3 ms·
Cool it down to freezer temperatures and see if it works. Heat it up to ~60C and see if it works. This applies to both hard drives and SSD's. A good half o
by londons_explore 3y ago
Cool it down to freezer temperatures and see if it works. Heat it up to ~60C and see if it works. This applies to both hard drives and SSD's.
A good half of "failed" drives can be made to work for at least a few hours longer with that method.
Unlike OP, If you see signs of life, don't mess with clamps or reflowing. Just leave it in the freezer/oven while you take data off it, with longish power/sata cables to a machine just outside the freezer/oven door.
I recommend GNU ddrescue for getting data off - when you only have a few hours of service life left till it is dead-dead, it maximizes data recovery in a given time. There are various ways to generate a mapfile to skip recovering free blocks, which are worth using if you suspect the drive is mostly empty.
- lacrimacida 3y agoCouldn’t this method risk making it completely irrecoverable if it fails?
- sgarland 3y agoFreezing / heating? Other than the risk of humidity as mentioned, not really. Unless the head crashes into the platter, it's unlikely to do anything that would permanently kill the drive. That said, if you ever have a drive with absolutely critical, must-have data, don't bother with any of this and just ship it to professionals. You'll pay dearly, but they'll get your data out.
- theolivenbaum 3y agoAnd for the freezer method, be careful with humidity when you take it out. Worth putting it in a bag with some dehumidifiers and just take the cable out