I've got this old laptop that has some really important pictures on it, but I can't seem to get it to boot up. I've tried to install Windows on it, but all I get is a message saying that the upgrade option is available without any real progress. I checked the command prompt, but I might have opened the one for the flash drive I used to try the installation instead of my laptop's. What can I do to access my files?
2 Answers
If you just want to access the files on the hard drive, you could create a Live Linux USB and boot from it. You should be able to access the files as long as the hard drive isn't encrypted with Bitlocker.
Another option is to remove the hard drive, connect it to an external USB caddy, and then plug that into a working computer. You'll need to find your user profile on the disk and take ownership of your folder to retrieve the files.
I tried plugging the SSD into my main PC, and now it won't start up. So, I'm worried the SSD is really broken.
How exactly do I create a Live Linux USB?