Crashed hard drive and the HAPPYDANCE!!!

[smalpierre]

So I moved 1000 miles from home last year, and I only took what I could fit in my truck. One of my prized possessions at the time was my external drive, which at that time had become my only backup of ALL of my music, videos, a bunch of code, photos ... I know better, but hey - I had to travel light.

So I cobbled together a home network server, and when I plugged in the external to move files over the drive wouldn't spin up. Made some funky noises but crash ... crash and BURN! So I took it out, hooked it up to a sata cable and power hoping it was something wrong with the enclosure. Same thing, SCREW YOU PERRY!!!

So here it is, months later ... I was telling a tech friend about my woes of losing everything, and about how I was considering spending a grand to send it to a lab for them to disassemble it and try to get my data. He gave me a tip: "wrap it in paper towels, stick it in a ziplock, suck the air out of it and FREEZE IT! Then stick the frozen drive in your hard drive dock and try it"

So yesterday I carefully wrapped the drive and stuck it in the freezer where it wouldn't be disturbed. I took it out a few minutes ago and carefully unwrapped my precious drive. It had a crust of frost on the outside, and I was worried that maybe I had borked it beyond repair. Maybe the lab would have been able to recover it had I not frozen it - oh the worry!

I stuck it in my drive dock and powered it up ... same noise. DAMN! I started to pick it up and the noise changed, so I lightly tapped it with my finger and IT SPUN UP!!!

I'm copying files now, and I'll never rely on a single backup again!!! :yahoo::drinks::clapping::friends::heart::morebeer:

I still can't believe it worked! I'm not 100% sure why it worked - have a theory - but who cares, it's alive!!!!

 

[Genesis]

I'm copying files now, and I'll never rely on a single backup again!!! :yahoo::drinks::clapping::friends::heart::morebeer:

I still can't believe it worked! I'm not 100% sure why it worked - have a theory - but who cares, it's alive!!!!

Well done! Darn! I wish I knew about this tip when our old Maxtor External Drive at work gave the ghost. There is something about external hard drives that seem to fail when they get older except I never thought it could happen with a Maxtor. Eventually we gave up, and the backup got written off as irretrievable and the equipment sent to the external hard drive grave yard. I'll definitely remember this tip for next time round! :good:

 

[smalpierre]

Mine is a regular Seagate drive - I bought it, and bought an enclosure. I didn't buy it as an external. Most external drives are built the same way. Doing it this way saved me a few bucks at the time

EDIT: It's at operating temperature now, and still going. I hope it works again after a thermal cycle, but I'll never trust it for primary backups again

 

[strokerace]

This is actually a common problem with any hard drive that gets moved around. The noise you here is the reader(not sure of the real name) can't find the start point on the platter.So it will bounce back and forth making a rapid clicking noise. Basically the platter data is out of line due to bouncing. Never heard of the freezer trick before, but will try it next time. I go through a couple of HD a year. I have used a thin fridge magnet before to realign the read head before. Doesn't always work. I have even removed the platter and installed it into another hard drive with the same model number to recover the data. This is actually how some data recovery companies do it the drive has become damaged

 

[smalpierre]

The data recovery lab does it in a clean room. I'm not sticking a magnet near a drive with data I want to keep. I might try it on a drive that doesn't have anything too important on it though

The drive hadn't been moved - I had accessed it a couple of times while I was building my server, It wasn't doing the rapid clicking noise thing, it was kind of a grunt once every couple of seconds, and the drive wasn't spinning.

Now it's quiet as a church mouse ...

 

[smalpierre]

Some really odd stuff happened during recovery, but I think I only lost 40 files out of ... a couple hundred thousand? I trimmed down a lot of bogus stuff on the drive, and got it down to under 200 gigs. Hopefully those files I lost were junk anyway - probability is that they were.

Happy days are here againnnn!!!! And NOWWWW I've got an excuse to upgrade my home server

 

[Genesis]

Happy days are here againnnn!!!! And NOWWWW I've got an excuse to upgrade my home server

That has to be a GREAT feeling! Now regret that we had written the Maxtor off. Anyway, I've now learned a really good tip. Thanks! :good:

 

[smalpierre]

On the interwebz people say it's a wives tale - but I assure you I've tried everything I knew already with the same results. ... grunk ... grunk ... grunk ...

I'm gonna stick it back in now that it's cooled off and see if it still works!

 

[strokerace]

Some really odd stuff happened during recovery, but I think I only lost 40 files out of ... a couple hundred thousand? I trimmed down a lot of bogus stuff on the drive, and got it down to under 200 gigs. Hopefully those files I lost were junk anyway - probability is that they were.

Happy days are here againnnn!!!! And NOWWWW I've got an excuse to upgrade my home server

If the HD still starts up and is showing up under device manager. You may be able to run a data recovery software on it. I use Encase, get data back and recuva for data recovery

 

[smalpierre]

Last time I checked it was still working. I was kind of worried with condensation from the cold drive frosting up - but I've got multiple copies of my data now - noooo problems

 

[Genesis]

Wonder if it would also work if I put myself in that freezer. Haha! Like carefully wrap oneself in lots of warm blankets, gloves and the works, and then step into a freezer for as long as one can handle it. Objective being to realign the wiring in our heads?

 

[smalpierre]

Wonder if it would also work if I put myself in that freezer. Haha! Like carefully wrap oneself in lots of warm blankets, gloves and the works, and then step into a freezer for as long as one can handle it. Objective being to realign the wiring in our heads?

I'm afraid that I would die. I'm highly allergic to cold. I moved to a tropical zone so I'll never have to see temps below 45F (about 7C) on the COLDEST of the most frigid winter nights!

---

When I need to realign the head, I get back in touch with the natural ways of life and death. I'll take the kayak out into alligator country, or into the wine dark sea - well, the inlets anyway it's not equipped for the Atlantic - note to self: buy a self bailing SOT kayak and take it shark fishing.

There's something to be said for being in a place where you could very easily be taken down a notch or two on the food chain

 

[Genesis]

There's something to be said for being in a place where you could very easily be taken down a notch or two on the food chain

Now that sounds like a worthwhile quote to me.

 

[GigaGreg]

There's something to be said for being in a place where you could very easily be taken down a notch or two on the food chain

Now that sounds like a worthwhile quote to me.

Compeletely agreed with you Genesis. It is worth of saving for later