[NBLUG/talk] Re: reviving dead hard drive

Jim Bianchi jimbo at sonic.net
Sun Feb 8 14:55:01 PST 2004


On Sun, Feb 08, 2004 at 10:40:51AM -0800, Andrew wrote:
>> It appears that the hard drive in my sister's iMac has gone
>> belly-up. But before I flush it down the toilet, I'd like to try
>> to pull some data off of it... if I can manage to temporarily
>> resuscitate it. Anybody have any experience breathing a little
>> life into dead drives? Any tricks I might try?

>One trick that sometimes works is the "freezer" trick where you freeze it
>for a half hour to an hour, then try it again.  Also, you might have a
>better chance getting data with a dd operation than actually mounting the
>drive.

	One problem that stands out about the above 'freezer trick' is
that condensation can easily form on the unit when it is removed from the
freezer and worked on in a warmer place. Natch, this moisture can be a Bad
Thing if it shorts out parts of the circuit board. Forget not that this
condensation can form on the side of the circuit board that is hidden from
view -- so just blotting the thing won't help.

	Long ago, in a galaxy far far away, I worked repairing circuit
boards on mini-computers (Data General). One of the tools we used when
trouble shooting a recalcitrant board was an aerosol can containing some
Realy Cold stuff that, when sprayed on a suspect chip, would freeze the
thing. Aparantly, this would affect the chip and hopefully improve its
performance (if only temporarily) enough to get a 'scope on the now
working board to determine exactly where the fault was.

	In the above case, I'd say gofer it, only be aware of the
possibility of moisture condensing and shorting out the circuit board. Do
this on a fairly cool day and you might not have any real problems. Good
luck.

-- 
jimbo at sonic.net       Jim Bianchi   Santa Rosa   California

Remember Flight 93 -- "Let's roll!"






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