Hard Disk in the Freezer
“A few months ago, I think you featured an item about putting your HD in the freezer if there were problems with it. Yesterday, I received a ‘Write Error’ on C - the HD LED was constantly lit. I could not control the PC, Ctrl+ALT+Del did not work, so I had to turn the power off. Lo and behold, when I switched it back on, the system could not find the HD. I was dreading the thought of having to buy a new HD.”
“I remembered the article, so I popped the HD in a sealed plastic bag and put
it in the freezer for one hour. When I took the HD out, it was ice cold, I
removed it from the bag and had to keep wiping the condensation away. I put
it back in the computer and the system found it! Thank you so very much for
featuring this article. Many thanks and please keep the Lockergnome Windows Daily e-mails coming.” [Nick Urch]
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18 Comments
Anonymous
April 17th, 2002
at 7:59pm
holy cow. that really works?
Anonymous
April 17th, 2002
at 8:00pm
holy cow. that really works?
Anonymous
April 17th, 2002
at 9:33pm
Go Chris!
Anonymous
April 17th, 2002
at 9:45pm
I don't believe it. How is freezing your HD going to help anything. It's not logical ! Post the link where Chris told you to do this. I need a good laugh. Balogne !
Sceptical Mirk .
Anonymous
April 17th, 2002
at 11:28pm
uh…huh!? (scratches head)
Anonymous
April 17th, 2002
at 11:45pm
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=lockergnome+hard+drive+freezer
Wow!
Anonymous
April 18th, 2002
at 5:31am
Okay. It obviously does work. Now can someone explain why?!?
Anonymous
April 18th, 2002
at 8:06am
I'll give it a whirl, I've heard why it works before but let me try and explain.
Usually the problem this fixes is the hard drive has stopped spinning or slowed down too much, the bearings are locked up. By putting it through temperature extremes the internal components and lubrication expand and contract loosening them up and redistributing the lubrication.
In any event, it's not a permanent fix! You're hard drive still has problems and needs to be replaced, it just gives you some time to recover your data first. make no mistake, your hard drive is FAILING if you have to do this and needs to be replaced!
–Ben Franske
CCNA
Anonymous
April 18th, 2002
at 8:42am
Ben,
You are completely right!!! I have used this recommendation for years and that is the same explanation I was given and have given to my users. Like you said it is only temporary and you need to be careful of the condensation and how you put it in the freezer. It also won't fix controller problems for say…. although I have heard of it temporarily fixing controller errors where the problem is the chips overheating.
Anonymous
April 18th, 2002
at 10:06am
It certainly is innovative, thinking-out-of-the-box style troubleshooting, Though I still think my “Enraged-Monkey-Wrench-Bashing-Spree” method works best.
Anonymous
April 18th, 2002
at 12:20pm
Ben,
That sounds logical!
Anonymous
April 18th, 2002
at 1:19pm
Guys, its VERY logical. And i can explain. Usually when a person has a problem with a hard drive its either a bearing wearing out or one of the actual platters becoming misallined. When the hard drive is put in a very cold place all of the parts shrink (the opposite happens when something is heated) this can either give a person time to backup the data while it is cold, OR it could allow the parts of the hard drive to fall back into the place they fell out of. Permanently fixing the drive.
Hopefully that makes sense to you guys! :)
Anonymous
April 18th, 2002
at 1:21pm
OH….i just read Bens post. Yep looks like you kno what your talkin about ben. And almost always u need to replace the drive. But rarely it is fixed.
Anonymous
April 21st, 2002
at 9:14am
I've also had this “trick” work for me, once even in a dire situtation: http://www.mrbarrett.com/mt/archives/2002_02_10.html
SMART erorr! Please help! - Computer Forum
August 20th, 2006
at 1:42pm
[...] nope: http://www.gusperez.com/archives/200…drive_dead.php http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/200…over-data.html http://chris.pirillo.com/2002/04/18/…n-the-freezer/ Make sure it goes into a plastic baggy tho. __________________ Processor: AMD Athlon64 3200+ S939 OC:2.2ghz Ram: 2x 1GB PC3200 Corsair DDR @dual Channel Video Card: PCI express ATI Radeon X800XL 256mb DDR3 Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Drive: LG 16×16 DL DVD±RW w/Light Scribe Hard Drive: Sata 120GB 7200rpm Western Digital Hard Drive: 2x Seagate 320GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA II Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Power Supply: Enermax 460W/33A [...]
UFOMystic » Hard Drive Dead - Long Live Bob Wilson!
January 14th, 2007
at 10:05am
[...] Two things Greg. If it’s not being recognized, you might try the old ‘Hard Drive in the Freezer‘ trick… [...]
KellyVerge
September 6th, 2007
at 1:19pm
Unfortunately, there’s no consistency to this method. Occasionally it works, and when it does, the user posts to blogs where the freezer technique is/was mentioned. This is just anecdotal evidence without any statistical validity.
I’ve tried it on several “junk” drives with no luck.
If your drive has data that matters, send it to a drive recovery company.
JMO.
Caleb
November 7th, 2007
at 4:26pm
Just my luck my dell latitudes’ hard drive went out and i put it in the freezer and worked for about a week and then got knocked off the couch! Everything is fine except the hard drive, after it gets very warm it wont read the drive (primary hard disk drive 0 not found) So idk I’m just getting a new hdd