- Mar 18, 2013
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Hard-drives are very fragile, and susceptible to damage. Any small amount to the components of it can cause you to lose all of your files. One of the most common ways for this to happen is for it to get "stuck". This can be caused by a faulty drive, changes in temperature, or just wear and tear.
You can tell when this happens because rather than spinning up like normal, it will usually click and stop, although it can also do nothing at all.
If you have found your hard-drive to be stuck, the first thing you should do is turn off your power supply, open your case (while grounded, put your foot on a metal floor lamp or something), disconnect the power supply and SATA cable, and pull it out. You will usually have to unscrew it, but some are on slides, it depends on your case.
Take it to a flat, smooth surface, like a table or kitchen counter, place the covered side on a flat piece of paper, and put the paper on the table. Spin it clockwise and counter-clockwise quickly. Do not drop it. It is safe to duct tape it onto the paper, just don't drop it. This will potentially unstick it. Test it by putting it back in and seeing if it spins up.
If it does not, wrap it in paper towels, place it into a gallon size freezer bag, get the air out, seal it, and put that bag in another bag, removing the air from that too. Place the bag in the coolest section of your freezer for about 2 hours. During this time, hook up a new harddrive, external or internal, it doesn't matter as long as it has enough space. Make sure it is recognized. If possible, load an operating system onto it and download a harddrive cloner. What this will do is allow you to transfer every file, including the OS, onto the new, non-faulty hard-drive. Acronis makes one, or for one with a free trial, I use ShadowCopy (you can get it from golden trout).
After your hard-drive has been cooled, plug it in, and see if it spins up. If it does, boot from the new drive, open your cloning software, and choose to clone from your first drive to the new one. Once it is done, you are good to go. If it turns off in the middle of the process, put it in the freezer (double bagged again, no air) overnight, and then place a thick layer of paper towels on top of it with an ice pack on top and repeat.
If this does not work, take it into Geek Squad or somebody who will charge you absurd amounts of money to recover your data, that's really your only choice.
This is what it should look like, but with paper towels.
This is not guaranteed to work, and there is a risk of water damage from condensation. This is a last resort for saving your files, and does not repair the drive. All it does is cause the metal to contract. This will wear off as the drive warms up.
You can tell when this happens because rather than spinning up like normal, it will usually click and stop, although it can also do nothing at all.
If you have found your hard-drive to be stuck, the first thing you should do is turn off your power supply, open your case (while grounded, put your foot on a metal floor lamp or something), disconnect the power supply and SATA cable, and pull it out. You will usually have to unscrew it, but some are on slides, it depends on your case.
Take it to a flat, smooth surface, like a table or kitchen counter, place the covered side on a flat piece of paper, and put the paper on the table. Spin it clockwise and counter-clockwise quickly. Do not drop it. It is safe to duct tape it onto the paper, just don't drop it. This will potentially unstick it. Test it by putting it back in and seeing if it spins up.
If it does not, wrap it in paper towels, place it into a gallon size freezer bag, get the air out, seal it, and put that bag in another bag, removing the air from that too. Place the bag in the coolest section of your freezer for about 2 hours. During this time, hook up a new harddrive, external or internal, it doesn't matter as long as it has enough space. Make sure it is recognized. If possible, load an operating system onto it and download a harddrive cloner. What this will do is allow you to transfer every file, including the OS, onto the new, non-faulty hard-drive. Acronis makes one, or for one with a free trial, I use ShadowCopy (you can get it from golden trout).
After your hard-drive has been cooled, plug it in, and see if it spins up. If it does, boot from the new drive, open your cloning software, and choose to clone from your first drive to the new one. Once it is done, you are good to go. If it turns off in the middle of the process, put it in the freezer (double bagged again, no air) overnight, and then place a thick layer of paper towels on top of it with an ice pack on top and repeat.
If this does not work, take it into Geek Squad or somebody who will charge you absurd amounts of money to recover your data, that's really your only choice.
This is not guaranteed to work, and there is a risk of water damage from condensation. This is a last resort for saving your files, and does not repair the drive. All it does is cause the metal to contract. This will wear off as the drive warms up.
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