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    Anyone have you tried this? Save a Failed Hard Drive in Your Freezer, Redux

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved IT Discussion
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    • JoyJ
      Joy @Bill Kindle
      last edited by Joy

      @Bill-Kindle said:

      @Joyfano Just confirming that this does work, but it should only be done as a absolute last resort. I've only ever had about a 70% success rate with this method, and haven't had to do it in many years. Last time I think was in early 2007.

      Oh Thank You sir. I was thinking it is pretty cool

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      • DenisKelleyD
        DenisKelley @thanksajdotcom
        last edited by

        @ajstringham
        LOL, why would anyone want to try to do that?

        thanksajdotcomT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • thanksajdotcomT
          thanksajdotcom @DenisKelley
          last edited by

          @DenisKelley said:

          @ajstringham
          LOL, why would anyone want to try to do that?

          I've seen people try to "fix the head" by opening it. Don't ask me...

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          • ?
            A Former User
            last edited by

            Done it back in the day when I had windows 98. I take backups now.

            This won't work with SSDs of course.

            What it does is it shrinks the bearings in the motor that move the platter so it can free up temporarily and move again. It doesn't usually last a very long time just enough to get some data.

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            • Reid CooperR
              Reid Cooper
              last edited by

              Was this purely hypothetical or are you about to try putting a hard drive into a freezer?

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              • MattKingM
                MattKing @Joy
                last edited by MattKing

                Just to chime in if it's something you really need to save; get an IDENTICAL PCB board off of eBay for $15-30 and swap it out. You'd be surprised how many times it's the hard drive PCB error and nothing mechanical. Just check their return policy before you buy, can usually just pay shipping back if it doesn't work out.

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                • T
                  technobabble @MattKing
                  last edited by

                  @MattKing I've heard of that.

                  thanksajdotcomT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • thanksajdotcomT
                    thanksajdotcom @technobabble
                    last edited by

                    @technobabble said:

                    @MattKing I've heard of that.

                    Same here. I've heard of boards going bad but the platters and head are fine.

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                    • IRJI
                      IRJ
                      last edited by

                      I heard a hard drive making some noise today. I thought of this thread

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                      • MattKingM
                        MattKing
                        last edited by

                        @technobabble @ajstringham Yup, sometimes the "clicking" or start/stop is just the motor or head getting improper signals. The boards are very sensitive to ESD damage. Same for memory modules causing BSOD and system halts; a lot of time it's just because someone handled them incorrectly.

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                        • ?
                          A Former User @MattKing
                          last edited by

                          @MattKing I've seen a lot of newer Harddrive cirucits and even some PCI cards coated over with Clear coating, It's called conformal coating and it covers all the comments leads so there is little chance of ESD shock with them.

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                          • MattKingM
                            MattKing @A Former User
                            last edited by

                            @thecreativeone91 said:

                            @MattKing I've seen a lot of newer Harddrive cirucits and even some PCI cards coated over with Clear coating, It's called conformal coating and it covers all the comments leads so there is little chance of ESD shock with them.

                            That's really interesting I'll have to look into that. I wonder if it's becoming more of an industry standard or just some OEM's.

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