Yes John, it’s only seen as a temporary recovery – just make the drive work long enough to try to recover what is important to you.

Well it’s May, how did your recovery attempt go? (From 2009 to 2025, that is likely to be difficult.)

I recommend in one freezer bag with a silica packet, pull air out, seal, then add another freezer bag air removed and sealed. Place in freezer for at least 2 hours.

I’ll update soon, I’m recovering photos from a hard drive that failed in 2009 and again trying this process. wish me luck. 🙂

You raise some common concerns other people have raised in the above comments. These comments are moderated, and where we have very many comments I don’t usually allow any more. However I am happy to let this opposing view be an exception. Not everyone agrees with this article, not everyone thinks it is a good idea. Some people think it is a terrible idea, as you do. It does work for some, has worked for us, and I’d stress again that it has its risks (although not as high as some think as these drives are hermetically sealed). See this article for some things you should try first: Recover Data from failing Hard Drive.
As for your comment on bloodletting – did you know that top modern surgeries use live leaches these days for some specific purposes?! The reason is there is sometimes value in it, just as in this activity.

Putting your failing hard drive into a freezer would be best described as bloodletting as a cure for illness back in the 18th century, or otherwise know as MORE HARM than good. With the exception of high blood pressure and a couple other things, draining people of their blood when they’re sick – just isn’t a great idea.

Similarly, putting an electro/mechanical device into a freezing environment is a terrible idea without the human death part, of course.

All that crap about shrinking metal, blah blah is nonsense. Shrink? Yes of course. Any guy that’s been swimming in cold water can tell you that. But, when you power up the drive and it’s platters start spinning up 5400 times, 7200 times or more (15k anyone?) per MINUTE, how long do you really think it will stay cold? Do the math! The platters are spinning a full circle at the very, very least – NINETY TIMES A SECOND. The arm assembly, hold the heads, voice coil, etc reads back and forth moving faster than the platters are rotating.

How long do you actually think they’ll stay cool? These 2 parts are WHAT CREATES MOST OF THE HEAT coming off of a drive.

In addition, the second that you open a refridgerator or freezer door, humidity from the room you’re in gets sucked right in. So now, you’ve got a drive being frozen, air with moisture being frozen, and it’s all sticking on your patient. Take it out, pop it in a computer and heat it up.

You ever see a glass of iced tea in the summer? Understanding yet?

There’s at least 5 more reasons why this is just an absolutely ignorant idea. Please fix or remove this terrible information so nobody else loses irreplaceable data because you are good at getting people to read but at tech ‘mentoring,” not so much.

Shall I go on with more reasons NOT to do this? I’ve taken it easy on you so far, trust me.

If you’re in need of a reliable data recovery service I’d strongly recommend Ultra Data Recovery as they do the same jobs as the “big corporations” (such as heads and platters replacement), but actually affordable: http://www.ultradatarecovery.com