Saturday, December 11, 2010

Hard Drive Freezer Trick

As an experienced professional in the IT industry, I will tell you that the hard drive freezer trick is not a myth. I was actually surprised to see how many articles and forum posts there are online that claim that freezing a drive in attempt to recover data never works. This trick involves some luck, but you must also be sure to do it correctly.

Don't expect this to be a permanent fix, because it isn't. Also, don't expect this to work with a bad drive every time. What you can expect from this trick is to possibly get your drive to spin up long enough for you to copy over important files to a different device.

While the hard drive freezer trick can possibly do more harm than good to the drive, there is a chance that the cooler temperature will allow it to function for a short period of time. Again, this could actually damage the drive even more and make it harder to recover data using other methods. If your data is worth a significant chunk of money to you, I would suggest seeking professional data recovery services.

Step 1

Wrap the hard drive in some kind of absorbent material (dish cloth, ShamWow, etc...)

Step 2

Put the hard drive in a sealed bag (ziplock bag, anti-static bag, etc...)

Step 3

Put the hard drive in the freezer for several hours.

Step 4a

Take the hard drive out of the freezer, bag, and cloth. Connect it to your computer (while the system is powered off). Start the computer and be ready to start pulling data off of it as soon as possible (assuming that it finishes booting).

Step 4b

It actually works much better if you don't rely on the operating system installed on the bad hard drive. You could use an IDE/SATA to USB adapter to connect the bad drive to a computer that already has an operating system loaded and ready to go. With an adapter, you can also connect the drive to the computer while it is already running. Using this method, you will buy yourself some extra time and increase your chances of recovering the data that you need.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Macintosh SE

Released in 1987 (on the back mine says it was made in 1986). Quite a neat little machine. Specs: 8Mhz CPU 800K Floppy Drive 1MB RAM (memory) 20MB Hard Drive 20SC 9" Monochrome Display Made in the USA Came in 2 configurations: 2 Bays with Floppy Drives (800K) Originally Sold for $2900.00 US or 1 Bay with Floppy Drive 1 Bay with Hard Drive Originally Sold for $3900.00 US



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUD-Xhqz6AA&hl=en

Friday, November 12, 2010

My Hard Drive Crashed - Why?

Why does a hard drive crash? This happens when there's a problem with the hard disk and you can't access the stored data, even when everything else with the computer is fine. It can happen any time for no reason, or can be due to something external like your dog or girlfriend puking on it. Ew, that's gross.

Depending on how bad the crash is, you may still be able to salvage some of your precious, precious data. If you've suffered a head crash, where something called the read-and-write head of the hard drive touches a magnet, you're probably screwed. You're in for lots of data loss and anything you try to do to recover the data is going to screw you even more unless you get a professional to do it for you.

Or maybe the electrical system crashed. If this happened, you'll have a better chance of getting your data back.

It could be possible that the air filter on your hard drive malfunctioned. These work by stabilizing the atmospheric pressure and any wetness between the hard drive casing and what's outside it. If the filter fails to capture one or a few particles of dust or dog puke, this material can touch the hard drive, screwing you even further. Then you've got a head crash on your hands and we know that's no fun. Furthermore, everywhere the material touched can cause something called a bad sector.

What is a bad sector? Its simply a part of your computer's memory drive that you screwed up somehow from physical damage. To find out if you have a bad sector, try using SCANDISK (if you use Windows). It'll run a check of your hardware and tell you if you have any parts of the hardware makeup that you can't use.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Boss NX1600.2 1600 Watt 2-Channel Mosfet Bridgeable Amplifier with Remote

Check Out Boss NX1600.2 1600 Watt 2-Channel Mosfet Bridgeable Amplifier with Remote http://www.amazon.com/Boss-NX1600-2-2-Channel-Bridgeable-Amplifier/dp/B0032FOKME?tag=iampok-20

Sunday, October 31, 2010

2009 Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet Full Test

FOR THE FULL TEST: www.edmunds.com Only about 10 seconds elapse in our drive of the 2009 Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet before we realize that we've just begun a love/hate relationship with Porsche's most brilliant piece of technology in the last 20 years — the Doppelkupplungsgetriebe, which, roughly translated, means "badass tranny." Seriously, Porsche's PDK (Porsche Double Clutch) transmission — a new addition to the 911 model range for 2009 — is as spectacular at changing gears as it is awkward to use. This transmission has won our hearts with ridiculously quick shifts and immediate throttle response, but also doused our spirits with its frustrating interface. Still, once you start winding corners together after adjusting to the shifting characteristics of the PDK, you'll quickly realize that the 2009 Porsche Carrera S Cabriolet's combination of newfound power and a best-of-both-worlds transmission enables it to satisfy the hard-core performance nerd and Newport Ned alike.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2pKU-_CLw&hl=en