How to Recover Dead Hard Drive Data

I dont think this will work.. because even with a water tight bag, condensation will cause water to get into the PC board… thus spoiling the drive.

I tried it, didn’t work for me.

i was told by a friend of mine and had thought it was a joke but anyways am trying out a demonstration tonight

I can tell you from experience that it in fact DOES work…most of the time. I have managed to recover data 3 times from dead drives, and have also not managed to recover data about the same amount of time. So, it is fair to say that for me, it worked 50% of the time.
I placed the drive in two zip lock bags expelling as much as air as possible before zip locking both bags. I left it in the freezer for approx. 12 hours with no luck, but after freezing it for extended periods of time, it worked like a charm. It is also important to note that this is generally a one shot deal, if it works, you’re in luck, but you must get as much data as possible from the drive because once it dies, it is rare that you will gain access a second time.
The 3 times I did manage to get the data back, I exhumed only the data that I absolutely required. In other words, only the data I created or files that I placed on the drive.
I too, found it hard to believe when I first heard it, but after losing 3 years of tax returns I HAD to try it. Fortunately for me, it worked like a charm.

Excellent works perfect – Thank you

As a computer repair tech I have used this with some success. I don’t try it until I’ve tried all other methods of data retrieval excluding rebuilding the hard drive. Leave the drive in the freezer in a anti static bag for 24 hours before attempting to access the drive. Be quick, get the data you need first then the data you want.

i have been doing this for years and it does often work .. however in my case the goal is to keep the drive from getting hot or even warm .. usually you dont have to freeze it.. coming out of the freezer might cause condensation but that wont happen while its in the freezer ..in some cases all i needed was a cooling fan .. in others i simply put an ice pack on the drives electronics side .. this wont fix mechanical problems or damaged disks but if the circuit has failed from thermal stress (common in laptops) then cooling will often help .. unless you want just a one shot recovery then you probably want to avoid thermal shock .. just cool enough to get your data ..

Backups prior to disasters anyone? Get two drives same size and keep em synced. If one goes out, get two more drives and mirror the working one onto the new one. Set the second new drive as the new backup drive and keep old backup drive as you never know how you could use an extra drive.

I have used this method multiple times and it has always worked for me, once out of the cold the drive will run for about 10 minutes, just repeat until you have all your files.

use distilled water.. that way even if some water gets on the board it wont be conductive.

I have done this several time for customers. I made a vacumn box with extension power/data cables running to the outside.I replaced the air in the box several times with air from my dive tanks, (most of the moisture is removed from breathable compress air.) cooled it down with liquid nitrogen. DON”T try this at home.
This is a last ditch effort only.For the pcb board will fall apart on you very quickly.

Freezing a hard drive will in fact work… It has worked so well for me that I was able to freeze a hard drive 3 different times to pull off all of the data that needed to be recovered. Granted about less than 5% of the data was corrupt, the remaining 95% went completely unharmed.

http://www.bitsonline.us/

Why mess with water. Just get a couple of pieces of aluminum, freeze them and sandwich the hard drive between them. The aluminum will act a heat sink and keep your drive cool

This does work! I’ve tried it and successfully recovered data on failing hard drives. You don’t get many chances to save information on a dying hard drive. Give it a shot with some drive image cloning or back up software.

I can verify that freezing/colder temperatures do help get a drive working long enough to save data.

I have a hard drive that ceased to function a several months ago. Fearing a very costly data recovery fee, I left the drive in the tech closet for a while. Today I was tried of trying to accumulate money to get the procedure and I looked for a DIY fix.

The drive was not working today when I plugged the drive into a universal USB adapter. No response whatsoever. When it stopped working it had the clicking/clacking sound. Now nothing.

So I put it in the freezer for an hour. It booted up quickly when plugged into the adapter. I was able to save some essential files, and then during the transfer of some other files the drive stopped working again.

So I put it back in the freezer for an hour, and I currently have it cooled with ice packs on my desk. The drive has been running for two hours and I have nearly transferred all my files, even the ones I cared less about.

Don’t know why it works but it does. maybe not for everyone, but it did for me and I am glad I did it. If the freezing didn’t work, my next step would have been PCB replacement and costs about $40-50. Still much cheaper than data recovery.

Thanks to this blog!

How about a ziplock baggie with plenty of silicone stay-dry packing pouches then heavily tapped up airtight?