Harddrive and freezer.

[Kyle1886]

My "C:\" drive started clicking on boot this AM and will not boot, so of course I shut it down. I remember years ago putting a harddrive in the freezer to squeeze the last bit of data off of it. It worked, but I don't remember if I put drive in a baggie (paper/plastic), or bare.

Also, if anyone in the Vista area (SD County) has a A8N-SLi chipset fan laying about that they don't need...

Thanks for refreshing my memory..

Respectfully,
Kyle

[Nose Nuggets]

clicking denotes a mechanical failure inside the drive, likely the head. you can think of the head like the needle on a record player.

every second that drive runs, and clicks, is potential data loss.

if you have anything critical on the drive you simply cant live without, stop what ever you are doing and pull the power on it right now and call up Drive Savers.

If its not critical, and you want to attempt to get data off it yourself with the freezer method you want to bag it to reduce condensation. zip lock should be fine. leave it in there overnight. you might only get one shot, so make sure you prep your workstation for data backup before you pull the drive and connect it. try to get it from the freezer to booting in as little time as possible. have a USB drive at the ready so you can drag/drop as much data as you can. you will likely get less then 30 minutes of life out of it before it dies again.

[Kyle1886]

Thanks NN, that's about what I did last time. Just couldn't remember if I put it in a bag. Back then, much smaller capacity drive too. About 20-25 minutes is right on time, so I have to pick and choose what I need to save. Most is already backed up anyway, just some random data and real recent medical research. I learned years ago to keep very little on my drives.

Thanks for jogging my memory.

Respectfully,
Kyle

[Nose Nuggets]

Any time, best of luck!

[wrestlingnrj]

I usually vacuum seal the drives before tossing them in the freezer just to prevent any frost, but like Nuggets said, you probably will get 30min max if it even works at all.