Recover Files from An External / Internal Hard Drive That Won’t Boot

“Hello everyone. Around 1000 files are stored on my external hard disk and I cannot view my files. The problem which has been diagnosed is the external hard disk cannot boot. I am kind of stuck at this point. Please, can anyone help me to recover files from an external hard drive that won’t boot? Any lead or suggestion is greatly appreciated.”

Whenever a file is opened on a system, some microseconds are consumed to launch that file on the system. During this interval, the MBR sector of the hard disk is identified by the operating system. When the hard disk boots, the desired file opens on the screen. The externally connected hard disk usually gives some indications before they fail completely and cannot be booted. But, this has also been noticed frequently that all of a sudden the system crashes and the external hard drive would not boot error occurs. But, what if the hard disk does not boot in the computer, laptop, pc, and file cannot be availed? This problem usually occurs due to the corruption in MBR sector.

Well, the answer is not as daunting as it looks like. All a user needs to do is read till the end of the post. Multiple solutions have been proposed in the post to recover files from a laptop hard drive that won’t boot.

Probable Reasons for Hard Drive Won’t Boot Error

Some of the situations when hard disk refuses to boot in a computer are:

• The external hard disk might fail to boot when the file system is extremely corrupted. This may happen due to virus attack or using it on different systems frequently
• If the portable hard disk is not removed safely from the computer port, the external hard drive may get infected and hence, cannot be booted
• Scratches present on the hard disk on the region where boot information is present makes it difficult to read. It is unable to mount on the system and then, users will lose access to all the files on the system

A Professional Approach to Recover Files from a Hard Drive that Won’t Boot

When the files saved in the external storage device are inaccessible, users can use a utility like Professional Hard Drive Data Recovery Software. According to the technical experts, it is the master solution to open the files saved in the exterior hard disk.

Users have to follow these steps to recover files from an external/internal hard disk that won’t boot:

1. Navigate to the Start option. Click on All Programs and choose Hard Drive Recovery software
2. There are two types of scanning alternative: Scan and Formatted Scan
3. Choose the desired partition and hit on Scan
4. Once the scanning procedure is done, a complete status report will be generated
5. All the folders will be displayed in the left panel
6. Choose any folder from the left panel and the complete data will be shown in the right panel. Item count will also be shown
7. You can view the overall data of the chosen folder. The deleted files will be highlighted by a red color
8. In the next step, choose those files and folders that you want to recover. Hit on the option Save to recover files from a hard drive that won’t boot
9. To specify the destination location, a Browse for Folder window will launch on the screen. Choose a location and hit on OK
10. The recovery tool will commence the process
11. Once the entire procedure is complete, a dialog box will appear on the screen showing the successful completion message. Hit on OK
12. The exported files will be seen at the destination location

Manual Method to Recover Files from an External Hard Drive that Won’t Boot

Other than the automated solution discussed above, users can use manual solutions also. Users have to follow these set of instructions to get back the files from the hard disk that cannot boot:

1. Turn off the system power, remove the battery and unplug the computer or laptop from the power switch
2. Open the laptop case and search for the hard drive that cannot boot. Disconnect all the cables of the hard disk, detach it and get it out of the case
3. Insert the hard disk into another hard drive case and establish its connection with a new computer. Alternatively, you can insert the drive into another system, which is working in a good condition
4. Reboot the new system using the standard operating system on the main disk. Then, the data can be read and accessed here
5. In the final step, copy files and extract data from the hard disk which is not booting to another storage device

The Bottom Line

At any point, technology can fail us. So, we should always be prepared with backup strategies. A similar problem has been observed in the case of the hard disk. The hard drive is unable to boot and this results in the unavailability of the files. This can be an annoying case because the file cannot be accessed at this stage. So, at this point, users need not worry. The post explains multiple solutions on how to recover files from an external hard drive that won’t boot.