Legend has it that if you put a dead hard drive in a freezer, pull it out and plug it in, it should run long enough to recover the data. Is it true? Indeed, it seems so.
While freezing the drive for a while extends life momentarily, the real trick is to run the hard drive while it’s in the freezer. Just throw in a water tight bag first, of course. Works pretty well with other gadgets including iPod hard drives too.
Evidence:
- Two techs encounter an uncooperative drive, this is their epic recovery story.
- More stories of how freezing a hard drive brought it back from the dead.
Note, this only temporarily extends the life of the device, allowing you to recover data before it completely dies.
