Hard Drive Help.

[Particle]

The platters on a hard drive get smaller in colder environments. It makes data a lot easier to pull because the heads usually have to do less work.

Heat on the other hand makes the platters expand. Something you don't ever want.


So yes if you have a hard drive thats going bad, sticking it in the freezer as long as it has an air tight seel (so no moisture gets to it) will most of the time give you enough time to recover data.

I hate to burst this bubble, but you're wrong as to why freezing helps.  For one thing, smaller platters would make data harder to read.  The only thing freezing helps with is if you've got an IC that's going bad and overheating as a result.  It allows extra time before the overheating event occurs to recover data.  That's the science behind it, be as little as it may.

[UnderGod]

Part, you are misinformed.

It may help with the IC, but if you know any history about hard drives, one of the major problems they used to have was because of the fact that they wouldn't work in certain envorionments due to temperatue effecting the magnetic platters. To solve this problem, they "burned" tracks and sectors into the hard drives. This would give the heads "smarts" That if it couldn't read properly, they would adjust over a certain area looking for the data.

Since if it is cool, the platters get smaller. With this, the heads move over a smaller area and read the data easier. Yes it will work in the opposite, but It is much safer for the device if you stick it into a freezer vs lighting a blow torch to it.

[Crim]

For my birthday, my parents got me an 80 gig new harddrive. It was a Hitachi Deskstar7k250, and on the label it says CAPACITY: 80.7 gigabytes. Now, I installed it as a slave and everything, but windows says it is only 32.something gigs, I matched its model # with the model # of the hitachi deskstar7k250.

http://pcmag.dit.net/reviews/review.php ... VkHeIMYGZm

Model # = HDS722580VLAT20

So, I found that it should be an 80 gig because of the model number, and of how it looks. They look identical(the one in my comp, and the one in the pic) So, is this just windows mis interpreting it all? Or did I get shafted? Thanks.

you have to format the drive first , also if you're running an older CMOS, you might want to flash it to ensure it reads large diskdrives.

[Razore]

Wtf. I did EVERYTHING that everyone said. But it was just a forking jumper problem(they were in backwards)

[Particle]

Part, you are misinformed.

It may help with the IC, but if you know any history about hard drives, one of the major problems they used to have was because of the fact that they wouldn't work in certain envorionments due to temperatue effecting the magnetic platters. To solve this problem, they "burned" tracks and sectors into the hard drives. This would give the heads "smarts" That if it couldn't read properly, they would adjust over a certain area looking for the data.

Since if it is cool, the platters get smaller. With this, the heads move over a smaller area and read the data easier. Yes it will work in the opposite, but It is much safer for the device if you stick it into a freezer vs lighting a blow torch to it.

I'm sorry, but it is you who is misinformed.  A smaller platter would be harder to read anyhow.  Think about it, how is making something even SMALLER going to help it be read?  It will become smaller and more difficult to pick up.

The only benefit you will receive from freezing a modern drive is if you have a bad IC

[Lidge Farkley]

You are both.......... Right?

I say we put a few links up to settle this interesting set of ideas behind freezing.
:-)

[Particle]

I say we drop it and just benefit from freezing when drives die.  I think I will.

[DaRkEcHoEs]

Koro learned something today

[Razore]

Koro learned something today

Dude stop bumping old topics.

[UnderGod]

Thats all right part.. you're right, a professor who went to harvard is wrong.. End of story.

[sleeprae]

Actually, you're both right, and you're both also missing another aspect.

First, the 60GXP is IBM's second-generation ATA drive to utilize glass platters. Though it has a handful of advantages, the primary advantage of a glass platter is extremely low thermal expansion, as compared to the aluminum substrates of other drives. Therefore, it is unlikely that the freezing effect, at least on this drive, had anything to do with substrate expansion/contraction. That being said, if a drive was out-of-alignment, a freeze could, under specific circumstances, help get the heads back in alignment.

Second, freezing does help on the IC aspect. Spot-freezing has for a long time been a favorite troubleshooting method when heat seems to be related to device failure. A mass freeze would have the added effect of lasting longer, given you have a larger mass brought down to a given low temperature.

The other aspect is that of stiction. One of the properties of utilizing a glass platter is that they are able to get the surface more smooth than aluminum. While this is great for increasing aerial density, it is bad in the sense that it creates more friction between the head and the platter. This can and does result in a a condition known as stiction, in where the head is quite literally bonded by friction to the disc recording surface. By freezing a drive, you can help reduce this stiction. I've recovered many drives by hitting them on the side, and thus breaking the stiction.

So you're both right, and you're both wrong. Nah.

[UnderGod]

I never said that he was wrong.

Besides, it was a general statement about hard drives. The next HD I buy will be solid state anyway.

[Particle]

Feel like less storage?

[Darwin]

Jason Xero said you can only write to solid state a certain number of times.  Hmm, although... You can get a volitile ram disk...

[TrafficLight]

To much smartness in the air i feel dumb :shock: