Dispelling the myth of Freezer Based Hard Drive Data Recovery

Before professional in-lab data recovery, those confronting failed or troubled hard drives often try a variety of methods to get their data back. We recommend weighing the value of the data and the consequences of its permanent loss before attempting anything that could harm the platter surfaces of your hard drive.

Here, Scott Holewinski shows how putting a hard drive into the freezer can permanently prevent you from recovering data from your hard drive.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• hard
• drive
• data
• recovery
• freezer
• trick
• myth
• computer
• educational
• electronics
• repair

[tylerwatt12]

you have to put it in a ziploc

[gillware]

@tylerwatt12 - Placing a drive in a sealed bag prior to placing it in the freezer will not prevent water from condensing on the platters. Moist air is in the drive prior to it being placed in the bag.

[MrMadoc]

Your science is beyond flawed.

Didn't bag the drive and no drive will be exposed to that much water at once to allow for condensation. The only reason it did so in your experiment is because you ripped open the HDD and exposed it to open air.

This is merely a marketing video trying to keep people going to professionals.

[gillware]

@MrMadoc The breather hole on a hard drive is usually protected with some form of a desiccant designed to minimize the amount of moisture inside the drive, however the desiccant does not remove 100% of the moisture in the air. This fact is clearly shown in this video. For anyone interested in testing the quality of the seal on a hard drive, submerge an old, broken and no longer in use drive in water for a few minutes. Remove it from the water and open in up.

[gillware]

@MrMadoc Although some drives are better sealed than others, they will all at some point allow water to penetrate. Gillware works on hundreds of drives every year that have been subjected to water damage due to either fire or flood, and our engineers must spend countless hours delicately cleaning the platter surfaces prior to recovery in order to mitigate the problems cause by water damage.

[gillware]

@MrMadoc Submerging a drive in water is obviously an extreme test of a drives seal, but it is also a tangible illustration that hard drives are not hermetically sealed. Because of this, placing a drive in a sealed bag prior to placing it in the freezer will not prevent water from condensing on the platters. Moist air is in the drive prior to it being placed in the bag. Although the video starts in our kitchen, the drive was opened in a ISO-5 certified horizontal flow class-100 workstation.

[gillware]

@MrMadoc All hard drives contain a small breather hole that allows air to flow in and out of the device. If a hard drive was not able to “breath” negative pressure would exist inside the drive chassis when the drive is powered up and the platters begin to spin. Generating a vacuum inside the drive would inhibit proper read/write head lift and cause the heads to crash onto the platter surface. Never a good situation.

[gillware]

@MrMadoc Thanks for your comment, we appreciate the feedback. Just a few things to bring additional clarity to the primary objective of this video. That being to maximize peoples chances of having their data recovered when seeking professional data recovery services. It is a misconception that hard drives are hermetically (air/water tight) sealed. Drives are sealed in a manner that prevents most dirt, debris, and other particulates from entering the the drive, they are NOT air/water tight.

[Real454545]

Your an Idiot, You didnt have it in a Zip locked Bag !!!!

[cdoublejj]

MrMadoc is correct!