Help! My Computer Won't Start.. Tons of Data in There..

A

agag2

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Hi
I have a laptop running windows 7 - however it will not start. When I try booting the system I get message "A disk read error occurred". I cannot boot system in any way - tried everything. I've did some research on Google on how to recover files - however most require an external USB or removing the hard drive and connecting to another computer - which is not an option for me.I have another computer which I can use to download programs from and boot them on the laptop. Is there any such program that will allow me to recover files even w/o the ability to start windows?

Thanks
 
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You can try Hiren's boot disk to recover files. Here's a quick video I found on Youtube : /watch?v=i_RpUxfMayU
 
Never back up to google drive, especially if you have passwords and/or sensitive data. If you back up anywhere online, always encrypt every file using openssl.

Locally you can buy a docking station for hard drive, buy a new hard drive, and copy your data from the computer hard disk to the new backup disk. I would prefer this kind of "cold backup" rather than using a cloud service.
 
disk read error is a hardware issue. There would be no way to get the data if you are getting that error unless it is limited to a specific sector of the drive. you can always run check disk with the repair flag to see if that fixes things or use robocopy to see what data you can get to another drive
 
You could download a linux copy like ubuntu and write the iso file on a cd. Put it in your laptop drive and boot it up. Linux can run as a live cd. If your data is sill there and your drive un-encrypted, you should be able to recover.
 
Hi I have a similar situation with a windows 7, but mine is that the files are corrupt and halts the boot. How can I do a repair from command prompt without using any recovery disks at all as I believe the files I need to repair are on the drive. Thanks
 
Go to Frys or some similar electronics store, and purchase an external USB hard-drive reader, for like $15. This may just be the thing that saves your ass. It will allow you to open your computer, remove your HDD, and place it inside a protective casing, which you can then use a USB cable to access that drive, just like any other external hard-drive.
 
You cant even do Diagnostics on the BIOS?
Otherwise if the harddrive died you should go to an electronics store to remove the drive and adaptit to another harddrive and make it work.
You need to know if its not that hardware problem. Its really delicated, my harddrive died 2 months ago and I had to change harddrive, I am lucky because I always backup on extras harddrives. You should do that, label them and organize as a pro, that way you dont depend on a single computer.
 
As Bartsimpsonio says, buy an sata drive dock. So that you can remove your hdd and plug it in to that, then attach to another computer via USB and try to get data off, scan drive etc.

also, before that you could check all connections - it could be a lose cable, and also make sure you have no USB drives or sd cards inserted that the PC is trying to boot from.

if you get stuck, pm me and I'll help further.
 
first off see if you can determine if your hard drive is ramping up to speed when you turn puter on.
Then listen for any unusual sounds. Also check cables.
If it physically can't read the disk, you're screwed. and this particular error "A disk read error occurred" is Mucho bad.
 
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