It shrinks some of the metal components, including the heads I believe, making the data more readable (my drive is several years old, and my machine runs 24/7, so I guess the heads were worn/expanded). Normally, people put it in the freezer for sevearl hours (my personal experience is that it requirs about 24 hours for increased chances of successful recovery), but since I had so much data, I decided to put it outside in the snow all day.
After some 50mph winds, I had the HD freeze up on me once, but then brought it inside for few hours, then back in the snow (with a cover this time), and it's working great. This will only work in certain situations, and should only be a last resort, but I am/was pretty desperate, and I have recovered data before thanks to this trick.
As for the snow melting, that's the last worry I have in the area I live in
Jeffx: this maxtor has served me well, since I leave my machine on 24/7 with a lot of HD activity. The latest generations of maxtors are very reliable, more reliable than most other drives out there. I have had problems with pretty much every brand, but in my IT experience, WD and IBM (good thing they sold their HD business) seem to be the bigger culprits. I don't have a problem with buying another Maxtor at all, but I will probably be buying a Seagate next (since all my other Seagates are still up and running, and have a great warranty).