Computer Tragedy!!!
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,463
Likes: 0
From: Lancaster CA
Cruise-In III Veteran
Originally Posted by Blue85L98
...One of the girls here at work had her laptop drive crash this week as well, and may be trying this within the next few days...
... the 'freeze your hard drive trick' worked for her. After freezing the drive overnight, she reinstalled it, powered up the laptop and it recognized the drive immediately and she was able to recover everything that she needed from that drive before discarding it for a new drive.
Edgar...It couldn't hurt to give it a try. At this point it sounds like your efforts at other recovery methods have been exhausted.
Good luck.
-dave
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 4,640
Likes: 0
From: Sunshine State
Originally Posted by Blue85L98
Well, the results from my friend are in...
... the 'freeze your hard drive trick' worked for her. After freezing the drive overnight, she reinstalled it, powered up the laptop and it recognized the drive immediately and she was able to recover everything that she needed from that drive before discarding it for a new drive.
Edgar...It couldn't hurt to give it a try. At this point it sounds like your efforts at other recovery methods have been exhausted.
Good luck.
-dave
... the 'freeze your hard drive trick' worked for her. After freezing the drive overnight, she reinstalled it, powered up the laptop and it recognized the drive immediately and she was able to recover everything that she needed from that drive before discarding it for a new drive.
Edgar...It couldn't hurt to give it a try. At this point it sounds like your efforts at other recovery methods have been exhausted.
Good luck.
-dave
get moisture in it, etc..... If you're prepared to lose the data rather than pay to have it recovered, then and only then try this other stuff.
Bob
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,463
Likes: 0
From: Lancaster CA
Cruise-In III Veteran
Originally Posted by Korreck
It could hurt plenty. The hard drive is a sensitive disc. Warp it, crack it,
get moisture in it, etc..... If you're prepared to lose the data rather than pay to have it recovered, then and only then try this other stuff.
Bob
get moisture in it, etc..... If you're prepared to lose the data rather than pay to have it recovered, then and only then try this other stuff.
Bob
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Edgar's response below implied that he has expended other options, and wasn't willing to spend $800 to $1800 for professional recovery attempts that he would not be reimbursed for(...that may also not work, depending on the failure...).
Edgar said..."software efforts were tried by my I.T. folks.
sending it out for $800 plus (I got two quotes) is not an option as most of the work lost is personal and my I will not be reimbursed."
At that point, one has only a paper weight, and at that point it couldn't hurt to try something that has worked on many occasions for others. Granted, it may not work for his drive problem, it really comes down to the specific problem for Edgar's drive, as to whether the 'freezer trick' will work or not. I am just presenting an option as a last resort...(in which case it really will not matter if the drive is damaged any further will it?)....because the drive will not be serving any other purpose at that point, now will it?
-dave
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 4,640
Likes: 0
From: Sunshine State
Originally Posted by Blue85L98
Bob, I believe most folks know about how sensitive hard drives are...but...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Edgar's response below implied that he has expended other options, and wasn't willing to spend $800 to $1800 for professional recovery attempts that he would not be reimbursed for(...that may also not work, depending on the failure...).
Edgar said..."software efforts were tried by my I.T. folks.
sending it out for $800 plus (I got two quotes) is not an option as most of the work lost is personal and my I will not be reimbursed."
At that point, one has only a paper weight, and at that point it couldn't hurt to try something that has worked on many occasions for others. Granted, it may not work for his drive problem, it really comes down to the specific problem for Edgar's drive, as to whether the 'freezer trick' will work or not. I am just presenting an option as a last resort...(in which case it really will not matter if the drive is damaged any further will it?)....because the drive will not be serving any other purpose at that point, now will it?
-dave
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Edgar's response below implied that he has expended other options, and wasn't willing to spend $800 to $1800 for professional recovery attempts that he would not be reimbursed for(...that may also not work, depending on the failure...).
Edgar said..."software efforts were tried by my I.T. folks.
sending it out for $800 plus (I got two quotes) is not an option as most of the work lost is personal and my I will not be reimbursed."
At that point, one has only a paper weight, and at that point it couldn't hurt to try something that has worked on many occasions for others. Granted, it may not work for his drive problem, it really comes down to the specific problem for Edgar's drive, as to whether the 'freezer trick' will work or not. I am just presenting an option as a last resort...(in which case it really will not matter if the drive is damaged any further will it?)....because the drive will not be serving any other purpose at that point, now will it?
-dave
That's what I was saying. As a LAST resort, try it. The data CAN be recovered, but if he isn't going to go that route, may not be worth the money, then and only then, try it.The data is there unless the disk was formatted and it can be recovered.
Bob
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 11,907
Likes: 1
From: Between a rock and a hard place, S.E. PA
One other thing about the "freezer trick" for those who may try this at some point... Don't attempt to boot from the bad drive after freezing. Chances are good that some O/S files will be corrupted and it will fail to boot even though other files are good. Always install it as a slave on a working system and start copying the most important data first.
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 4,640
Likes: 0
From: Sunshine State
Originally Posted by C5pilot
One other thing about the "freezer trick" for those who may try this at some point... Don't attempt to boot from the bad drive after freezing. Chances are good that some O/S files will be corrupted and it will fail to boot even though other files are good. Always install it as a slave on a working system and start copying the most important data first.
Bob
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 11,907
Likes: 1
From: Between a rock and a hard place, S.E. PA
I wasn't implying that no others files would be corrupt, only that there are so many files needed for a successful boot that it would be foolish to believe a bad drive had access to every Windows file needed. You'll waste time trying to get Windows running when you should be using the limited runtime to save your data. In addition, as Windows boots it also writes to the disk. It may be overwriting data that software could have saved even when Windows can't see it. Moral: You're running on borrowed time, don't waste it.
