hard drive freezer trick

[craig6928]

as you read on the net you hear about people doing the freezer trick
some say it works
which of course it would its cooling the platter down

but once it heats up your have water drop droplets and these dont make good contact with the electronics inside

some people say the following


oh my the inside of my hard drive would not get any condensation as its a sealed drive
are you stupid or what you dont know what your talking about

and i hate to say this the person runs a computer repair store

so lets see hmmm photo of what happens when you freeze a drive

Attachments

freezer.JPG (44.34 KiB) Viewed 6903 times

[digitalferret]

As with most remedies, there are specific instances where they are applicable and actually work. That's across the board, not just tech.

The problem is the (job related) uneducated see these as a first attempt cure-all.
(vis: so then i ran spinrite)

Something to try without having any actual working or diagnostic knowledge of the job in hand.

The results of such experimentation can be fatal, as one would expect.

Kern

[HaQue]

well the freezer trick might be better to put in a ziplock bag with a heap of silica gel, then do it.

but it is a REAL backyard operation and I doubt recommended by anyone.

as you read on the net you hear about people doing the freezer trick
some say it works
which of course it would its cooling the platter down

It is not just cooling the plater down, it is cooling EVERYTHING down. This means it is changing the specifications such as:

- Distance between 2 metals/materials with different expanding/shrinking rates
- Changing the air properties between the head and platter
- possibly changing the electrical properties of the PCB, MCu, RAM etc.

These slight changes MAY work in your favour or may not - flip a coin, then flip another coin as to if you damage it by making things brittle or changing the specs so much it damages something.

If all else has failed, and you are going to bin it and havent tried it - why not?