Put my dead hard drive in the freezer

[Artman]

My wife's computer hard drive failed the other day. She backed up her data, but on a partition on the same drive. The failure was mechanical, the spindle motor froze up. So accessing the backup partition was also out of the question. I was afraid we were doomed, but I read about people who had this problem and put the drive in the freezer to contract and free up some of the moving metal parts.

I put the drive in my freezer overnight. The next day I placed it in a USB external hard drive enclosure, connected that to my laptop, powered it on and the drive spun up and worked for about an hour and a half before slowing to a stop again, long enough to retrieve most of my wife's critical documents.

Thought I'd share this with you all in case something similar ever happens to you.

 

[berkeman]

Cool tip! Thanks. (oops, no pun intended)

 

[dE_logics]

Wooo...good job dude.

And yes, was it a Seagate HDD?

 

[MATLABdude]

Would there be concerns about frost getting on the platters / heads or electronics? I guess you could just throw some dessicant packs in a big ZipLock back with the drive and not leave it for more than a day or two.

 

[Topher925]

Would there be concerns about frost getting on the platters / heads or electronics? I guess you could just throw some dessicant packs in a big ZipLock back with the drive and not leave it for more than a day or two.

Hard drives are air tight and very well sealed to prevent dust or other contaminants entering them so a build up of moisture due to cold temperatures isn't an issue.

 

[MATLABdude]

Hard drives are air tight and very well sealed to prevent dust or other contaminants entering them so a build up of moisture due to cold temperatures isn't an issue.

I think most new hard drives now have little filtered vent or 'breather hole' to equalize pressures, along with an attendant "Do not cover this hole!" warning sticker on the outside:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#Integrity

 

[Artman]

I did not mention it, but I did put the drive in a ziplock bag, but never thought about adding some desiccant packs. That is a good suggestion.

I was concerned about condensation effecting the electronics or platters, but it seemed to stay pretty dry.

dE_logics, no, it was not a Seagate. I'm not where I can get to the drive right now, but I think it was a Toshiba.

 

[mugaliens]

My wife's computer hard drive failed the other day. She backed up her data, but on a partition on the same drive.

Well, that's not a backup, techincally...

The failure was mechanical, the spindle motor froze up. So accessing the backup partition was also out of the question. I was afraid we were doomed, but I read about people who had this problem and put the drive in the freezer to contract and free up some of the moving metal parts.

I put the drive in my freezer overnight. The next day I placed it in a USB external hard drive enclosure, connected that to my laptop, powered it on and the drive spun up and worked for about an hour and a half before slowing to a stop again, long enough to retrieve most of my wife's critical documents.

Thought I'd share this with you all in case something similar ever happens to you.

Nope, but I admire you ingenuity, and hope you used that time to make another copy!