Last week I got an alarming error on my Windows 7 work laptop:
Windows detected a hard disk problem
I clicked the Show Details button to see which disk is failing.
My C: drive was failing and I had Symantec whole disk encryption installed - a complication which makes data recovery a little more precarious!
The first time it appeared I hit the Ask me again later button and then started to make space for an emergency backup of my important data on to my second D: drive, which I have installed in a caddy where the DVD drive goes. I also used a USB hard drive for additional storage later.
I had about 56Gb of data to copy, so I made a start. My C: drive allowed me to backup about 6Gb of my important data before the drive failed and crashed my laptop. While my data was copying I opened MSCONFIG.EXE and chose the "Selective startup" option to speed up subsequent boot up times.
So I restarted the laptop and recommenced the data copying. About 15 minutes later the disk failed again. I went through this cycle a few more times but I wasn't making much headway with my backup, and I was worried about the larger files I needed to copy.
I realised I was going to need a copy utility that was able to only copy incomplete or missing files to the target drive. But I also knew that 15 mins wouldn't be long enough to get the backup done.
I had a dim recollection about putting a failed hard drive in the freezer as a way of resuscitating it. I didn't have much to lose at this point, so I wrapped my old C drive in an anti-stat bag, popped it in the freezer, and went to bed.
In the morning I retrieved the frozen drive and popped it back into my laptop. The laptop booted fine so I opened up Microsoft SyncToy, which I already had installed in any case.
I created a sync job for My Documents folder, using the Echo option, but I also went into Change options and selected Check for contents (and unchecked Save overwritten files in the Recycle Bin to make it a little quicker). This option will check the file size is correct if your file copy does get interrupted part way through.
I ran the sync job and copied data happily for over 35 minutes before the drive failed again.
The cold had definitely helped, so to improve my "up time" I placed a freezer block on top and below where the hard drive was located (see picture). I found that by cycling fresh freezer blocks every 20 minutes or so my up time was almost unlimited and allowed me to copy off all the data I needed to retrieve!
It has to be said that this method will only be effective when your hard drive is suffering a mechanical failure. If you simply have a data corruption it will have no benefit I'm afraid.
Good luck.
