How To Recover Data From A Windows Hard Drive That Won’t Boot

The hard drive won’t boot! What’s that supposed to mean?

How To Recover Data From A Windows Hard Drive That Won’t Boot

It is when you are unable to get into your operating system. In more technical lingo, you can’t boot into your computer because your hard drive is acting up. If I can’t boot into the computer, how will I access my data? Well! That’s exactly the point of this blog. Unless your hard drive has completely failed or has been damaged, you still have a ray of hope and a chance at making things fine. Having said that, this is not a situation you can’t get over with. So, if you have found yourself in such a situation, calm yourself down and follow the steps, we’ve mentioned below –

Ways to Recover Data From Hard Drive That Won’t Boot:

Boot From A Bootable USB

● Create a Bootable Disk

windows 10 setup

It is quite possible that your hard drive won’t because of a corrupted bootloader or a corrupted driver. In such a scenario, you can be hopeful that your computer’s hardware is working fine and then you can boot into it through a different medium. How?

Got an empty USB? If not, pick up a USB that has unnecessary data and empty it. Then, the first step is to create a bootable disk. The intent here is to change the boot sequence and try to boot the PC with the help of the USB bootable drive. Though, you will need a working PC from where you can download the Windows installation media creation tool. Refer to this blog and create a Windows bootable USB. We’d recommend that you have a USB with at least 16 GB worth of free space.

● Change Boot Sequence In BIOS

Change Boot Sequence in Boot

Now plug in your bootable USB into the computer that won’t otherwise boot and enter the BIOS. Different manufacturers have different ways of doing that so you may want to check how your manufacturer lets you enter the BIOS of your laptop or desktop. Next, change the boot sequence. If you are stuck at this point, needn’t worry, presuming you have opened this post on another PC or smartphone, visit this blog to know how you can change the boot sequence in Windows.

That’s it, you will now be able to boot into your computer from where you can choose to do many things – take a backup of your data, copy your files to an external hard drive or store your data on a cloud storage medium.

Extract The Hard Drive And Install It On Another PC or Laptop

The next scenario we are going to discuss is the one where your computer refuses to even start. You have tons of crucial data packed inside a system that won’t start and that you need to retrieve at any cost.

For someone with a technical bent of mind and know-how of PC and laptop assembling, the task might not be a very big deal but, for an average user, removing the hard drive itself might be a complicated task. If you fall in the latter category, we recommend that you seek assistance and not damage your PC further.

You may also need to purchase certain things that’ll help you take out the hard drive from the PC that won’t boot and that’ll help you connect the hard drive to a working machine. These are the things you’ll need –

  • SATA to USB cable
sata to USB Cable
Source: Amazon
  • Docking Station
Docking Station
Source: Amazon
  • External Hard Drive Enclosure
External Hard Drive
Source: Amazon

Again, make sure you look for the exact specs your laptop or desktop demands. Unless your laptop falls into the category where the motherboard is soldered, you may have to hand over your laptop for repairs, otherwise, you can enter your laptop or desktop model number and look for disassembly functions.

Now, take your hard drive and insert it into an external hard drive enclosure, and plug it into a working Windows PC. Reboot the new PC and you should be able to access your hard drive. You can now copy files to the new PC and even take a backup.

Some Of The Data is Missing What To Do?

There are chances that you may see some files missing, possibly because of bad sectors or a virus in your previous hard drive. The reasons could be one too many. As for a virus-stricken hard drive, much before you even think of inserting it onto a new PC, make sure the latter has good Antivirus software installed on it. To recover lost data, you can always trust a data recovery tool. For example, Advanced Disk Recovery is one such tool that can help you recover lost files, including documents, photos, audios, videos, and other files from various situations just like the one mentioned above.

How Advanced Disk Recovery Works?

1. Download, run and install Advanced Disk Recovery

Click Here to Download Advanced Disk Recovery

2. Choose the area to be scanned from the right-hand side of the interface

Advanced Disk Recovery

3. Select your drive

4. Click on Start Scan Now

5. Choose the type of scan and click on Scan now

Scan type

6. In a while, all files will arrive from where you can locate the lost file and even check if its recoverable or not.

Scan Deleted Files

7. Click on Recover

Please Note: We urge you that while you choose a location to recover your lost file, do not select the same location from where you had lost your file originally.

Here’s an intensive guide on how you can recover hard disk data files with Advanced Disk Recovery.

Wrapping Up

We love listening to success stories. And, if you have been able to recover data from a hard drive that didn’t boot, do share your journey with us in the comments section below. This will motivate other readers to tackle dire situations head-on effectively. For more such content, keep reading Tweak Library.

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