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How to Retrieve Files From a Damaged Windows Laptop
6 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Key notes
Let’s assume thatyour laptop broke down, but you want to recover your personal files from it. In this tutorial we will show youhow to recover your filesfrom a brokenlaptop, assuming that your harddriveis still working.
You can use this guide to recover your files if your laptop won’t turn on, or if your display is damaged, but we have to mention that this guide won’t help you recover your files if your harddriveisn’t working. Before we start, you’ll need an externalUSBenclosure for 2.5″ hard drives.
How to recover files from a broken laptop
STEP 1: Install Stellar Data Recovery Professional
Stellar Data Recoverysoftware is a great tool that help you restore photos, videos and files that you accidentally deleted. It can even help you restore files from a lost Windows partition!
If your laptop can still be turned on and used, it’s the fastest way. Install the software, choose the location and then move all your recovered files on an external drive.
If that laptop is unusable, download and install this software on a different device, follow the next steps in this article to connect your old drive to your new device and run Stellar Data Recovery on the old drive to recover anything that you need.
It runs on Windows 10 as well as older versions of Windows and has very little system requirements (minim 2GB RAM, 250MB of disk space and a Pentium process are listed).
This means you can use almost any device, new or old, to recover data from the broken laptop.
Of course, you can use the software for even more things such as: recover emails from .PST files (Microsoft Outlook), recover files from other media such as SSD, USB sticks, CD/DVD or other optical media.
Download Stellar Data Recovery Professional here
STEP 2: Remove your hard drive
Firstly, you’ll need to remove thehard drivefrom thelaptop. If the harddrivehas mounting brackets or caddy you’ll have to separate them from the harddrive. As for the hard drive type, mostlaptopsuse 2.5” hard drives, and they can be IDE orSATAhard drives. We’ll show you the difference between the two in the following pictures.
2.5″ IDE HARD DRIVE
The IDE hard drive connector has two rows of pins.
2.5″SATAHARD DRIVE
TheSATAhard drive has two flat connectors. One of these connectors is used fordataand one for power.
We also have to mention that same type of connectors are used in 3.5″SATAdesktop hard drives which means that you can connect a 2.5″ hard drive from yourlaptopdirectly to a desktop PC using same cables.
STEP 3: Buy an external USB enclosure
If you don’t have externalUSBenclosure for 2.5″ hard drive, you’ll have to purchase one, just keep in mind that your purchase IDE or SATA enclosure depending on the type of your harddrive, since IDE enclosures aren’t compatible withSATAhard drives and vice versa.
We recommend NexStar brand but any other brand should work too. For IDE hard drives you can useNexStar 2.5″ IDE HDD enclosure. For SATA hard drives you can useNexStar 2.5″ SATA HDD enclosure.
STEP 4: Install your HDD
Install your IDE or SATA hard drive into the enclosure.
STEP 5: Connect your HDD to a functional PC
Now you can connect your hard drive enclosure with a working PC viaUSB. After connecting hard drive enclosure with your PC, it should be detected by the computer automatically and theexternal hard drivewill appear in My Computer/This PC.
Now you can access it, and save any files you need from yourlaptop. We have to mention thatWindows XP, Vista andWindows 7keep user files in different locations, so here are few tips how to find them.
In Windows XP, you’ll find user files using the following path:
In Windows Vista and Windows 7 you’ll find user files using the following path:
Remember, C: is the main system drive, but the external harddrivewill have a different letter, but the path to user files will remain the same.
Sometimes, you may also need afile recoveryprogram as you may not have access to all the files stored on the harddrive. If you’re in this situation, remember our recommendation in Step 1. You can also check out this list of thebest file recovery softwareto use on your computer. Obviously, if you can immediately access all the files and folders once you’ve connected theHDDto a functional computer, then you don’t need to install anyfile recoverysoftware.
Damaged USB flash drive? Our guide help you recover files from it.
FIX: Access is denied to external hard drive
While accessing user files you can getAccess is Deniederror message, this happens because your user account on the brokenlaptopwasprotected by a password, but there’s a way to fix that.
In order to get access to user files on the external harddriveyou’ll have to take ownership over the user folder. In order to take ownership over Users folder (if you had Windows Vista or Windows 7 installed) or Documents and Settings folder (if you have Windows XP installed) you’ll need to follow these steps.
Solution: Replace the owner of the files
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
When Windows Security pops up, click Yes. We have to warn you that the process of taking ownership might take a while. This depends on how many files you have in Users or Documents and Settings folder, so you might have to wait for a bit. After this process is done, you should be able access to all of your files.
More about the topics:Fix Hard Drive issues,recovery software
Ivan Jenic
Windows Hardware Expert
Passionate about all elements related to Windows and combined with his innate curiosity, Ivan has delved deep into understanding this operating system, with a specialization in drivers and driver troubleshooting.
When he’s not tackling diverse driver-related problems, Ivan enjoys watching good movies and spending time hiking with his family and friends.
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Ivan Jenic
Windows Hardware Expert
Ivan has delved deep into understanding the Windows OS, with a specialization in drivers and driver troubleshooting.
