| I have done this. Many years ago I was forced to work with a terrible laptop. It was one of those Dell 5cm thick things that were basically cramming a desktop cpu and gpu into someting that looked like someone had bolted a second box undeneeth a standard laptop. Fans ofc screeming loudly all day. So I had the brilliant idea to just run everyting of an external drive so that when I could work from home, I could seamlessly switch to a better computer. Now the powerbrick for the laptop from hell was also huge and heavy (I remember the total package was over 4.5 kg, and the battery lasted 80 minutes when new, so you always needed wallpower), but it had the exact with and lenght of the exteral drive cage. So fancy me had the great idea that when I tidied up my desk putting the drive on top of the powerbrick, ofc neatly allingned with the desk edges, looked perfect. Perfect until the drive crashed hard due to being right on top of the very hot powerbrick. All code was checked into subversion, but the 127 pages of a product manual I had been writing the last week were gone without backup. Having come across the freezer method, I decided to give it a try. Nicely sealed in a ziplock freezer bag, I left the drive in overnight. Tried booting it up the next morning without success. Put it back in the freezer on a whim, but had to start writing the manual anew and forgot a out the drive. I came across the drive again while fetching some peas from the freezer a few weeks later. Gave it another try, and lo and behold, it worked! Learned my lesson about excess heat on drives and no nightly backups though, so never needed this procedure again. |
Double pro tip (I've done this): Forget the freezer. Put the drive a bag, with cables hanging out. Then immerse the drive/bag in a bucket of ice water. That keeps it cool even while being used. Just be careful to keep the cables away from the water. Last time I did this I used a garbage bag large enough that I didn't need to seal anything.