Re: Hard Drive in a freezer: Urban myth?

From: Andrew Gabriel (andrew_at_cucumber.demon.co.uk)
Date: 07/30/05 

Date: 30 Jul 2005 17:37:59 GMT

In article <1122739811.352884.244200@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
        mr_peter_stevenson@hotmail.com writes:
>
> So, the question I'm wondering is: has anybody tried this old wives
> tale and had any success?

It may depend what's wrong with the drive. A freezer isn't going
to magically stick all the scraped oxide back in the right place
on the platters or fix a head back on to the actuator arm.
It might change the tolerance of some worn bearings, if that is
what was wrong with the drive, or change the value of some
electrical components on the control board if they've drifted
out of spec. It might also wreck the control board if it forms
condensation over it when you take it out of the freezer.
So whilst I'd say it's not impossible it might help some type
of failure mode, mostly it's unlikely to help and more likely
to make things worse. 

-- 
Andrew Gabriel