In this guide I explain how to recover files from a laptop with crashed Windows OS. You can use same technique to recover files from desktop computers. I will be recovering files using Knoppix live Linux CD. You can follow my guide even if you have never used Linux before.
You should be able to use my data recovery guide in one of the following scenarios:
1. Windows OS crashed and your laptop (or desktop) displays BSOD error (example on the picture below).
2. Your computer got infected with viruses or spyware and will not boot to the desktop.
3. Windows will not boot because some boot files are missing or corrupted.
4. You forgot password for your user account.
5. Windows will not load because the hard drive has bad sectors or other minor damage.
6. You accidentally deleted or damaged some Windows system files.
In my example I am using Knoppix version 6.0.1 which is the latest one at the time of writing this guide.
Your Knoppix might look different as they release newer versions, but general file recovery steps will be the same.
FILE RECOVERY STEPS:
STEP 1.
Download an ISO image of the latest Knoppix operating system from one of the following Knoppix mirrors.
- Select which server you want to use by the closest location (Download from).
- Select protocol to use, [ftp] or [http] (doesn’t really matter, you can use either one).
- Accept download agreement.
- Select the latest version available and download .iso file on your working computer. Again, in my example I am using Knoppix version 6.0.1.
- Burn .iso image to a CD. If you don’t have burning software installed, you can use CDburnerXP (free software).
Now you’ll have to boot your laptop (desktop) computer form this Knoppix CD.
STEP2.
It’s likely that in your laptop the hard drive listed as first device in the boot menu. If that’s the case, the laptop will not boot from the Knoppix CD automatically. You’ll have to force it boot from the CD/DVD drive.
- Insert Knoppix CD into the optical drive.
- Restart laptop.
- Access boot menu. In many laptops you can press F12 when logo appears on the screen in order to access boot menu.
- Select CD/DVD drive as bootable device and press enter.
Alternatively, you can enter the BIOS setup menu and change boot order in there. Make sure the CD/DVD drive is listed above the hard drive.
STEP 3.
When your laptop starts booting from the Knoppix CD, you’ll see screen similar to one on the picture below. Do not touch anything, just wait.
In a few minute it will boot to the desktop shown on the picture below. Now you are ready to access the hard drive and recover your files.
STEP 4.
Click on My Documents icon in the top left corner. A new window will open.
If the hard drive in your computer is in good working shape, it should be listed in the left pane.
In my example the hard drive name is IBM_PRELOAD (I’m recovering data from a ThinkPad laptop).
If you click on the hard drive, the hard drive content will be listed in the right pane.
Can you see your files? Good!!!
That means there is a chance can recover them.
STEP 5.
I will be recovering files to an external USB flash drive.
You can recover files to an external hard drive but you have to make sure that your hard drive is formatted with FAT32 file system (not NTFS).
You will not be able to copy files to a drive formatted with NTFS.
By default most USB flash drives are formatted with FAT32 file system (FAT16 is OK too).
When you insert your USB flash drive (or external hard drive) into the laptop, it will pop up in the same left pane.
Click on My Document icon again and create a second window.
In the left window I have files located on the laptop hard drive.
In the right window I have files located on the external USB flash drive.
STEP 6.
In the USB flash drive pane create a folder where you want to transfer recovered files.
- Right click on the empty area.
- Select Create New >> Folder.
I created a new folder and called it DATA-RECOVERY.
Click on the newly created folder and open it up.
Now you are ready to transfer files from the hard drive to the external USB flash drive.
Simply drag and drop files from left to right windows and wait until the transfer is complete.
After data transfer is complete, you can unplug the USB flash drive (or external hard drive) from your failed computer and plug it into any other working computer.
The recovered files will be on the drive.
May 31st, 2010 at 6:26 am
i ve got a hp nc6000. i uninstalled the KAV2009 i had in it so i could install KIS2010. the system refused to turn on afterwards. it doesnt even get to the usual HP screen. any idea of what the problem might be
January 13th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
OMG!!!!! I took my laptop to Best Buy’s Geek Squad and they said my files could not be recovered and said they could send it to their “top experts” to try for $300.00 – I said no thanks! I then started searching the web to see if I could “do it myself” when I came accross your tuitorial. It worked! I had photoes back to 2005 that would have been lost if it wasn’t for your help. I also was able to recover all my music files and prsonal documents. I did lose some (I think) that I haven’t been able to find, but that is fin – at least my photos aren’t gone. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! You are AWESOME!
January 7th, 2010 at 1:24 am
These INSTRUCTIONS WERE PERFECT and very well written, exactly how the software works !! INVALUABLE !! I followed these step by step. And was able to recover all the data from my crashed laptop. I’d like to stay a BIG THANK YOU !! THanks heaps
December 30th, 2009 at 3:22 am
Hi
after a system crash I was unable to load my Windows XP operating system, and so, having just booted my laptop using knoppix, I have still not been able to identify my hard drive in the ‘my documents’ window although it detects peripherals (eg. flash drives)! As your tutorial is the most relevant of what I’ve been able to source, I was wondering if you had any suggestions?
MaTT
December 24th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
RecoveryGuy,
First off, I would like to thank you for making this very informative tutorial available. 2nd off, I would like to ask you where were you when I lost about 300 Gigs of very valuable material a few yrs ago. My recent situation is somewhat simular to what happens when you DONT BACK UP YOUR HDD!
I am running Windows XP Home Edition on my Dell Inspirion laptop that is less than 2 yrs old. On December 21, I was performing a search on google and noticed that everytime the search returned results, the links that I followed would take me to an entirely different page. Immediately I suspected browser hi-jacking and spyware so I ran all of my anti-virus, malware & spyware programs and they all found nothing. I went back to google and performed another search and still wound up on other pages. I then tried other search engines and yeilded the same results. I then shut down the laptop and tried to reboot in safemode (by using F8 key) which is when I saw the blue screen of death simular to the one you have illustrated in your above post. I again shut down and reboot which is when I was met with the “windows was not shut down properly” message and used the “most recent settings that worked” boot option which took me back to normal windows. I tried a few more times to access safe mode through the F8 key but still couldnt get in. This is when I had the bright idea to go to start, run and typed in “msconfig” which of course brought me to the selective startup options. Determined to get into safe mode, I chose to boot in safe mode from there when the message popped up advising me to shut down for the changes to take effect so I did…………It was all downhill at that point.
When the laptop rebooted, It brought me back to the same blue screen as before only this time and everytime thereafter, I couldn’t get back into windows and was caught in this blue screen loop. about a millisecond before the windows xp splash screen was supposed to show, I was faced with that blue screen. Now, not only do I have spyware (or something) on my laptop that won’t let me into safemode but I was also faced with the fact that I couldn’t get back into windows to change the settings back so it would boot as normal to further diagnose the problem. I tried changing BIOS settings and pretty much everything else I could think of before resorting to pulling out my XP recovery discs and performing that risky non-destructive recovery method in XP’s recovery console.
In a state of panic, I reluctantly changed the BIOS to boot from the recovery CD which it did and the non-destructive recovery was underway……so I thought. About 10 mins into the recovery session, I received another error message that a certain .dll file couldn’t be found on the CD. When I clicked the browse button I saw the file in question on the disc and tried to load it manually which didn’t work. I then tried to copy the file to a USB flash drive which also didn’t work. The recovery console gave me the option to skip this file so I did and then a new message advised me that Windows may not perform properly if skipped and asked if I wanted to skip anyway. I chose yes which brought up more (about 20-30) .dll files that couldn’t be found on the disc. At this point, I was frustrated beyond anything imaginable and prepared for the worst. I didn’t care at all about having to do a clean install of XP but I hated losing all of my valuable files yet again. Desperate, I went online on my old HP desktop and looked up data recovery and wound up here. After seeing your well described methods for data recovery, I downloaded knoppix from one of the mirrors and burned the iso. The version I have is indeed a little different from the one you have illustrated as the boot screen so I wound up having to do a little navigating to find out how to pull up the actual knoppix interface. I can’t tell you how happy I was after seeing everything I thought was gone still intact on that laptop drive. I went out today and purchased a Seagate 250GB free agent USB drive to transfer the files to which is in progress as I type. The funny thing is, On my HP Desktop, The drive shows as being formatted in NTFS and not FAT32. I am able to browse all folders and files on the drive which are mostly pictures, my huge cd-ripped MP3 collection and quite a few avi,mpeg & wmv files. I am able to view the movies and listen to the MP3s. How is this possible when your tutorial says that the recovered files can only be read but not written if the file system is formatted as NTFS? And could you also explain what you mean by “written” as I assume you mean “copied” from the crashed drive (which is NTFS) onto the new drive (which is listed as NTFS in properties) or will it mean that I won’t be able to “burn” these files to disc if I would ever want to later on?
I also own (2) 80GB Seagate External drives that are both filled to capacity at the moment. When I bought them, They were pretty much plug and play as I never had to do any formatting or installing with them. They are both FAT32 from the factory which led me to assume my new 250GB was also FAT32 from the factory. I would like to know this before I do the clean install of XP to get my laptop up and running again.
In closing, I really want to thank you and your tutorial for being here. You saved and relieved me of tons of grief. For anybody who may be reading this…..DO REGULAR BACKUPS OF YOUR DRIVES AS WELL AS SCAN YOUR SYSTEMS FOR ITDs (internet transmitted diseases) on a regular basis….It will save you in the long run.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:04 am
It works great,
thank you…
December 8th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Ray,
If the hard drive spins but not detected by Windows or Knoppix, it’s possible that the hard drive has corrupted partition. You can scan the hard drive using data recovery software (something like GetDataBack from Runtime Software or EasyRecovery from Ontrack).
If the hard drive doesn’t spin, you’ll have to use clean room services (very expensive).
December 8th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Hi
Thank you for your interesting guide.
What happens when defected HD is not visible in XP and/or in Knoppix?
Are there any other tools in Knoppix or elsewhere that can help to first
‘see’ the failed HD?
Thx for your time and help
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I bought the Cd to be used to recover my root password on windows 2000. How can l used it to recover root password
November 26th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Nathan,
You remove the hard drive from the laptop and install it into an external USB enclosure. After that you connect this enclosure to another working computer and it will pop up in My Computer as a regular hard drive. I posted more info in this article: http://www.datarecoverytutorial.com/recover-data-from-failed-laptop-notebook/
November 26th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
But how do I recover data from a hard drive in a laptop that doesn’t even start?
Nathan
November 4th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I tried to boot from the CD and it came up with an erroor message
“sh: can’t access tty; job control turned off” can you please help?
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:48 am
Ludwig,
It depends. You’ll be able to reinstall the OS if the hard drive is good.
I cannot tell if the problem is related to the hard drive or not.
Do you have two memory modules installed in the laptop? Remove them one by one and try booting the laptop with each module separately. Maybe one of the modules is bad.
By the way, you can test the hard drive with diagnostic utilities found on Ultimate Boot CD (google it). I personally prefer Hitachi’s drive fitness test. Works well for many different brands.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:57 am
Am i able to format the hard drive after recovering my files so i can reinstall my old OS…
I am still considering using Knoppix and haven’t tried it yet.
currently if i try to reinstall it gives me the BSOD….on continue upgrade, repair or new installation WIN XP
October 15th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
liam,
No OS on the hard drive you are trying to recover data from? I guess you have data on that drive, correct? Yes, it can be done.
I just use default speed (maximum) and it works fine for me.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
can this be done if you have no os and have a SMART HDD FAILURE ?
PLEASE HELP
AND what speed do you burn the iso at ?
October 13th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Daniel,
Yes you can if the hard drive is partitioned with FAT32. If you connect a hard drive partitioned with NTFS, you’ll be able to read files from that drive but not write to it.
Do you mean if he has your hard drive? You can set the hard drive password and he will not be able to get to the files. Also, I believe he will not be able to get your files if they are encrypted.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Is it possible to copy to the Hard Drive in this example?
also is there any way to prevent a cracker from doing the exact same thing in a malevolent manner?
September 30th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
JK,
Most likely your external hard drive is partitioned with NTFS.
As I mentioned in the post, it must be partitioned with FAT32.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I tired that and it kinda worked, except that I can read files on the external hard drive but I cannot write to it. Do you know what’s wrong?