Have you ever had a hard drive that just wouldn’t boot and all you could hear was it making a clicking noise? If you have then you know this is usually a bad sign. However, there is still some hope. In most cases you can use this little trick to retrieve your files. Just follow these simple steps.

The first thing you want to do is remove the drive from the computer and put it in a sealed plastic bag to avoid condensation. Then put the drive in a freezer and leave it overnight. When you are ready, pull the drive out of the freezer and hook it up quickly. Boot up the drive and start backing up the files. Act quickly because you may only have around 20 minutes to do this. I have seen some reports however, of this fixing the problem all together.

Yes I know this sounds crazy and believe me I thought it was until I actually saw it work. I’m not exactly sure why this works but I’m guessing it has something to do with the heads retracting because of the cold temperature. If you have had any experience with this feel free to post about it.

i waiting for the

"im posting this from the internet cafe as i tried your advice. however when i hooked up my frozen drive
my computer burst into flames , my house burnt down and now my mums dead!
thanks for the post though"

post should be interesting

^^^^^^^^^ Laughing my f@@king ass off

it works... my friend did it

I've seen a lot of strange things that you can do with computer hardwares, for example, i've seen a self-made computer cassing, ready with all the essential hardwares that you need for a pc, and oil is poured into the cassing. I thought they were nuts! But guess what, the computer still works, and the oil somehow made it running at a cooler temperature.

I've done it and the drive works now almost 3 months later I don't trust it with vital files, but works great as a back-up now.

Another way to recover data from a bad HDD is to use a powered USB ot IDE/SATA cable, and grab data.

You can even do it with the drive still in the chiller if you don't mind the slight decrease of temporary freezer efficiency loss.

This sometimes works when the freezer method alone doesn't.

I keep powered USB to xInterface cables around for this very purpose.

well we did this experiment in our lab back in karachi. also just keep the hdd after removing from freezer in front of an airconditionar or a fan and it works for more than an hour.

i have done this a number of times with my **ancient** 30gb drive - it works for a few months then seizes up again, i place it in my daughters zipped school book-bag and freeze it overnight

freezers can 'reset' locked mobile (cell) phones, un-buckle plastic mags (BMX wheels) and keep food fresh for long periods of time

They're magic!

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/liquid-cooled-pc1.htm

Note it's not a new thing to see liquid cooled pc's they have been around for a long time they just cost a lot more and so people tend not to buy them but the are totally quiet ..

Hi ambrosia73

This is a little different than a "Water Cooled" system, what maxpudding is talking about. I've seen the video myself and was totally amazed at it, until I better understood the electrical properties of vegetable oil.

The system was not just cooled using cooling block radiators as in a normal liquid cooled system....the ENTIRE CASE was filled with over 3 liters of oil!
Everything was totally submersed in it, MoBo, CPU, everything, with no system fans of course! And it ran perfectly. I can't remember if the HDD'd were submersed but I don't think so, that's something I doubt can work with fluid inside it, as fluid could get thru the microfilters used in HDD's.

It was a really cool video but not really a viable thing for most users. Sealing the case to be liquid tight is one thing that most cases can't possibly obtain, and then having to move the optical drives and HDD's plus other things that can't be submerged, out of the way of the fluid would be a PITA.
It's also a bit messy if you need to remove the fluids to make changes to hardware, so all in all, while it was proven to work and looked neat...I don't think too many people are gonna want to try it themselves.

U guys serious this realy works?

I have a 2 year old External HD with USB Enclosure and one day it just stopped working. I plug it in my laptop, turn the power on and I hear it turn on and then whirl followed by some clicking noises but as all this happens my laptop freezes until I take the USB out.

Any ideas? Does that sound like the controller on the External? Should I freeze it? I have a lot of backed up data and I am afraid to do anything that might make it worse.

interesting...this is very new to me..never thought of this and have not come across to this kind of problems...perhaps..a proof with picture will be good enough to convince us here?

yeh the pc magazine i read did this too, big plastic container and put the mobo n all tht stuff in, they didnt put the hdd or optical drives in as it would kill them =] but yeh the mobo ram graphics was all submersed in cooking oil!!

Yeah they did that since its like a project endorsed with free stuffs..i can't imagine if i do that to my machine..i'll be petrified.

i can't figure out who did invent the liquid cooler system in the first place..
i did read somewhere abt this asian guy claiming that he posted it on the Net as his school project and did not think about patented it at that time.

I found this guide interesting, though some of them didn't quite work for me...
Read the 200 Ways to Harddrive recovery file with great interest...
Some ways are epitomes of what we call ' Out of the Box ' Solutions...

Edit :
Be careful with the software provided. Some of my friends lost the disk completely...

ADL_242 EDIT :: torrent removed as they are only allowed in the torrent section

That's because oil doesn't conduct electricity. So really, it's just an upgraded form of water cooling.