So my harddrive with my bands EP crashed...

[Vaggelis_Revolted]

DONT FUCKING DO IT.
Its the dumbest shit i have ever heard.

I just got my own drive back from data recovery(Went for about 400usd + new drive), and i talked to the guy who worked there(Im a huge computer nerd.).
I talked about all the stupid shit about this stuff, and when the freezer thing came up he just shaked his head.
He had a drive in once where they had tried this trick, they ended up destroying about 50% of the data.. if they hadn't done it he was fairly sure it would have been a 100% recovery.

Its usually free/very cheap to send your drive to a company to check the drive for errors.. then you get to know how much it would cost to fix it.

As a final solution, it might work and HAS worked for me, so..

I agree that the first step should be an error check but if the company asks hundreds of $$$ and it's not worth to give the money, instead of just throwing the drive away, why not having fun with this (seemingly desperate) last stand solution? Might give you some time to back up the important files.

You should also consider the fact that it's the JOB of the data recovery company to tell you to never try alternative methods!

 

[Notuern]

As a final solution, it might work and HAS worked for me, so..

If you don't worry about the material on the drive at all you can go for it, but the risk of condensation building up in VERY sensitive components is _EXTREMELY_ high.

I agree that the first step should be an error check but if the company asks hundreds of $$$ and it's not worth to give the money, instead of just throwing the drive away, why not having fun with this (seemingly desperate) last stand solution? Might give you some time to back up the important files.

Personally i thought it was worth spending 400$ on my recovery, despite the fact that my drive only contained my personal material.

You should also consider the fact that it's the JOB of the data recovery company to tell you to never try alternative methods!

The guy happens to be one of my dads best friends.
He actually gave me a cd with a set of recovery tools that works "in most cases"(The methods he uses him self in the first stage of recovery.).
But yeah, i get the point.. but as he said: Its more likely that you'll fry your drive for good then that it will work again after freezing.

Other fixes i've heard of is people managing to do platter swaps at home.. i seriously doubt that you have a good success rate with that method though, but as you said: As a last resort.. maybe!

 

[drew_drummer]

I lost all of our first albums tracks when I went from Windows to a Hackintosh setup. I forgot to back it up, and just wiped the drive without thinking.

IDIOT.

I now have several backups of our new album in the works. And they'll be put up somewhere safe for future reference too.

 

[JameshKoler]

Data loss due to hard drive crashes or other logical errors may happen. Be prepared for the worst with the best. Use Kernel for Windows Disk Recovery and be assured of your data even if the partitions are lost. Kernel is competent to recover files from any windows file system.

 

[AllanD]

Found my drum tracks on my tracking laptop, and my guitar/bass DI's are on my friends computer since we reamped at his place. Thank fuark, lesson learned.

 

[::XeS::]

Try a recovery software...they do miracles. I recovered lot of hard drives with them...you lost some data but at least the 80%-90% is safe. I also recovered totally a broken HD that I had reformatted...and I recovered all the data I had before formatting it.

 

[Notuern]

Try a recovery software...they do miracles. I recovered lot of hard drives with them...you lost some data but at least the 80%-90% is safe. I also recovered totally a broken HD that I had reformatted...and I recovered all the data I had before formatting it.

Yeah, formating really doesnt remove anything.. it just kind of "hides" it on the drive and lets the old stuff get written over.

One thing to remember when using any recovery though: Move your files to a new drive, and never use the old one for something that really matters(Because its very likely that it will fail again.).