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+--- Thread: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. (/showthread.php?tid=88909)
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Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - DRR - 12-03-2009
Original thread:
http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,843416,844502#msg-844502
Nothing worked to recover data, so I tried the freezer trick. It has worked once for me before. I put it in a ziploc bag and it sat in the freezer for maybe 2 hours, I tried plugging it back in, and it made some HORRIBLE noises like a dying bird. My dog even came over to investigate.
But after it was done complaining, it mounted, and displayed a directory. I was able to quickly copy over the entire user folder (only 770 MB) to a spare. At that point, I tried copying over the Library and the Applications folders, but no go. I tried it in the freezer again to recover those directories, but it just would not read from them. Must be where the damage is on the disk.
Regardless, I was able to recover the most important information. Put a clean install of Tiger on the PB, put the PB in TDM again, and copied the user folder over. Worked, for the most part. This morning I've just been reinstalling applications on it.
I'm going to recommend she max out the RAM on this machine. How well would a 1GHz/1.25GB/80GB Powerbook run the Office 2008 suite, and youtube? Acceptably?
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - freeradical - 12-03-2009
And the reason this would work is?
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - kj4btkljv - 12-03-2009
I tried that a couple of weeks ago on a hard drive pulled from a G4 mini that was having a total conniption fit on me, but it didn't work worth a darn.
freeradical wrote:
And the reason this would work is?
It shrinks the metal platters inside the drive itself, ever so slightly, so they can spin through the read/write heads. There's a period of time where you are able to retrieve data, then it most likely will seize up on you again after the innards warm up.
Jeff
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - DRR - 12-03-2009
Putting a dead hard drive in the freezer?
It can work on some types of hard drive failure because the cold contracts the metal parts inside - heads and platters - and taking it out of the freezer and having it run heats it back up. That contraction and expansion of the parts is apparently enough to get whatever was stuck, unstuck. That's my understanding of it anyway. All I know is it worked.
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - voodoopenguin - 12-03-2009
I have done this a few times over the years for friends' dead drives As far as I can remember they were all PC users but that doesn't really mean anything except some got the impression I was able to extract their precious data because I used a Mac!
Paul
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - Jimmypoo - 12-03-2009
DRR wrote:
Putting a dead hard drive in the freezer?
Um... how big WAS this freezer hard drive?
It didn't happen to be 20 GoogleBytes, did it?
;-)
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - OWC Jamie - 12-03-2009
I've done it several times.
(tried many more times than that)
770 mb of data is way more than I've ever recovered.
(but the data files we work with <100 mb can be several years of work)
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - OWC Jamie - 12-03-2009
Years ago with an old Quantum Atlas I did this - and it'd go about 20 minutes before heating up too much to work again. So I cheated - I put it in the ziploc bag, ran the scsi cable into the bag, and put it on the desk, wrapped in a gel freezer bag with more blue freezer blocks and covered it all with towels. Was able to get every bit of data off it that way
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - btfc - 12-03-2009
I've been able to rescue data off a few drives using this trick too.
Re: Hard drive freezer trick. Awesome. - DRR - 12-03-2009
billb wrote:
I've done it several times.
(tried many more times than that)
770 mb of data is way more than I've ever recovered.
(but the data files we work with <100 mb can be several years of work)
Yeah, I think I got lucky. Other folders were damaged beyond DIY recovery, but the most important one, the user folder, copied over without a hitch. It paused for about 20 sec in the middle of the copy, but kept going afterwards.
If you read the original thread - I think parts of the drive were failing, but it had not yet gone into massive failure - no click click or anything - so that may be part of the reason I was able to grab that data.