Comments on: Put Your Hard Drive in the Freezer to Recover Data http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/ A Weblog for Emerging Computer Technicians Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:13:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Dain http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-716 Dain Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:13:53 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-716 I have the infamouse Seagate st31000340as 1TB drive's when they first came out. There was a firmware error on all the drives coming out of the factory in china so I was able to send it back and have it reflashed when it started to fail. A few months after having it back however, it started making a clicking noise and would not be reconized by the bios. Ive been sitting on it not using it or my computer at all for the last 4 months, and finally order a new Western Digital hard drive with a real f*cking warranty this time. After receiving it i decided to try my old drive one last time... and the f*cking thing boots up just fine. It gets really cold in my room, im guessing maybe over the corse of 4 months it fixed itself? Ive backed up my photos and what not, and am currently going on 4 hours and the drive is fine. I'm pretty confused, and pissed off at seagate for such a sh*ty drive. I suggest everyone fedEx their shipments for now on, I think the constant shipping of my seagate drive via UPS may have helped lead my hard drive to failure. Has anyone else had their hard drive stop clicking on its own? I have the infamouse Seagate st31000340as 1TB drive’s when they first came out. There was a firmware error on all the drives coming out of the factory in china so I was able to send it back and have it reflashed when it started to fail. A few months after having it back however, it started making a clicking noise and would not be reconized by the bios. Ive been sitting on it not using it or my computer at all for the last 4 months, and finally order a new Western Digital hard drive with a real f*cking warranty this time. After receiving it i decided to try my old drive one last time… and the f*cking thing boots up just fine. It gets really cold in my room, im guessing maybe over the corse of 4 months it fixed itself? Ive backed up my photos and what not, and am currently going on 4 hours and the drive is fine. I’m pretty confused, and pissed off at seagate for such a sh*ty drive. I suggest everyone fedEx their shipments for now on, I think the constant shipping of my seagate drive via UPS may have helped lead my hard drive to failure. Has anyone else had their hard drive stop clicking on its own?

]]> By: pm http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-703 pm Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:57:54 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-703 so, im on my computer just browsing the web and my harddrive stops working. i could hear the arm in the harddrive make a klink noise and then it stops moving, no more activity from my harddrive. the computer freezes and then i get the blue screen of file dumping.i restart and it is stuck in the BIOS so i turn it off. faulty harddive? how do i stop this. do i have to export my data to another HD or just reboot? so, im on my computer just browsing the web and my harddrive stops working. i could hear the arm in the harddrive make a klink noise and then it stops moving, no more activity from my harddrive. the computer freezes and then i get the blue screen of file dumping.i restart and it is stuck in the BIOS so i turn it off.

faulty harddive? how do i stop this. do i have to export my data to another HD or just reboot?

]]> By: Boris http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-691 Boris Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:24:38 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-691 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 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

]]> By: Lemz http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-689 Lemz Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:08:09 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-689 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. 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.

]]> By: rouel http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-684 rouel Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:24:19 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-684 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!!! 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!!!

]]> By: rouel http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-683 rouel Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:23:15 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-683 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. 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.

]]> By: GB http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-665 GB Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:42:11 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-665 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. 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.

]]> By: Casey http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-651 Casey Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:14:00 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-651 Yes, thanks for the reply Paul. Very helpful! Yes, thanks for the reply Paul. Very helpful!

]]> By: Brian http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-644 Brian Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:12:46 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-644 Thanks for all the info Paul and Casey - and everyone else, I'll give it a shot. Brian Thanks for all the info Paul and Casey – and everyone else, I’ll give it a shot.

Brian

]]> By: Paul http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/comment-page-2/#comment-643 Paul Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:33:43 +0000 http://www.caseytech.com/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/#comment-643 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 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

]]>