Over the years there have been a number of myths that have emerged on the internet about hard drive recovery – under the guise of genuine advice. People swear by these myths and often state that they have miraculously been able to fix or recover data from a hard drive that was inoperable – with some even going so far as to claim that the methods worked when even experts said that it wasn’t possible to recover any data.
If you’ve been wondering whether or not these methods work, the simple answer is: They don’t. Frankly speaking most of these methods are far more likely to cause further damage to the hard drive, and may make it more difficult to actually recover any data off it.
Overall there are 3 myths in particular that tend to crop up on a regular basis, and they are:
- Tap the hard drive with a hammer
Honestly there are several variations of this myth, including those that prescribe knocking it against a wall or using a rubber mallet. The reasoning tends to be the same however: By knocking it you may be able to re-align the hard drive in some way. Needless to say this is completely baseless, and it is more likely that by hitting the hard drive you’ll damage it in new ways.
- Put the hard drive in the freezer
Purportedly by freezing your hard drive you’ll cause its components to shrink so that they will expand and become ‘unstuck’ when thawed. While it is true that this method may be able to release a stuck spindle, freezing your hard drive could damage the platter and make things worse. Additionally moisture could get into the hard drive and cause further problems as well.
- Put the hard drive in the oven
Generally this myths involves the same principles as freezing the hard drive but in reverse. Once again while it has some small basis, the extreme temperature of an oven is likely to completely wreck the hard drive platter and so you will probably end up losing all your data.
Make no mistake there are several other myths floating around, such as the idea that it is possible to open up your hard drive by creating your very own clean room. On the whole these myths are easy enough to spot, but as a rule of thumb if you can’t recover data from your hard drive using hard drive recovery software it is best to immediately get help from an expert. Assuming you do so you’re far more likely to be able to recover as much data as possible from a damaged hard drive, as opposed to making things worse.
