Copying A Disk

[Brian McKee]

On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
> Pete Holsberg wrote:
>
>
>> sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
>>
>> Unable to read /dev/sdb
>
> oops.  Sounds like it's _really_ toasted.

As a *last resort*  - and don't expect it to work - Sometimes
(have I put enough qualifiers in here yet?)

put the harddrive in a ziplock bag with as little air as possible.
Stick it in the freezer for at least a couple hours so it's completely
cold-soaked.

Take it back out and try again - maybe with one of those gel cold paks
on top if it to help keep it cold while you are using it.

Twice now I've gotten quite a bit more data off a drive this way then
when it was hot.

Of course there's been another 4 or 5 attempts where this made no
difference at all.  So, YMMV...