So I washed my hard drive...

[Ki11ian]

I just found one of my extra 2.5" Hard drives in the washing machine, guess after the dog foulled up the bedspread, I didnt notice the drive in my covers somewhere, lol

I have put phones in rice when they get wet, should I do the same with this? do I have to worry about damage to the pcm board? cause water cant get insite the case correct?

Thx guys

 

[terry4536]

I think it's toast. Let it dry out and hope for the best.

 

[Trenchcoat]

It's one thing to get sensitive hardware wet, but entirely another to get it really wet and bash it round for an hour. 99.9% that hard drive is dead.

 

[TyrOd]

It's one thing to get sensitive hardware wet, but entirely another to get it really wet and bash it round for an hour. 99.9% that hard drive is dead.

This is correct, though the water isn't really a problem until it is submerged for a long time and under pressure and begins to leak into the casing.

The physical shock is the bigger issue.

That being said to deal with water damage you don't really want to dry it out because the platters will start to corrode immediately if water has leaked into the case. if the drive was off and the heads parked and the platters are not corroded, a platter swap can be done with a decent chance of recovering your data.
At the minimum this would be replacing the PCB and Head Rack Assembly and cost upwards of $2k dollars most likely.
Instructions for how to preserve a submerged drive for data recovery:
http://www.datarecovery.net/articles/water-damaged.html

 

[ko888]

Some HDDs have a vent hole that is sealed against dust but allows internal air pressure within the drive to equalize with the external air pressure. If air can get in then water can also get in. Any detergent film deposited on the platter surface will cause a head crash. Lubricant for the spindle and actuator bearings may also have been washed out.

If your wash water was over 65°C that would also be a problem.

 

[TyrOd]

Some HDDs have a vent hole that is sealed against dust but allows internal air pressure within the drive to equalize with the external air pressure. If air can get in then water can also get in. Any detergent film deposited on the platter surface will cause a head crash. Lubricant for the spindle and actuator bearings may also have been washed out.

If your wash water was over 65°C that would also be a problem.

All good details here, you definitely under no circumstances want to power on the drive, though that should b obvious.

As long as the platters haven't experienced corrosion, data recovery should still be possible.

 

[Ki11ian]

Awesome, Thanks alot guys. Luckly it was a drive I salvaged from a dead laptop I had parted out, so none of the data was mine