[REQUEST] A Quick Data Recovery Question

[Larry Sabo]

I put mine on a BBQ works well

Only works for HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic recording) drives though.

 

[Porthos]

Obviously, this is not always the case.

Some one can ask me to shoot their dog but I am not going to be the one "pulling the trigger" and then the owner decides they were wrong and blames me for the death of the dog.

 

[Larry Sabo]

However, if someone from a data recovery lab had a case where freezing/unfreezing did actually leave damage, I'd be interested to hear it.

There are pictures of surface damaged drives where the damage was allegedly caused by freezing the drive and condensation on the platters crashed the heads. I believe the problem is caused when the drive is immediately removed from the sealed plastic bag after freezing allowing moisture to condense on cold surfaces. When I tried it, I kept the bag tightly sealed and pushed the connectors through the light plastic produce bad in which I had sealed it, without allowing moist room air to enter the drive. I never experienced any condensation on the drive, that I can recall.

 

[ell]

Gotta sprinkle the drive with chicken blood and blow some cigar smoke into the bag before it gets closed. Maybe a few candles around the freezer as well for good measure.....

then run around the block counter clockwise 3 times. bad pcb card?

 

[GTP]

And destroy any remaining chance for future recovery by a lab?

Not always. But after you do stupid things now it is really lost.
The recovery people here on the forum have been shaking their heads at this practice for years yet people still do these things and suggest to others to try it as well.

@Porthos, this was on a spare unused old but working IDE drive that had no useful data to recover.
It was not "a stupid thing." It was a test.
I was curious to learn what would happen to a drive after being frozen and thawed.
I got my answer when the drive failed to even be recognised by Windows.
Please let me reiterate.
It was a test.

 

[Porthos]

@Porthos, this was on a spare unused old but working IDE drive that had no useful data to recover.
It was not "a stupid thing." It was a test.
I was curious to learn what would happen to a drive after being frozen and thawed.
I got my answer when the drive failed to even be recognised by Windows.
Please let me reiterate.
It was a test.

It was not directed to you. It was directed to the person I quoted and any one else who takes for granted the client is supposedly "willing" for a tech to try to get the data and have it bite you on the southbound side of a north bound mule. (or a kangaroo down there)

 

[glennd]

I put mine on a BBQ works well

rotisserie?

 

[fencepost]

I put mine on a BBQ works well

Yabbies & platters?

 

[frase]

nah prawns on a platter

 

[lcoughey]

Here are some more thoughts, based on a few more comments and questions that have come to light.

Does putting a drive in a sealed bag prevent condensation in the freezer?

I suppose it could, if you had the drive in a vacuum where there is no chance of that air inside the drive were to condensate on the cold platters. But, in reality, whether the drive is in a sealed bag full of rice or not, it makes no difference on what is happening on the inside of the drive.

Can the freezer actually damage a drive?

Directly, I'm not so sure. In theory, if there are water particles on the surface when the drive spins up, it could result in a spectacular head crash. But, as someone suggested, most drives delivered (at least here in Canada) are frozen down to temperatures lower than that of a freezer and they work perfectly fine after arriving at their destination.

But, when it comes to a failing drive, one has to consider what the root cause of the failure is and then determine if the freezer is going to help or hinder their recovery efforts. Here are some examples:

1. Deleted / overwritten files - I think it goes without saying the freezer won't help, yet we did receive a case in the past year or two where the tech tried the freezer in such a situation...obviously without any success
2. Firmware issues - again, this goes without saying, freezer won't help
3. Damaged PCB - back when the smooth controller chip was overheating and causing the drives to suddenly stop responding, some would freeze the drive over and over until they were able to copy most of the files off the drive. Unfortunately, every time the drive loses power, the heads crash down to the surface, taking little bits of data with them until the heads are too contaminated to work any more
4. Damaged heads - in older drives (20 years +), freezing might affect how the heads read for a very short period of time, but not on modern drives where the platter density is so high
   
5. Heads stuck to the platters - in very old cases (late 80's early 90's), freezing would help break stiction. But, breaking stiction now has a greater chance of causing the heads to dig into the platter, breaking the head off and causing irreversible damage to the platters
6. Damaged platters - obviously a freezer isn't going to fix the scratches, but constant attempts to power it on will allow more scratches to be made
7. Seized spindle motor - there is a very small chance that freezing might help, though in some cases, heating helps, but usually the end result is a more solid seizure

Anyway, I think you all get the point. Looking back at this post, perhaps I should add it to the resource section.

 

[Kirby]

If all else fails try this trick, it has worked once for me. Put the HDD in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for a few hours then try it. I would only do this as a VERY last resort.

I have a very smart technician friend who swears by this method, though I've only tried it once and it didn't work.

If the hard drive isn't detecting at all it sounds like a main board. You can usually pick those up for about $20 or so online, or you can take one off a used drive you have lying around if it's common. You have to use the exact same model of board and, I believe, there might be some issue with what firmware is on it as well. There are even services out there where you can order the exact board, with the firmware flashed, for that drive. If I recall this is a little more expensive than just getting a board of eBay. I've had this work for me once and I've had it fail for me once.