How to Recover Files from a Broken Computer: Complete Guide

When a computer suddenly stops working, you may worry that the files stored on it are gone. Fortunately, a broken computer does not necessarily mean that its data is lost.

Can You Recover Files from a Broken Computer

Yes, you can often recover files from a broken computer if the storage drive is still readable. If the problem is limited to Windows or logical disk errors, the files may still be intact on the internal drive.

However, recovery becomes more difficult when the storage device itself has serious physical damage.

The following table shows which approach is appropriate for common situations:

How to Recover a Dead Hard Drive/Computer

You may recover files from a broken Windows PC directly by falling back on your recent backups.

Yet, what if you have no backups or your backups don’t include some vital information you need? After you find your computer has been broken, you must try restarting it at first since a fresh restart may work. Then, if a normal restart fails, you may as well try to boot it in Safe Mode to access hard drive data and then drag the files to an external drive.

If these methods fail, try the approaches below.

Method 1. Recover Files from the Drive Using Another Working Computer

If the computer itself is broken but its internal HDD or SSD is still working, you can connect the drive to another working computer and access your files from there. This method is particularly useful when the original computer has a failed hardware component or Windows installation, while the storage drive remains readable.

Step 1. Turn off the broken computer and disconnect it from power. Remove the HDD or SSD from the broken computer carefully.

Step 2. Connect the removed drive to another Windows computer using a compatible SATA-to-USB adapter, hard drive enclosure, or another suitable connection.

Step 3. After connecting the drive, open File Explorer > This PC and check whether the drive appears. If the drive opens normally, you can copy your important files directly to another storage device.

Method 2. Recover Files from an Unbootable PC with Bootable Recovery Media

You can also use bootable recovery media to access the computer’s storage without loading the normal Windows installation.

This method is useful when you cannot remove the internal drive or when you need to recover files before repairing or reinstalling Windows.

Data recovery tools like MiniTool Power Data Recovery Bootable allow you to create a bootable USB drive and recover files.

It supports various types of disks, including HDDs, SSDs, and removable disks. You can recover documents, photos, videos, audio, emails, and other types of data from a broken PC.

Step 1. Prepare a working computer and USB drive

Prepare the following:

• A working Windows computer
• A blank USB flash drive
• A storage device with enough free space to save the recovered files
• The bootable edition of MiniTool Power Data Recovery

Step 2. Create bootable recovery media

On the working computer, launch the recovery software and use its Bootable Media Builder feature to create a bootable USB drive.

Step 3. Boot the broken computer from the USB drive

Insert the bootable USB drive into the computer that cannot boot normally.

Turn on the broken computer and enter its boot menu or BIOS/UEFI settings. The key used to open the boot menu varies by computer manufacturer. Common keys include F12, F11, F9, Esc, or Del.

Select the USB drive as the boot device, and your computer should boot from that USB.

Step 4. Recover files from the dead computer

After entering the recovery environment, MiniTool Power Data Recovery will automatically launch.

On its main interface, select the drive from which you need to recover files and click Scan.

After the scan finishes, browse the results by file path or file type. Use Filter or Search to narrow the results if there are many files.

Double-click the files to preview them so as to verify that they are the items you need.

Finally, select the required files and click Save. Choose an external HDD, SSD, or USB drive as the destination.

Analysis of Computer Broken Issues

When your computer is broken, you tend to lose all entries to files and programs saved here. You may find yourself trapped in one of the following cases.

1. The computer won’t turn on at all.
2. The computer fails to boot or load Windows properly.
3. Problems appear on the computer suddenly and you can’t fix them.

Actually, a computer is broken means that the computer is not working properly; it is often accompanied by a system crash – frequent crashes and other symptoms may be noticed. But, as long as the hard drive is not completely dead, you’re able to retrieve data from the hard drive even without others’ help.

So, what’s the real reason for a computer becoming dead? And how can we prevent broken computers and system crashes? That’s what we’re going to talk about now.

8 Reasons for a Dead Computer

• System failures: as the name shows, this kind of reason is indeed caused by the damage or lack of system files. For example, deleting necessary files, improper modifying of the registry, and virus attacks can all make the entire computer system run improperly.
• Software failures: both the inappropriate installation & uninstallation of software and software conflict can lead to computer broken issues. Programs developed by different companies are not able to be compatible well with others. Thus, when you run 2 programs that can’t work at the same time, the system disorder will be caused so as to lead to a system crash.
• Improper BIOS settings: hardware has its own default or specific work environment, so we’re not suggested to set parameters beyond its work permissions. Otherwise, it will fail to meet the requirement, resulting in a broken PC.
• Hardware failures: sudden power cut off, insufficient power supply, memory fault, hard drive surface scratch, and many other unknown reasons all belong to hardware errors. On one hand, some computer hardware products of small brands haven’t gone through qualification tests yet before being put onto the market; on the other hand, many people haven’t paid much attention to the maintenance and protection of hardware.
• System resource exhaustion: when the wrong procedure or code is performed in the computer system, a “dead” loop phenomenon may occur. Under such circumstances, the limited system resources will be put into the operations of an endless loop. Thus, resource exhaustion may be easily caused. Besides, if a lot of programs are running on your computer, the system memory resource occupation will be insufficient, so as to lead to system resource exhaustion.
• Poor heat dissipation inside the computer: the main component of the computer’s internal electronic devices is silicon; it is an element whose working condition can be greatly affected by temperature. So, the poor heat dissipation will have a great influence on the normal working of computers.
• Wrong operations: for inexperienced users, they’re likely to perform some wrong operations while using the computer, which will finally result in a broken computer. For instance, hot plugging hardware, shaking the computer violently, and installing software exceeding the basic hardware setting standard can all be accused of.
• Other unknown reasons: apart from the common reasons we mentioned above, many strange reasons will lead to a dead computer and we can hardly avoid them: too large voltage fluctuation, a reduction in the ability to read disk drive, poor quality, attack of virus or other hacker programs, etc.

Obviously, a computer can be broken easily. We strongly suggest that users should operate their computers normatively and carefully to minimize the possibility of computer crashes.

How to Recover Data from a Drive with a Damaged File System

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14 Preventive Measures for Securing Your Computer

• Use a power supply with an over-voltage protection function: you might think that the system will be at risk only when thunderstorms occur. But, that is wrong! Any factors that can interfere with the circuit may cause current backflow and then scorch your equipment components.
• Turn on the firewall before using the computer: when you connect the computer to the new cable or DSL modem, you need to confirm that all the firewalls are opened; otherwise, you’ll be exposing in front of viruses and intruders.
• Always keep your antivirus and anti-spyware software updated: to be honest, the antivirus programs are often very annoying – they always block some of the applications you want to use. Sometimes, you’ll need to stop anti-virus programs before installing new software. And the antivirus and anti-spyware software is updated very quickly.
• Perform disk defragment regularly: frequent installation & uninstallation of programs or adding and deleting data will produce disk fragmentation, having a bad impact on the disk performance. So, you’re supposed to conduct disk defragment regularly to improve this.
• Don’t open links, attachments, or websites casually: some viruses or ransomware may hide in the links/websites/links sent to you. Once you open them, your computer will get attacked. So please be careful enough when opening new sites/links/attachments.
• Avoid overclocking on CPU, graphics cards, and other accessories: if overclocking is needed, please pay high attention to the board temperature.
• Save the old Master Boot Record (MBR): when it’s necessary to modify the Master Boot Record of the hard drive, you had better save the old Master Boot Record before any changes are made. In this way, even if the modification fails, you’re able to restore the MBR.
• Hide system files & important private files: by hiding important system files & personal files, we’re not likely to delete them due to careless operations.
• Do not open too many browser windows: if too many windows are opened when you browse the internet, insufficient system resources will be caused and then a system crash may be brought.
• Check for IRQ (Interrupt Request): when setting up the hardware, it is best for you to check for a reserved interrupt request. Do not let any other devices use the interrupt number, to avoid system crashes caused by interrupt conflicts.
• Use the uninstall program or Windows built-in tool to uninstall software: when you no longer need certain software and want to remove it from the computer, you’d better use its own uninstall program or Windows built-in uninstall tool. Do not simply delete the program folder since some files saved here may be shared with other programs; once you delete them, other related applications may crash and then break the computer.
• Shut down the computer step by step: please don’t turn off the power until all applications and programs are properly closed. Or, the system files may be damaged or deleted somehow.
• Ensure proper BIOS settings: you must confirm that all BIOS settings are suitable for your computer since the wrong settings are easy to stop a running Windows.
• Check computer accessories, kill viruses, and clean the computer regularly: form a good habit of checking the computer and cleaning the disk regularly so as to stay away from unexpected computer problems as much as possible.

Well, those are not enough to put an end to broken/dead computers. No matter how careful we are when using the computer, we may run into computer shutdown/failing-to-boot problems. Thus, we’re going to emphasize how to recover files from a dead computer/how to recover data from a dead hard drive.

Bottom Line

In short, you shouldn’t be worried too much when coming across a broken/dead/crashed computer. Why? It is because we have changed to recover files completely from a broken computer.

Just stay calm when suffering from data loss caused by computer dead issues. And then, follow the steps we have given in the above part to try to rescue them as much as possible.

For users who haven’t met such problems, we suggest they carefully read the causes of computer crashes & corresponding preventive measures to protect the computer well, trying their best to avoid data loss caused by broken/dead computers.

If you have any questions when using MiniTool Power Data Recovery, please contact the support team at [email protected].