From: Travis Standen
One trick I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data-read errors off the platters
themselves, is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a
one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a
drive failure, you probably do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately
fetch the data off before it warms up.
From: Thedeedj
If the problem is heat related, I put the drive in the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool it
down... sometimes this gets the drive up long enough to copy any critical files...
From: Itguy1
Put the drive in a waterproof sealed bag, put it in the fridge for an hour or so, then have
another go.
From: Kelly Reid
Well, I won't start playing with your specific situation, too many steps or possible solutions
where everything starts "If that last thing didn't work try..."
But I'll give you one for free that was a nice hero moment for me. Had a drive where it
sounded like the drive motor was engaging but not getting anywhere, so we stuck it in the
office freezer for an hour! I'll be darned if it didn't work. The drive was up long enough to get
the data ghosted to another drive and we turfed it, even though it sounded fine at that point. I
can't really take credit for it though—I had heard it in some geek bull session but I thought it
was some jedi-geek urban myth. Goes to show you that you know you're really screwed when
you say something to the effect of "Okay, hold on tight, I'm gonna try something I saw in a
cartoon once but I'm pretty sure I can do it"
From: mpicpu
If this drive isn't spinning up, putting it in the freezer for about an hour will usually get the
drive spinning again so you can copy needed files before the drive warms up again. The first
thing you want to do is run a disk utility like Norton disk doctor or wddiag (if it's a western
digital drive) to verify whether the drive is working mechanically or not. If it is a master boot
record problem, sometimes running Fdisk/mbr will correct the problem. It could also be a
virus, and a program like F-prot will look at the drive as a physical unit. As an A+ PC
technician I have seen this problem many times. Usually if the drive is not making a clicking
sound I am successful in recovering the data.
From: Scott Greving
I've run into this scenario numerous times. One time it involved the main Novell SYS volume
on our HP File Server. I was really sweating as the server would not boot. I took the drive out
and put it in a freezer for 30 minutes. I then reinstalled it into the file server and Presto! I was
up and running. Needless to say I quickly mirrored the drive onto another and got rid of the
bad drive. In stand alone client systems, the method I've had the most luck with reviving
drives from death has been removing the drive, firmly tapping the top of its case several
times, and then re-installing it making sure all cables are secure. I've had a better than 60
percent success rate with this method.
From: jphillips
If the drive is spinning and you are experiencing these kinds of errors, my experience has been
that you are out of luck.
If the drive is not spinning, I have been able to remove it from the computer and 'spin' the
drive on a flat smooth surface (much like spin the bottle). This will usually free the drive and
when placed back in the machine, it will boot. You should immediately back up you data after a
successful boot, because the problem will return. The next 'fix' was actually given to me by a
Compaq technician several years ago. I had a drive that would not spin and he told me to put
the drive in a plastic bag in the freezer overnight and then install back in the computer. Believe
it or not, the drive booted. I have only tried this the one time.
From: John Turcotte
In the past, when a drive has failed after it has been running for a short period, I have
removed it from the machine and placed it in a freezer for a couple of hours, then hooked it up
again. It sometimes will run long enough to remove the data to another safe storage medium.
From: David Furlow
One of the methods I have used before (sometimes even successfully) is to actually remove
the drive from the PC, place it in the freezer for a day, then quickly put it back in the machine
and try to access it. Why does this work? Who knows, but I heard about this tactic years ago,
and it has saved my behind on a couple of occasions. (Of course, if it comes back up, back up
the data immediately.... Guess that should go without saying.)
From: Keri D.
Hard drive revival:
A technique I have learned is if you bring the temperature of the hard drive down to the
freezing point by putting it in a freezer first and then taking it back out, somehow the
condensation from bringing it back to room temperature helps revive it for about 20 minutes.
It can be repeated about 5-6 times tops. Long enough to get out any important files that need
to be backed up. It has been proven to work a number of times.
From: Christopher Post
How do you bring a hard drive back to life?
My situation:
Half of a volume set goes south on a WinNT server, no good backup and an angry boss
screaming about the data being mission critical.
My solution:
** A bit unorthodox but, it has saved my butt! **
• Turn off the server.
• Take out the failing hard drive and wrap a static bag around it.
• Throw it in the freezer conveniently located in the break room.
• Pray for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Leaving the hard drive in the bag, quickly plug the drive back into the server. (Just plug the
in cables and go.)
• Cross fingers, turn it on, and move all data off the drive as fast as you can! Then add a tape
drive and start backing the dumb thing up!
My so-called logic:
Metal contracts when it is cold.... so the platters shrink and increase the clearance for the
read/write heads.
From: Chris Poole
Put the drive in the freezer for about a week and then you can usually get one last read off the
drive.
From: Cheyenne Robert Alspach
Here are some drive recovery tricks that have worked for me, in the order that I do them. Try
booting the drive and copying the data off after every step.
1. Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly.
Vertical is also another option.
2. Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the
drive).
3. Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle
worker here).
4. Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2.
5. Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to
prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, (head geometry, electrical resistance lowered, electrical contact points adjusted, etc., assumed to be
the miracle here).
6. After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your
knuckle this time.
7. Repeat all of above steps on next day, as sometimes I've gotten data off drive simply by
trying again.
From: James McLaughlin
Hmmm sounds like a toughy to me. Back in the old days when I first started teching, if we ran
into a problem like this, there were only a few ways to deal with it. I will go over these options
now:
QUESTION:
What do you think you can do about this, Mr. Tech?
First Answer Nothing, your computer is too old, and the data on there is not really of that
much importance. If you really want it back, you can get a hold of a company called "Total
Recall" out of Denver and get charged thousands of dollars to get your files back. Besides, with
Y2K, this machine ain’t gonna run anyway, and prices are so low right now, there is no reason
why you should not upgrade now.
2) Well, I can take it back to the shop and pretend like I know what I am doing for 3-6 hours.
Then I will call you the for the next week and a half giving you excuses as to why I am not able
to get your information off of that hard drive. Of course, I won’t charge you anything, but I will
expect compensation for all the time I wasted on your hard drive.
3) I could take the hard drive out of your machine, plug into my Secondary IDE controller, and
boot up. Hopefully, I can see your hard drive and have the ability to copy all of your files to a
temp folder on my machine called "Your Name." After I collect all information, I would run
IBM's WIPE on the drive and then a thorough scandisk, just to see if the cause was sunspot
related or not. If......this was not working, then extreme temperatures always have a way of
talking older hard drives into giving us what we want. I would then wrap the HD in a Ziplock
bag and slam it in the freezer for 12 hours. Pull it out the next day and very quickly plug it into
my machine, copying what I can as quickly as possible until the drive dies again, repeating
until all files are copied and safe. If.....that don’t work, move onto the extreme heat. A Shrink
wrap gun works best, but a hairdryer will do the trick if that is all you have. Wrap one end of
the HD in a towel and use the shrink wrap gun or dryer to heat the hard drive. Very quickly
plug it in and copy files until finished. Repeat until all necessary files are copied and you are
done. You may not think it works, but when you are down to that as your last option...it does.
One trick I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data-read errors off the platters
themselves, is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a
one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a
drive failure, you probably do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately
fetch the data off before it warms up.
If the problem is heat related, I put the drive in the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool it
down... sometimes this gets the drive up long enough to copy any critical files...
From: Itguy1
Put the drive in a waterproof sealed bag, put it in the fridge for an hour or so, then have
another go.
From: Kelly Reid
Well, I won't start playing with your specific situation, too many steps or possible solutions
where everything starts "If that last thing didn't work try..."
But I'll give you one for free that was a nice hero moment for me. Had a drive where it
sounded like the drive motor was engaging but not getting anywhere, so we stuck it in the
office freezer for an hour! I'll be darned if it didn't work. The drive was up long enough to get
the data ghosted to another drive and we turfed it, even though it sounded fine at that point. I
can't really take credit for it though—I had heard it in some geek bull session but I thought it
was some jedi-geek urban myth. Goes to show you that you know you're really screwed when
you say something to the effect of "Okay, hold on tight, I'm gonna try something I saw in a
cartoon once but I'm pretty sure I can do it"
From: mpicpu
If this drive isn't spinning up, putting it in the freezer for about an hour will usually get the
drive spinning again so you can copy needed files before the drive warms up again. The first
thing you want to do is run a disk utility like Norton disk doctor or wddiag (if it's a western
digital drive) to verify whether the drive is working mechanically or not. If it is a master boot
record problem, sometimes running Fdisk/mbr will correct the problem. It could also be a
virus, and a program like F-prot will look at the drive as a physical unit. As an A+ PC
technician I have seen this problem many times. Usually if the drive is not making a clicking
sound I am successful in recovering the data.
From: Scott Greving
I've run into this scenario numerous times. One time it involved the main Novell SYS volume
on our HP File Server. I was really sweating as the server would not boot. I took the drive out
and put it in a freezer for 30 minutes. I then reinstalled it into the file server and Presto! I was
up and running. Needless to say I quickly mirrored the drive onto another and got rid of the
bad drive. In stand alone client systems, the method I've had the most luck with reviving
drives from death has been removing the drive, firmly tapping the top of its case several
times, and then re-installing it making sure all cables are secure. I've had a better than 60
percent success rate with this method.
From: jphillips
If the drive is spinning and you are experiencing these kinds of errors, my experience has been
that you are out of luck.
If the drive is not spinning, I have been able to remove it from the computer and 'spin' the
drive on a flat smooth surface (much like spin the bottle). This will usually free the drive and
when placed back in the machine, it will boot. You should immediately back up you data after a
successful boot, because the problem will return. The next 'fix' was actually given to me by a
Compaq technician several years ago. I had a drive that would not spin and he told me to put
the drive in a plastic bag in the freezer overnight and then install back in the computer. Believe
it or not, the drive booted. I have only tried this the one time.
From: John Turcotte
In the past, when a drive has failed after it has been running for a short period, I have
removed it from the machine and placed it in a freezer for a couple of hours, then hooked it up
again. It sometimes will run long enough to remove the data to another safe storage medium.
From: David Furlow
One of the methods I have used before (sometimes even successfully) is to actually remove
the drive from the PC, place it in the freezer for a day, then quickly put it back in the machine
and try to access it. Why does this work? Who knows, but I heard about this tactic years ago,
and it has saved my behind on a couple of occasions. (Of course, if it comes back up, back up
the data immediately.... Guess that should go without saying.)
From: Keri D.
Hard drive revival:
A technique I have learned is if you bring the temperature of the hard drive down to the
freezing point by putting it in a freezer first and then taking it back out, somehow the
condensation from bringing it back to room temperature helps revive it for about 20 minutes.
It can be repeated about 5-6 times tops. Long enough to get out any important files that need
to be backed up. It has been proven to work a number of times.
From: Christopher Post
How do you bring a hard drive back to life?
My situation:
Half of a volume set goes south on a WinNT server, no good backup and an angry boss
screaming about the data being mission critical.
My solution:
** A bit unorthodox but, it has saved my butt! **
• Turn off the server.
• Take out the failing hard drive and wrap a static bag around it.
• Throw it in the freezer conveniently located in the break room.
• Pray for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Leaving the hard drive in the bag, quickly plug the drive back into the server. (Just plug the
in cables and go.)
• Cross fingers, turn it on, and move all data off the drive as fast as you can! Then add a tape
drive and start backing the dumb thing up!
My so-called logic:
Metal contracts when it is cold.... so the platters shrink and increase the clearance for the
read/write heads.
From: Chris Poole
Put the drive in the freezer for about a week and then you can usually get one last read off the
drive.
From: Cheyenne Robert Alspach
Here are some drive recovery tricks that have worked for me, in the order that I do them. Try
booting the drive and copying the data off after every step.
1. Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly.
Vertical is also another option.
2. Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the
drive).
3. Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle
worker here).
4. Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2.
5. Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to
prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, (head geometry, electrical resistance lowered, electrical contact points adjusted, etc., assumed to be
the miracle here).
6. After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your
knuckle this time.
7. Repeat all of above steps on next day, as sometimes I've gotten data off drive simply by
trying again.
From: James McLaughlin
Hmmm sounds like a toughy to me. Back in the old days when I first started teching, if we ran
into a problem like this, there were only a few ways to deal with it. I will go over these options
now:
QUESTION:
What do you think you can do about this, Mr. Tech?
First Answer Nothing, your computer is too old, and the data on there is not really of that
much importance. If you really want it back, you can get a hold of a company called "Total
Recall" out of Denver and get charged thousands of dollars to get your files back. Besides, with
Y2K, this machine ain’t gonna run anyway, and prices are so low right now, there is no reason
why you should not upgrade now.
2) Well, I can take it back to the shop and pretend like I know what I am doing for 3-6 hours.
Then I will call you the for the next week and a half giving you excuses as to why I am not able
to get your information off of that hard drive. Of course, I won’t charge you anything, but I will
expect compensation for all the time I wasted on your hard drive.
3) I could take the hard drive out of your machine, plug into my Secondary IDE controller, and
boot up. Hopefully, I can see your hard drive and have the ability to copy all of your files to a
temp folder on my machine called "Your Name." After I collect all information, I would run
IBM's WIPE on the drive and then a thorough scandisk, just to see if the cause was sunspot
related or not. If......this was not working, then extreme temperatures always have a way of
talking older hard drives into giving us what we want. I would then wrap the HD in a Ziplock
bag and slam it in the freezer for 12 hours. Pull it out the next day and very quickly plug it into
my machine, copying what I can as quickly as possible until the drive dies again, repeating
until all files are copied and safe. If.....that don’t work, move onto the extreme heat. A Shrink
wrap gun works best, but a hairdryer will do the trick if that is all you have. Wrap one end of
the HD in a towel and use the shrink wrap gun or dryer to heat the hard drive. Very quickly
plug it in and copy files until finished. Repeat until all necessary files are copied and you are
done. You may not think it works, but when you are down to that as your last option...it does.