Browsing the web on data recovery issues, it seems that some people still think their freezer isn’t just for frozen pizzas or popsicles.
Freezing hard drives to recover data used to be considered good practice. All you had to do was seal it in a waterproof plastic bag, push the frozen dinners aside, and slide it into the freezer. After about an hour, ta-da, you’d take it out and access your information, available as if by magic!
If only every technical problem were that easy to solve… Have you ever put a hard drive through this polar ordeal, or thought about it? Then you’re not alone. In fact, many well-known tech reference sites such as 01net, Comment Ça Marche, and others recommended the hard drive freezing trick… over 15 years ago.
Technology has evolved a great deal since then, and there are now far better alternatives for recovering lost data. If you want the best chance of not losing your data forever – and who doesn’t – read on to find out why freezing your hard drive to recover data doesn’t work, and how you can protect your information.
Old Trick vs. New Technology
You may be wondering why freezing a hard drive would work at all. Where did this idea come from? As crazy as it may sound, this theory actually had some logic to it, a long time ago.
But first, how does a hard drive work? Hard drives are made up of a series of magnetic platters on which your information is stored. To retrieve data, a motor spins the platters so the read/write heads can find the information they’re looking for. If this motor fails, you won’t be able to access what’s stored on the drive. Malfunctions happen for several reasons, including lubrication issues. In that case, the spindle motor can’t turn, leaving the platters stuck in place. As a result, the read/write heads can’t access the data.
In theory, freezing a hard drive could shrink components slightly and realign them. That makes sense, right? This trick was so common that some computer hardware companies designed their drives to operate in extremely cold environments, increasing the odds of reviving a hard drive after a crash.
Before Using This Shock Treatment, Read This First!
Before putting your hard drive in the freezer, you should know this : hard drives are far more advanced these days, so freezing them now does far more harm than it used to. They’re built with incredibly precise tolerances today. Even the smallest shift in alignment – exactly what the freezer trick would achieve – can impair the read/write heads’ ability to access the information stored on your hard drive.
What’s more, lubrication issues are largely a thing of the past, since the lubrication system has been considerably improved. And even if this kind of issue did occur, the hard drive still stores data on a platter, so the information generally isn’t compromised anyway. Ultimately, modern hard drives aren’t prone to lubrication problems that a trip to the freezer would fix.
You’ll find that failures are most often caused by a logical issue rather than a hardware one. Freezing a hard drive does nothing but destroy it permanently.
This Trick Works Only for Specific Hardware
If you’re still wondering whether the freezer trick can save your storage device, you’ll probably find examples of cases where freezing worked. Yes, there are examples of certain hard drives that can respond positively to freezing. But the risk of permanently destroying your hardware, even in these rare cases, is very real. This trick tends to work mainly with hard drives of 10 Go or less in storage capacity, where you may be able to access your data after freezing the device. That’s because these drives are known to have issues at very high temperatures. If the motor seizes up, cooling the hard drive can reduce friction and allow it to work properly again.
You can generally tell if your drive is suffering from a platter motor issue when you hear a rattling or shaking noise. In this situation, the drive is recognized by your device, but it fails well before you can access your information. If you find that your hard drive is still receiving power and spinning at a normal speed, it isn’t suffering from a faulty motor. If you put your hard drive in the freezer in that case, you’re wasting your time … and risking corrosion and component displacement.
How Freezing Damages a Hard Drive ?
When you freeze your hard drive, the water vapor inside it turns into ice crystals.
When you take the hard drive out of the freezer, these ice crystals start to melt. The water left behind can damage – and in fact often does damage – the hard drive’s essential electronic components.
Worse still, if the drive is used before it’s fully thawed, the head can strike the spinning platter and cause permanent data loss. Either way, the risk of freezing your hard drive simply isn’t worth it, given that this approach is no longer an effective way to recover your data.
If you’d like a less random method of recovering your data, our technicians are ready to listen (free quote and free pickup of your device in France).