[ILUG] disk recovery

[Niall O Broin]

On 12 May 2009, at 14:28, Paul Murray wrote:

> Two points to note with that tactic:
>
> 1) Remove the controller board first

Why? You could well have a heat related problem on a controller chip.

> 2) Use it as a last ditch attempt because if the drive isn't dead,  
> the condensation inside after it warms up will kill it, you've only  
> got one run left.

Do you mean inside on the platters? I doubt there's any significant  
amount of water vapour in the platter housing. I've heard people  
mutter about the condensation issue numerous times, but in my  
experiences I've never seen condensation occur. Also, I wonder would  
condensation matter anyway? Condensation will be very pure water, and  
pure water is an insulator, so where's the problem? [I suppose the  
water could rapidly become impure due to e.g. dissolving some  
microscopic amounts of dirt from the controller but bottom line if  
that I've never seen this cause a problem]

> The coldest I've ever had to recover a drive from was from a PC left  
> in the boot of the car on a frosty night, and yes, the cold does  
> work, just freezing it should only ever be a last resort as it will  
> kill the drive and kill all remaining attempts.

On one of the drives I've recovered, I had to use two freezing cycles,  
as I wanted all the data back, and the drive had heated up again  
before I got all the data. I really don't know where you get this  
"cold will kill the drive" idea - have you actually had this happen?  
And if you say you have, how would you really know, as the drive was  
presumably dodgy anyway.


Niall