You’re about to decommission that old desktop or laptop. However, not knowing when you might need the data on it again, you remove its hard disk or just put the whole system up in the attic.
Unfortunately, this is just possibly the worst place to store a hard disk. Attics and hard disks are about as compatible as frogs and lawnmowers or petrol and matches. Your average domestic attic is a place of temperature extremes. Siberian levels of coldness in the winter coupled with Saharan levels of heat in the summer might be fine for storing nostalgic copies of Q Magazine with pictures of Oasis or Blur adorning the cover. Or storing that gym equipment you swore you would use. But it’s not a good place to store a hard disk containing thermally sensitive components. And you don’t need a Harvard degree in Physics or Metallurgy to know that these metallic components will contract when it gets really cold and expand when it gets really hot. That is why, here at Drive Rescue, customers often tell us how the drive they put up in the attic 2 or 3 years ago now clicks when it is switched on or doesn’t spin up at all. They assure us it was working fine when it was first put up there. The type of damage incurred by hard disks which have been exposed to temperature extremes is insidious. You won’t see disk change shape. And unlike that exercise equipment, you won’t see rust marks either. But inside, the delicate disk-head assembly may well be damaged after months of contracting and expanding.
So do yourself a favour, if you value your data, don’t store old hard disks in the attic. Disks need to be stored in an ambient temperature. They don’t like extremes, so store them in a living room cupboard or a bedroom wardrobe, but for God’s sake, not in the attic.
Have you removed a hard disk from your attic only discover that it’s now clicking, chirping, ticking or not being recognised by your computer? Drive Rescue offer a Dublin based complete hard disk recovery service for most hard disk brands including Hitachi Deskstar, HGST, Seagate Barracuda, Seagate FreeAgent, Western Digital Caviar, Samsung SpinPoint, Iomega External, LaCie and WD Blue. We also offer a data recovery service for iMacs and MacBooks. Phone us on 1890 571 571.