3. insert the box into a premium quality [thick plastic, one gallon] ziplock bag and push or suck all the air out of it like you would for a piece of meat, close zipper seal - you really do not want moisture getting into the drive!!!
4. place bagged hard drive into any full-sized freezer with a capacity to lower temperatures below 32* F / 0*C - make sure the hard drive is in a stable position so it will not rock, tip or fall inside the freezer
5. normally the drive box when pressed gently between your palm
s will have a slight flex to it. Once completely frozen, there is no more flex, and the central area feels harder than the edges. You want the drive box good and cold. Some drives only require slight cooling, like 30 minutes. Some have required 2 hours, and one drive I had to leave in the freezer overnight to get it to work. You can try this more than once.Re-freezing doesn't seem to harm it. Try 30 minutes, try 2 hours, see what happens.
6. when you remove the drive box from the freezer and you've checked that it is in the proper condition [frozen, or very very cold] remove it from the ziplock bag, and locate a solid table or counter-top. From a distance of about 8" smack the broad flat side of the drive box down onto the table/counter-top ONCE with medium force, as if you are in the library with a textbook and you want to really annoy the librarian but not get in trouble. It should make a solid "chunk" or "thunk" sound, not a crack, wibble, snap or pop. DO NOT smack the binding edges - they are not meant to withstand that kind of force and will break when frozen. ONLY smack the broad side, like the cover of a book face down onto the table in our fictional library.
~ The Lively Woodsprite
