Hard disk recovery techniques
Submitted by andrew on Thu, 09/27/2007 - 12:13.
Has anyone tried putting weather-stripping on the freezer door so that you can pass the cables through and run a failed hard disk while it is in the freezer?
Depending on the amount of
Depending on the amount of moisture, if any, inside the hd, when lowering the temperature sufficently you could cause liquid water to form inside the sealed drive. Condensation in other words.
So is there a way to avoid
So is there a way to avoid this? Can you dry out the ambient air for a period of time, them put the drive in a sealed plastic bag before cooling it?
Nope - but I've wrapped 'em
Nope - but I've wrapped 'em a towel with ice packs against the drive.
Pretty much the same effect I figure.
As for the condensation - I was under the impression the air inside the sealed drive was 'clean room' quality and should be moisture free.... Am I wrong?
If the drive is so far gone that I'm playing in the freezer than I'll risk a little condensation anyway - it's a last resort option.
I would think that if you
I would think that if you could prevent the drive from heating up without even cooling it, would offer some sort of benefit without the risk of condensation.
As to it being a list resort, well, there are a lot of "last resort" data recovery options. Most of the time, though, you find out in hindsight that there was something more you could have done... I'm a big fan of non-invasive data recovery techniques. I try not to write to or otherwise change the drive I'm working on.
A thort: I have dismantled a
A thort:
I have dismantled a few drives, as well as "reading" the manuals etc., online and that come with the drive.
To the best of my knowledge, all hard drives are vented to atmosphere, through a small hole on the underside.
The hole has two endes. One ende is to atmosphere, the other vents to the interior of the drive, THROUGH a special super fine FILTER.
It is perfectly easy to dry the air inside the drive, via this method.
OK... A deep freeze - of the top loading variety, is about the simplest version of a totally DRY atmosphere... all the moisture collects on the evaporator - as ice.
What we need to do is vent the "damp air" out of the air drive, and draw "dry air" into the drive.
Heat the drive up to 50*C.... slowly over a source of heat or inside a slow oven.
The air inside expands, and vents out.
Take the wram drive out of the oven, and wrap in some foil to slow the heat loss, and place inside a deep freeze until it gets down to about 8*C - 10*C. The dry air gets drawn in.
Repeat this process about 8 or 10 times and air inside should have been fully exchanged to make for a DRY internal atmosphere.
Also when you place the drive into or out of anything, place the vent hole at the loest possible position.
Moist air weighs more....
Cheers
I've done one hdd. FAT32
I've done one hdd. FAT32 drive I hosed fooling around inside the case. D'oh.
Zipped it into a bag with desicant packs and froze it overnight, then wrapped it in some towels to keep it cold.
Recovered til it died. Refroze it and ran it 4 or 5 times until it was daid.
Post new comment