Is there any way to fix a broken hard drive?

[pstokely]

I've tried putting it in the freezer and that didn't work. It has just stopped spinning. Any ideas? Nothing important was on there

[DarkTirade]

1. Depends on what part is broken.

If the disk inside is too screwed up, then no. If it's just something wrong with the shell or the wiring, then possibly.

I've got a drive that's stopped working recently and I'd like to recover some data from it too. But data recovery normally costs money. Which I don't have right now.

[hobbit709]

2. Cost you way more than what it's worth.

You might swap the circuit board with another of the same make and model and see if it comes up. Outside of that it's basically a paperweight.

[barb162]

3. Mine keeps breaking and it keeps getting sent back to HP

I got it in Jan 08 and I think it has broken 4 times now. It will get sent back again. Meanwhile, losing the damned data is a true pain. It gets very tiresome.

[LeftyMom]

4. It costs a mint and you still might not recover your data.

It it's nothing important just spend your dough on a new hard drive or two from a reputable brand.

[Starry Messenger]

5. I admit I don't know much about computers.

But how did the freezer come into play?

[Jamastiene]

7. I DO know some about computers and I've never heard that one.

I'm curious too. Bookmarking in case anyone answers us. :hi:

[Starry Messenger]

12. Heh. Looks like from the answers it's kind a hail mary pass for sickly hard drives!

It just struck me funny reading it. I've had computer parts fail on me before and never thought, "Hey, let's throw this in with the TV dinners and see what happens!" :hi:

MPK

[Starry Messenger]

13. Heh. Looks like from the answers it's kind a hail mary pass for sickly hard drives!

It just struck me funny reading it. I've had computer parts fail on me before and never thought, "Hey, let's throw this in with the TV dinners and see what happens!" :hi:

MPK

[phusion]

8. I'm not sure of the reason behind it...

My guess is that, by lowering the starting temperature, it allows you to avoid any problems with the drive overheating too quickly. Or maybe the bearings expand, allowing the platters to spin?

Regardless, I did this once and was able to boot up the drive and grab some important info off a customer's drive. The drive froze up again after about five minutes but that was ample time to get the data off.

Another tech I know has removed the platters from a bad drive and transplanted them into an identical working drive...He probably got lucky, though. :)

[quakerboy]

14. I think I know why

I know that in times gone by, when your laptop battery life started to fade, freezing it could sometimes give you additional life, messing with the crystal structures that were causing issues.

So I'm guessing that Bit of esoteric knowledge A got combined with "computer part no work right" and thus the HD ended up in the Freezer.

[DS1]

6. I've read that in these situations

after trying the freezer, and knowing it's pretty much a wash, turning it over and giving it a pretty firm tap with something heavy might unseat any stuck spindles.

[Awsi Dooger]

9. Freezer is generally the best option

Otherwise I'd tap it or drop it.

But most likely it's shot. The ideas like freezing are short term desperation, to grab valuable files before it won't respond at all.

[siligut]

10. This won't help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovASg2ewwMw It's the Bee Gees

As there wasn't anything important, you are best off just buying a new one, they are so cheap anymore.

[trotsky]

11. If you can find an identical drive

(and I mean IDENTICAL), you can swap out the motor and/or controller board and perhaps bring it back to life.

But if there's nothing important to salvage on it, it's not worth the effort.