New Hope For Hard Drive?

Definately one of the coolest altars my coven has created. Jewel gets credit on this one.

Well, before I add two grand to the credit card debt that Laura and I have worked so hard to kill (each month we are sending $800 to pay off that debt), I am going to try something else. Yesterday, whilst searching for "reliable hard drive" on Google I ran across a post in a forum which said:

A little-known trick to double wrap the hard drive in plastic ziplocs, then put it in the freezer for 8-10 hours or so. For many folks this will at least temporarily fix the problem, allowing you to backup your stuff before either 1)RMA'ing the drive or 2)Buying a new one.

I'm dead serious. Give it a try, can't hurt anything.

Oh, and a tip on the freezer thing. Suck the air out of the first bag before closing it, perhaps with a straw. Once you take it out of the freezer you only have a 20-30 minute timeframe, in my experience, before the drive will likely fail again.

WTF? Googling "freezer hard drive crash" I pulled up story after story about doing this. The theory is that if the read/write arm is touching the disc, the cold will cause it to contract minutely and allow the disc to function. By all accounts you have about twenty minutes to salvage what you can.

If I had my iTunes I would play the Mission Impossible theme while doing this . . . My wife was really amused watching me suck air out of the bags with a straw (I assume to reduce moisture in the bags, reducing ice crystal formation?) and then placing the drive in the freezer. I'm going to clean as much space as I can on both the iBook and the iMac, and then say a quick prayer (should I cast a circle? Why not. It can't hurt) and give this thing a shot.

I also have a ice chest that I used to use to tranport fish (don't ask) which has a hole drilled in the top for airline tubing from a battery powered airpump. I was thinking that if I put ice packs in the chest, set the drive in there, run the cords through the hole in the top maybe I could keep it cold enough to get a little more time out of it? It sounds ridiculous, but spending $2000+ sounds even more ridiculous, so I am willing to try it.

Order of priority:
My writing
iPhoto library
My graphics and stuff for blog/website
iTunes library
Smut folder of Redheads
Anything Else I can

Odd as it may sound, this has given me a chance to reflect on how fortunate I am. You see, three years ago if this had happened it would have been financial armageddon. We were about $18,000 in credit debt when I walked into the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous. We are now at about $7,000 in credit debt and paying off $800 each and every month. My wife and I are both at decent jobs earning good pay. I am a very lucky, blessed man.

I have a dear friend whose husband has been given the rather ugly choice of being fired or quitting. I won't give details, but he has been accused of one of those crimes that carries a moral stigma. Once you are accused, you are guilty in the minds of many, regardless of the evidence. He's just been through minor surgery also, and is in considerable pain, not exactly in a fit condition to be going to interviews.

FWIW, I don't think he is guilty. I have worked in with both victims and perpetrators of those crimes and the perps tend to fit a very specific, predatory profile. There is another person I know who was caught red-handed as it were, of the same type of crime - he fit the profile, although I pretty much only spotted that in retrospect. This current individual does not strike me as predatory or manipulative, both of which are pretty much universal traits of these perps. He does strike me as a little odd, but odd is not an indicator. The victim in this case does not show the signs I was trained to look for. Not withdrawn, not isolating, not acting out, things seem okay.

I could be completely wrong of course. I am not an expert. But I strongly doubt it.

Goddess be with that family, all of them. These are good people. Blessed Be.