How to Retrieve Hard Drive Files Off a Damaged Computer

Have you ever turned on your computer, only to find a nasty blue screen telling you to reboot? Then, when you reboot, the screen appears again? Or how about a computer that will log in, but then Windows comes up and says there’s a fatal error, and restarts, repeatedly doing this in a frustrating loop? Or perhaps, a nasty piece of spyware has infiltrated your computer, and it is now running so horribly slow that you just want to reload it?

All these situations happen, and the users are left with one horrifying fact – their personal files are still on that hard drive, somewhere, being held captive by the messed up operating system or boot loader. What options are left? Do you simply accept that fact that the files are gone, and reload? No, especially if saved last years’ taxes on it.

Despite what many think, the above problems listed will not prevent you from retrieving those personal files. It is actually quite simple to do – so simple, in fact, that many people cry in shame over not realizing just how simply it really is.

The key to retrieving your files is to forget about Windows (or Mac) and look to the friendly helper of computer users, Linux. You don’t have to know a think about Linux to follow this tutorial – simply follow the next steps, and you will have those files in no time.

ITEMS NEEDED:

A working computer with internet access and a CD burner
An external hard drive or pen drive
A blank CD

STEP 1: On a working PC, download a Linux OS called Xubuntu. Simply run a search with your favorite search engine to locate an ISO file to download. The Ubuntu official site is the best place to download. I’ve chosen Xubuntu because I’ve had flawless experiences with it. Others prefer to use Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux because they are so small. Either of those may work for this, but it can be difficult to access the other parts of the hard drive, or to get the OS to recognize your pen drive. So, for the sake of simplicity and perfection, I choose to use Xubuntu, and highly suggest you use the same.

STEP 2: Once the ISO has been downloaded, you need to burn it to a CD. You can use the software that came with your OS. If you don’t have burning software, than you can download a program called Deep Burner, which is free and works fine.

STEP 3: Once you have burned the ISO onto the CD, you’re ready to load the OS onto the damaged computer. Insert the disc onto the computer and turn it on. If the BIOS on the laptop is not set to boot from CD first, then you will have to do that. When the computer logo appears during boot-up press F2 to enter the BIOS. Simply scroll down to Boot Order, and put CD/DVD into position one.

If you had to change the boot order, than restart the computer. If not, the Xubuntu logo should appear. Choose the first option that says “Start or Install”. The Xubuntu logo will appear. This may take awhile, depending on the speed of your computer. Simply leave it alone, even if it appears frozen. When it is finished loading, the OS will appear.

Don’t worry. Xubuntu is not installed, and has not over-road your files. It is playing form the CD, allowing you to access your hard drive, save and retrieve files, without loading an OS.

STEP 4: Look on the desktop. You will likely see the icon of a hard drive that says XXgig (XX being filled with the number of gigabytes on your system. This is your hard drive. Double click it. Your files should all appear.

STEP 5: Plug in your external hard drive or pen drive and wait for an icon to appear on the Desktop. Once it does, double click that icon. Now simply copy and paste the files from your hard drive to the pen drive.

STEP 6: Once you’ve removed all the files you want, remove the pen drive, and open it on a different computer to verify the files are there. If they are, than remove the Xubuntu disc from the laptop, insert the Windows or Mac CD, and restart the computer. You can now proceed to reinstalling the old OS.