How to Recover Dead Hard Drive Data

Legend has it that if you put a dead hard drive in a freezer, pull it out and plug it in, it should run long enough to recover the data.   Is it true?  Indeed, it seems so.

While freezing the drive for a while extends life momentarily, the real trick is to run the hard drive while it’s in the freezer. Just throw in a water tight bag first, of course.  Works pretty well with other gadgets including iPod hard drives too.

Evidence:

Note, this only temporarily extends the life of the device, allowing you to recover data before it completely dies.

More Hard Drive Hacks:

  1. Encrypt your Entire Hard Drive
  2. Salvage Rare Magnets from a Hard Drive
  3. Recover lost Hard Drive Partitions
Comment:
 
JokeJong

November 28th, 2008

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.

HanMpagi

January 15th, 2009

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

CoreyBstn

February 7th, 2009

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.