|
|
|
Data Security; Are your Assets Secure?
Is your data secure? Think again. Securing data is unlike any other corporate asset, and is likely the biggest challenge your company faces today. You may not see it, but almost all of your company's information is in digital form somewhere in...
Dealing with Your Pending PC Disaster: A Guide for Small Business
It isn't a matter of if it will happen to you but -- when. PC users may be divided into two groups -- those who have had a disaster and those who will have to deal with a PC disaster. For you, more to the point is how you will react to it! Will it...
Hard Drive Crash? Avoid Making A Bad Situation Worse
If you experience a hard drive crash, it doesn't take much to
make a bad situation even worse. In the event of a hard drive
crash, in most instances, the data is completely recoverable at
first. However, as part of human nature, we often try to...
Openly Sharing Your RFP Objectives and Information with Vendors
On the surface, the idea of beginning your project by clearly stating your Request for Proposal (RFP) objectives and then communicating them directly to your potential suppliers would seem to be obvious. However, that has certainly not been the...
The Best Data Recovery Choice For You
The best defense against a loss of data is a really solid and faithful backup routine of important files to reliable media. It's also a good idea for the media to be removable and portable if possible so that even if something happens to your whole...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Do It Yourself Data Recovery: Freezer Method
There has been a long running myth about putting your hard drive
in the freezer when it crashes in order to revive it just long
enough to pull your data off of it. We've run this test for fun
on many occasions in different scenarios with junk test drives
that we have in our lab. So far we have yet to see this actually
produce any positive results. Infact, in one instance we
actually began to see the formation of tiny microscopic ice
crystals on the platter themselves, which is a definite crash
waiting to happen.
See the problem with this theory is, contrary to popular belief,
hard drives are not completely sealed. Regardless of what you've
heard or read, all hard drives have a tiny breather hole
(usually marked with a label that says DO NOT COVER). This hole
not only aids in cooling but it also helps to equalize air
pressure in the drive when the platters are spinning. On the
other side of this hole is a filter which keeps dirt and debris
from getting inside the drive. However, this filter does not
stop heavy amounts of moisture (epecially in flood situations)
or moisture vapor (such as found naturally in the air).
Placing a hard drive in the freezer, even if it is wrapped in
ziplock bags, esd bags, taped up, and completely
Associated Websites
waterproofed,
there is still moisture vapor within the air surrounding the
drive. When a drive is placed in a freezer, this vapor can
settle on the platter and form microscopic ice crystals. When
the hard drive is powered up after being removed from the
freezer, the read/write head would come in contact with these
crystals, which would pretty much resemble an airplane flying
into a mountain.
At that point your data for that area of the platter, not to
mention the heads themselves are destroyed. While there are
stories where this has worked, we get calls from customers every
so often where their hard drives failed, and then after a few
hours they worked again on reboot. In the case of freezer
drives, it's hard to tell if it's a quirk with the drive or if
actually freezing the components helped to get the drive
functional again. Regardless, if your data is valuable at all,
then the freezer method may be one trick you want to steer clear
of.
About the author:
Greg Duffield is the founder of ACS Data Recovery, a premier
provider of hard drive data recovery services. You can reach
them toll free at 1-877-646-0546 or on the web at http://www.acsdata.com
|
|
|
|
|
|