Hard drive failure

[tsmcb87]

So I have seen a lot of posts about external hard drive failure and I have not seen a post that tells the simplest way to retrieve the contents of it. Get an extra thumb drive and make a live Puppy Linux thumb drive(google it). Break open the external hard drive and hook it up internally in a desktop. When you boot, hit whatever button you need to to get to the boot menu and select the thumb drive. When it boots you will see the internal hard drives on the desktop. Double click on the hard drive you want to recover the files off of. You can even mount two internal hard drives and copy the content directly to the good one. You won't need any passwords unless it is encrypted, which most aren't(even if you have a password on your user). If that doesn't work you can put the hard drive in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer for a few hours and then hook it up. It sounds weird, but it works. You can't do it too many times but you should be able to get all of your files off of the hard drive. Hope this helps any body that needs it(it could also save you a lot of money if you are thinking of having someone else do this for you). If you need help doing this you can message me(it is really easy though).

[OsmosisStudios]

Thanks tips!

/s

[dlambert]

Just a reminder - these aren't substitutes for redundancy / backups. I've tried all of these tricks (including the drive in the freezer). Sometimes they work, and sometimes, you're just out of luck. If you can use one of these tricks to help a friend, great, but don't let these be "Plan A".