In this thread Dewey Finn froze his broken hard drive (in the freezer) and was able to retrieve data before it died again.
Why does this work? How does it work? How long will it work? If it works once, will it work again? 
We have an old Mac G-3 that gave up a while ago (got the little flashy floppy thing on start-up. Would freezing make it work again?
Usually the problem when hard drives go bad is a faulty controller chip or a deformed bearing*. Theoretically both of these situations could benefit from thermal contraction that occurs during freezing, and remain in this state long enough for you to retrieve data. Restoration of chip function is the more likely scenario, in my mind, but I’m not aware of any credible studies either way.
I don’t know if this actually works, but if you intend to try this, wrap the unit in an anti-static bag and then a couple of more plastic bags for good measure. If you don’t, the condensation that occurs on re-heating will negate whatever benefit may or may not have occurred.
- That, or some dumbass mistakenly formatted it, but we’re talking about physical problems.
Brain Wreck, are you suggesting that a frozen drive might work properly after being thawed out? That’s not what I tried. I removed the drive from the ziploc bag and connected it while it was ice-cold. I was able to read from the drive until it warmed to normal temperature, after which it stopped operating. I tried to refreeze it a few more times, but I suspect there might have been condensation inside the drive, since there was definitely condensation on the outside. Right now, I’ve put the drive on a shelf to dry out thoroughly and I’ll try refreezing it over the weekend. (There’s some more data I’d like to recover, but nothing important.)
FWIW; As a hobby my dad use to repair electronics. I remember his workshop becoming a haven for all the dead television sets in the neighborhood. When it came to solid state electronics he would keep a can of compressed air handy. Depending on the symptoms he would (with the set unplugged) spray a resistor or some other component that he thought was causing the problem to the point that it had become cold. He would then turn the set on and see if the problem went away. I remember witnessing this form of “if you will” diagnostics on more than one occasion yield conclusive results.
I’m assuming you meant the natural re-warming that inevitably occurs while retrieving data, rather than actually re-heating it, right?
I will say, that a dumbass used that computer(and hard drive) for 5 years. He did lots of really :eek: things to it, but since I’m not as much of a dumbass, I’m pretty sure this was a 7 year old drive telling us, “I’m retired, go bother someone younger!”
No, I’m just suggesting that the frozen drive *will * eventually thaw after being placed into operation. I am fairly confident about that part.