HD repair, CNY style

How funny is that. Hey maybe you and package and sell that snow to those in Calif who are having HD problems. :p :D :lol:
 
We got another 8" or so over night, I probably can finish my file restore today now! The baking sheet is only there because the drive would sink right into the snow, and the sheet gets extremely cold, so the bottom of the drive is cooled as well.
 
Why am I not suprised it's a Maxtor drive your having problems with. Out of a pool of 400 desktops I'm responsible for supporting, I lose 2-3 Maxtor drives a month on average.
 
electron said:
Most people know that freezing the HD can work depending on the damage,
I didn't know /never heard of such a thing...what would freezing do, I wonder?

;)

You're backing it up serially? The snow will melt before you're done.
 
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).
 
jeffx said:
Why am I not suprised it's a Maxtor drive your having problems with. Out of a pool of 400 desktops I'm responsible for supporting, I lose 2-3 Maxtor drives a month on average.
I'm surprised as well. I also originally was going with IBM drives (they are made by someone else now I think) but wasn't happy with. Similar experiences with WD and Samsung (samsungs were in a lot of tivo's and they didn't seem to hold up in the long run).

I had wondered about seagate but had no experience with them.

Jeffx > Which brand have you found to be reliable then (currently)?
 
what would freezing do, I wonder
It also cools down the electronics, which like a CPU, will stop working if they get too hot. Hard drives are very dense and hold a lot of heat. I actually got burned once grabbing hold of a HD that I thought had cooled off. If the electronics are hot, the drive will need a couple hours to cool down. Putting it in the freezer saves some time, and is the type of solution that appeals to the geek in all of us. ;)
 
realolman said:
...what would freezing do, I wonder? ;)
But mainly, it tightens the bearings.

More than 95% of hard drive failures are caused by the spindle bearings wearing out, causing the platters to wobble beyond the tolerance that the heads can track. Since the failures start to occur just as the bearing-wear reaches this limit, the lower temperature brings it back within tolerance. But only for a while; maybe hours, maybe months.
 
yea that's what I meant, I did the research years ago, but all I remembered is that it works.
 
Mike said:
Which brand have you found to be reliable then (currently)?
I've only been buying (for personal use) Seagate SATA drives, which run very quiet (another beef I have with Maxtor--even when they do survive beyond the first year, they can become VERY loud).
 
Back
Top