Q&A: How do I get into my laptop’s HD to back up my files if I can’t boot it?

02. Jan, 2011 1 Comment

Question by J: How do I get into my laptop’s HD to back up my files if I can’t boot it?
For the computer experts on here:
I keep getting a blue screen of death error every time it tries to boot Windows. I want to try reinstalling the system from the restore CDs, but I need to copy all my files first so I don’t lose data.
I have an external hard drive and another laptop. What’s the easiest way to get into the HD to make a backup of all the files?

Oh, and the CD drive in this laptop is broken, so I use an external USB CD drive. Do you know if the laptop will be able to read or use any CDs from the external drive with Windows not working?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I’d rather be able to fix this myself, as I don’t have hundreds of $$$$$ right now to pay a repair place to do it, (yet again….)

Best answer:

Answer by rs
remove the hard disk from the laptop and convert it into external hard disk, then connect your new external hd to your another laptop, then copy your files for backup,

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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One Response to “Q&A: How do I get into my laptop’s HD to back up my files if I can’t boot it?”

  1. ellomotto 02. Jan, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=92&Description=&Type=&N=2010010092&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=538%3A7124

    Get an external enclosure for the hard drive (make sure it is the right one, either IDE or SATA) and you can just take the drive out, put it in the enclosure, connect it to your other computer as well as the other external hard drive you have, and copy the files that you want over. If you have “Access Denied” problems then right click on the folder you want (it probably wont let you into the entire directory for your username, so just right click the folder C: Local Disk>Documents and Settings>”Your old username”) and then click on Properties, click on the Security tab, click on Advanced, click on the Owner tab, click on the name that you are currently logged into on the working computer and check the box that says something along the lines of applying it to all sub-directories and objects, and then click Apply and it will take ownership of all of your files. Do this for as many folders you need, if you’re doing this on a Windows XP machine then you will need to turn off Simple File Sharing first.

    And the computer should be able to use the USB CD drive. If not you can always use a USB thumb drive.