Placing the hard drive into a freezer for some period of time, usually for hours and hours, may not be advisable.
It is easy to understand why it would make sense to place a hard drive in the freezer - after all, the drive got pretty hot and then it stopped working, and when it cooled down, it seemed to be readable for a while. This might have been the case if the hard drive was screeching or making knocking noises and then had transfer errors. Which happens quite frequently. Or because the freezer strengthens weak magnetic fields, making the data easier to read. Or because some failing electronics work better when they are cool (this is why the CPU has a fan on it).
But the freezer causes condensation which can interfere with the mechanical operation of the drive. And it is better to cool down the specific failing component individually rather than the whole drive. And most people forget the drive in the freezer so the drive 'over-freezes'.
Often, the result is not the easy recovery that was hoped for, but a recovery that may cost $3300-$4000, when it might originally have cost only $400.
Next Steps:
- Take the drive out of the freezer
- Try our free online data (hdd) recovery price estimate.
- Contact Transparen for advice
