good thing to ask. well, i partitioned my 4 year old hard drive into 3 equal sizes and installed mac extended journaled. they were working fine until i have to move 70 GB of files to my Macbook. It froze on me so i force quit and restart the computer. i open it again and it saying that i have to back up my files and reformat my hard drive. But then 1 of the partition is still showing up and every time i copy from it, it will take forever and doesn’t do anything. pretty much freeze my computer. so i tried right now im trying the freezing way and we will see whats gonna happen.
if theres any other way out there, appreciate it for any help.
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so i yeah.. i tried this method and it didnt work for me… i left it there for at least 24 hrs and still just one partition is showing uo and it doesnt copy anything on that partition. So, im guessing that im one of the unlucky person to try this experiment. is there any other way how to recover harddrive failures especially a mac extended (journaled) formated disk or non HFS Plus disk? i really need whats in the harddrive. thanks for any help!!!
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I have a Toshiba 500gb external hard drive and as of yesterday afternoon has been working nicely. Then when I plugged it in after a few hours all i got was the clicking sound for a few seconds then the light will go off and would still be clicking then the light would come back on and the clicking would go away. But the device wouldn’t appear in My Computer. After reading all the testimonials I wrapped my ehd in 4 sheets of paper towels and put inside 2 ziplock bags and into our freezer. I’m sleeping on it and try to retrieve my files tomorrow. I’m keeping my fingers crossed too.
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Seagate barracuda 750GB, something lite fell on it:
I had that clicking, too. I froze it at -4 Degree, started and after spinning up the clicking was only ones. That looked promising. I froze it to -10 degree in my camping freezer box and than I heared a lot of different stuff, one click, than something that sounds like a rubberball would fall on a surface, and than it stopped spinning automaticly, all in one session! Next try after I let it come back to normal temperatur and freezing down -14 degree I have got for a second a USB recognition on my XP, a window opened but without data, and you could here the arm searching. Next try a little scatching sound came up by seaching, and that made my stop the attemts.
Well, not for me this time – thanks for the info
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