So as we know these drives are complete garbage. I had one come in that would get ready, copy data for a few seconds then fail. If i killed power for a few seconds it would read a sector or 2 and fail. Seemed to be getting pretty hot as well. I was feeling around the pcb and noticed that when i kept my finger on the hottest spot of the board it would sustain reading for as long as i could stand keeping it on there. I assume i was sinking heat through my finger. I now have a large PC fan at full speed over top of it pulling out the heat and it has been sustaining reading for several minutes.

Any explanation for this phenomenon? Part of PCB being the square shape just above the UART port.

Well hope it helps someone somewhere sometime

Well,
These Are One Of The Best Designed Drives ,The Problem is The Magnet Is Weak By Its Design Due To Which We Have Head Stuck On Platter Case ,Ditto With Head Failure ,Heads Are Fragile ,But Recovery Is Good With These Drives ,But Your Heat Theory is Not Correct

_________________
Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

I can hardly believe it myself that it is working. But it has been chugging away ever since. Coincidence maybe i suppose, but im gonna let it go until it finishes or fails again.

Very happy you have been able to recover some/all of your data with minimal expense and thank you for reporting your experience as it may help others with similar circumstance which I believe is the intent of this forum.

BTW - I think there are "experts" here who may be interested in purchasing your magical fan which is clearly capable of repairing hard drives <sarcasm>because there is no way that thermal properties can play a role in HD data recovery - not possible</sarcasm> ...

Quote from @Dananjaya in thread https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38742


Your prayers have been answered @Dananjaya! Senordingdong (BTW - that is an awesome username) has found a magical fan that he may be willing to sell you!

His argument was against putting a hard drive in a freezer, which you suggested to someone. You would have a difficult time finding someone in the data recovery business that doesn't recommend the use of fans, even for perfectly good hard drives. Please see strawman.

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Blizzard Data Recovery

False. Re-read my post. I never suggested that op put his drive in a freezer. Here is what I advised:

It is quite clear from my post that I am talking about how the thermal characteristics of mechanical and electro-magnetic devices can affect behavior and performance and that there are many temperature ranges to consider depending on the failure scenario. I even mentioned heat as an option in addition to cold. How ironic that you accuse me of the strawman.

Be that as it may, is it your position that cooling by a more aggressive means than a fan is not something useful Mr. "Blizzard"? The jokes literally write themselves here

Fortunately, we can all be thankful that senordingdong's story turned out to be a successful DIY data recovery case!

I stand corrected
Johnny says this was not a suggestion, just in case anyone else makes the mistake like I did of seeing it as a suggestion- please don't put your hard drive in a freezer.

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Blizzard Data Recovery

Yes. Blizzard is 100% correct. You have to re read againg. Specially last lines. This is your words

"you should be prepared to immediately copy data from the drive onto a backup in advance of any attempt"

Somehow i replied here about your great recovery tool

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php ... 13#p273913

Well johnnyBrandom ,

Before You Start Suggesting Professional Data recovery Theories Etc ,Do Check This Out - > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYY-Ixq_g-0

_________________
Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com