I heard of people getting hard drivs working again sometimes by freezing them. I'd like to know how long I should freeze my faulty hard drive, why freezing it works, and if there is a better alternative.

The hard drive was in my old computer running Win 95 and one day it decided it couldn't read the hard drive.

Any help, suggestions, or the like would be greatly appreciated.I THINK this will answer your question, courtesy of Google: Freeze your hard drive to recover data: Myth or reality?I think you would have better luck removing the platters from the hard drive and putting them in another hard drive of the same MODEL and make. Just make sure you don't get any moisture or dust on the platters.
The better option, which would be more expensive is to pay a professional to do it for you. Do a YAHOO! search for hard drive restoration.
another method in some cases is to transfer the circuit board from a similar drive, there are free recovery tools from here:- http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htmThanks for all the help and suggestions.

I took the hard drive out of the freezer, and now the computer won't even recognize it. It's only a 2 GB disk in an old, has-not-been-used-for-a-year (and several years of disuse before that, resulting in HUGE sheets of dust inside) computer that (when it works) SOUNDS like a lawn mower, so it is really no big deal. I think putting the drive in the freezer without a bag was the deathblow....

So, in order to use the computer again, I'd have to salvage (or replace) the hard drive and buy a new fan (the old one died on me, it sticks at one point and must have burnt out the motor). I think I'll try to save/salvage the hard drive just for the fun of it, but I think my old PC's computing days are over.Whenever i have to freeze a drive i put it in a plastic bag and i don't leave it in the freezer more then 20 minutes. It doesn't have to be frozen solid If I did get water on the platters (likely, since I didn't use a bag), is there any way I can reverse the damage?nope not really it is a done deal then.