Comments on: How I recovered my hard drive by double-boiling it

By: lenteevubre

lenteevubre — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:52:34 +0000

Your welcome everyone,
My PC worked not correctly, many mistakes and buggs. Please, help me to fix errors on my computer.
My operation system is Windows7.
With best regards,
lenteevubre

By: Zorba

Zorba — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:03:51 +0000

You’re welcome, I’m glad it worked :)

Note that, if I have indeed diagnosed the issue properly, you don’t have to worry too much about cooling – its own internal heat and inertia should keep it running pretty much indefinitely.

Still, I wouldn’t, you know, put it off.

By: Mike b.

Mike b. — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:58:20 +0000

OMG, I tried this with my wife’s fragged drive (double-pot on the stove and all) and it actually WORKED!!! Contents of her old drive are transferring to a USB drive now and I hope to be able to get it all before the drive cools. THANK YOU to whomever made this post!

By: Zorba

Zorba — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:53:28 +0000

In this case it (probably) wasn’t the head’s alignment, it was some very subtle mechanical jam inside. If it really is the head’s alignment in your case you’re probably pretty much fucked – you’re looking at micrometer tolerances inside, and if you get a single speck of dust on your hard drive while working on it, the thing is probably trashed.

Hard drives are really really delicate gizmos.

By: Unsavory Maggot

Unsavory Maggot — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:53:07 +0000

Sounds like I’m in the same boat! I’m not sure what a laptop looks like on the inside, but I’m certain I’ll have to find out sooner or later, as several projects (game development, artwork, some ASM projects, etc.) I’d been working on for 6 years are hopefully still on it. I don’t have pots or even a burner available to attempt this with, or really any kind of funds to pay a professional to take care of the problem. If it is infact the head’s alignment, wouldn’t it be possible for me to physically readjust it — or would that damage the (clearly sensitive) data?

By: Hochush

Hochush — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:58:36 +0000

Любопытно, а есть хоть кто-то, кто не согласен с автором?

By: Triumph360 Voice

Triumph360 Voice — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:46:50 +0000

[...] could get the head loose. No luck either. Finally, I read an article on mandible titled “How I recovered my hard drive by double-boiling it”. I figured, I’ve heard some crazy things that have worked before – why not try it! [...]

By: Troubled

Troubled — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:55:42 +0000

To me this makes me want to go and invest into an SSD – Solid State Drive that uses memory similar to RAM. Some of them are guaranteed to last 40 or more years and that is reading/writing many GB of data to them daily. Since there are no moving parts they become reliable.

Windows Vista has crippled my drive with its superfetch so I should really buy a new HDD. Today I had to look inside my box and the STA cable came out. I put it back in properly and booted back up or tried to and it would not load my HDD but had some read error several times. I think I will be buying an SSD ASAP when funds permit. Fusion IO look quite good but quite a few manufacturers are more competitive now.

I did once try the freeze method on a HDD that was damaged – clicking. A Lacie extern HDD RAID – yes they let the case overheat. Now it would have cost me £750 to have data recovered and the data was not of that value so why bother! And the freeze method just killed the drive.

By: Bittivuoto.net » Kiintolevyn korjaaminen keittämällä

Bittivuoto.net » Kiintolevyn korjaaminen keittämällä — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:46:31 +0000

[...] Mandible Games – How I recovered my hard drive by double-boiling it Pekka Järvinen | Muu [...]

By: Zorba

Zorba — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:06:01 +0000

Certainly greater than zero. Doing pretty much anything to a dead hard drive might cause further data loss.

However, if you’re hoping for repair prices to come down, I’m not sure I’d hold my breath – repair is expensive because it requires a lot of skilled labor, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. If anything, you might have to worry about your hard drive getting more obsolete, causing costs to go up.