How to Recover a Hard Drive That Won’t Boot? Solved
Overview: How to recover a hard drive that won’t boot If these are some of the questions looming in your mind, then you are at the correct place. There are a plethora of reasons why your external hard drive won’t boot; some of them will be discussed later in this article. First, let’s focus on the methods by which we can recover files from a hard drive that won’t boot Windows 11, 10, 8, or 7, which is our main concern.
Mishaps can happen at any time, which is why we must constantly be prepared. Whether we are preparing for the future by saving money or generating a backup of our data by keeping it on our hard drive, we don’t want to lose our precious photographs, movies, or files, which is why we rely on our hard drives to keep them safe.
But what if the source that you trusted fails? Your hard drive suddenly stops and your mind wonders how to fix a hard drive that won’t boot. The line “The hard drive won’t boot” refers to the fact that you open your computer and your hard drive fails to boot. Following is the error you will see on your screen at the time your system fails to boot.
Technique to Recover a Hard Drive that Won’t Boot
Here we will discuss two solutions to get rid of all these issues.
Recover Files from a Hard Drive that Won’t Boot with Automatically
The Hard Disk Data Recovery Software is a brilliant application that can be used to easily recover crucial photographs, movies, audio files, documents, and other items from any Windows system hard drive. You can download this utility for the Windows OS.
Even with this utility to recover deleted files from partitioned hard drive, after the recovery process is complete, the original layout and information are also preserved. Pre-requisites before proceeding with the process of recovering files from an external hard drive that won’t boot
- Hard drive (from which the files will be recovered)
- Case or closure for USB hard drives (to attach to the system)
- BIOS boot order of the Windows operating system (choose Hard drive as first preference)
- Hard Drive Recovery software
Steps to Fix an External Hard Drive That Won’t Boot
Follow the steps given below
- To detect the drive, launch the tool on your system and select Refresh View.
- If a drive appears on the platform, select scan mode to recover data from a formatted hard disk partition. File scanning and recovery will take place at the same time.
- After the recovery procedure is finished, choose the files and folders that you were looking for and click the Save button.
- Allow the procedure to finish before opening the location to view recovered deleted files from WD external hard drive.
Recover a Hard Drive That Won’t Boot Manually
The other method you can try is to manually copy files and data from a hard disk that won’t boot on the other functional PC. To learn how to do it, follow the instructions below:
- Turn off the computer, remove the battery, and disconnect your laptop or computer from the wall.
- Open the casing of your laptop and look for the hard disk that isn’t booting. Disconnect the hard drive cables, unscrew them, and remove it from the casing.
- Place the hard disc in an external hard drive enclosure and attach it to a new computer. Alternatively, insert the drive into another computer that is in excellent working order.
- Reboot the new computer from its regular operating system on the primary drive, and you will be able to read and access the hard disk contents there.
- Finally, copy files and data from the non-booting hard disk to a new storage device.
What are the Problems that Lead to an Unbootable Hard Drive?
- Hardware Malfunction: The hard drive uses a read/write head that operates on the surface. These heads are not intended to meet or touch, yet it has been discovered that they do. When this happens, the hard disc suffers damage and becomes unbootable.
- Heat: Hard drives are vulnerable to heat, which is detrimental to their optimal operation. When a hard disc becomes too hot, the platter expands; the main issue arises when the temperature drops—contraction. When this occurs, micro-cracks that emerge from the deformed magnetic surface are detected, resulting in a flaw in the recorded data.
- Liquid Damage: When liquid is spilled on a computer device, it might render it inoperable. In this case, your hard disk may become unbootable. If the system was operational when the liquid was spilled, it may shut down on its own and not turn back on when the power button is pressed.
- Power surge: A power surge can occur when the flow of electricity is stopped. This can cause the hard drive’s read/write heads to malfunction. Lightning or power line interference can also create power spikes.
Wrapping Up
In this article, the different reasons why the hard drive won’t boot Windows 10 or 11 have been shared. The user cannot access Windows when the hard drive becomes unbootable, as Windows is stored there. Therefore, a professional method to easily recover a hard drive that won’t boot has also been discussed.
Recover Data from a Hard Disk That Won’t Boot – FAQ
Q: How to recover unbootable files from a hard drive?
- Download the Hard Drive Recovery Tool.
- Select a receiving option: Scan or scan format.
- View all recovered data files in the left pane.
- Select the file you want to save and appropriate location.
Q: Why won’t my hard drive start?
A Hard disk failure is an error that prevents Windows from loading correctly on your system. Every time you boot your system, you may encounter a boot disk failure error, indicating a software or hardware problem. Then note that this error may occur even if there is a CD on the drive when the system starts.
Q: Is it possible to recover data from a damaged hard drive?
Hard disk recovery software helps you recover data from a non-bootable laptop hard drive. In fact, it can recover all types of data from old, corrupted hard drives.