How to recover files from a computer that won't boot

A computer that powers on but will not start Windows or macOS usually has not lost your files. The machine turns on, and then it sits on a black or blue screen, shows an error, or restarts in a loop. Microsoft's recovery guidance covers exactly this case and tells readers to start with the least disruptive option. The rule that comes before every option on this page: get your files copied off before you repair, reset, reinstall, or erase anything, because Microsoft warns that some recovery options can result in data loss. If the machine shows no sign of power at all, that is a different problem with different steps.^[1]

Laptop with no power at all? That is a different situation

The safety rule first

The screen a machine stops on says something about how far it got before it stalled. Microsoft's startup troubleshooting sorts boot failures into phases, and that framing is useful here: a PC showing Automatic Repair, or restarting over and over, has already come up far enough to detect a fault in Windows itself, while a machine parked on a logo or a login screen may never have finished starting the operating system at all. Neither screen is, on its own, evidence of a dead drive, and the only reliable test is to read the drive somewhere else. The four screens that bring people to this page are below, each with what it means and which route applies. Route A is the pull-the-drive route and Route B is the recovery-media route.^[3]

Stuck in a restart loop

A restart loop looks more alarming than it is: the machine powers on, gets partway, and starts again, and Microsoft treats the loop as one form of its PC-won't-start scenario, a startup problem rather than a verdict on the drive. What is happening, in Microsoft's own description, is Windows noticing its startup trouble and trying again: Windows starts the Startup Repair tool automatically once it detects a startup issue, and Microsoft separately acknowledges a state where a computer repeatedly stops the startup process on the recovery options screen, which its documentation answers with a command-level setting written for support technicians. Microsoft's documented diagnostic for a machine that fails late in startup, Safe Mode plus Event Viewer, assumes the machine can reach a menu a looping machine often never shows. That is the practical reason to stop fighting the loop. Route A below, taking the drive out and reading it on another computer, is still the dependable move here, and repairs come after the copy.^[1][3]

Stuck on the Apple logo or a progress bar

On a Mac, the Apple logo appears when the machine finds its built-in or external startup disk, and a progress bar is meant to follow as startup continues. A Mac parked on that screen has therefore already found its disk, which points at the software side more than at the hardware. Patience is part of the picture: Apple warns that while macOS is being installed or updated, the logo or progress bar can persist much longer than usual, with the bar moving slowly and pausing for long periods. Apple publishes no number of minutes after which the screen counts as stuck, so a bar that is still moving during an update can simply be slow.^[4]

When the screen genuinely is not moving, Apple's documented sequence is to force the Mac off by holding the power button for up to 10 seconds, start it again, unplug all nonessential accessories including printers, drives, and USB hubs, start up again, and only then move on to macOS Recovery to repair the startup disk and, if needed, reinstall macOS. The unplugging step is the one to notice. Taking everything off the Mac's ports is the gentle version of Route A below, and taking the internal drive out to read it on another computer is the full version. macOS Recovery itself is the Mac half of Route B. Repair and reinstall come after your files are copied.^[4]

Preparing Automatic Repair, then a black screen

'Preparing Automatic Repair' is Windows saying it has found a startup fault and is running its own repair tool, the same Startup Repair Microsoft describes as launching automatically when a startup issue is detected. Two facts about that screen matter for your files. Microsoft's boot troubleshooting, a document written for support agents and IT professionals rather than home users, puts a black screen after the splash screen in the kernel phase, meaning the boot loader already succeeded and Windows was already reading from the disk. And the repair tool documented there is part of the recovery environment reached from installation media, with a log of what it attempted written to a file named Srttrail.txt. So the screen is about repairs, not about your files. Route A below is still the move if you can open the machine; if you go in by media instead, Route B's Windows steps include copying files to an external drive before you select anything labeled repair.^[3]

Frozen at the login screen

Reaching a login window is further than it looks: the machine has already started its operating system. On a Mac, the login window is where you type your account password, and Apple notes that when FileVault is turned on, that password also unlocks the disk. That is what turns a frozen login screen into a data situation rather than only an inconvenient one: the files are on the disk and the password is part of what opens it, so keep the password to hand. Apple does name a software cause worth knowing here, login items, the apps that open automatically at startup or login, as an occasional source of startup trouble. If the Mac later starts but misbehaves near the desktop, that list is where Apple looks first. When the screen stays frozen, Route A below is the file-rescue move, and a FileVault disk still asks for that password after the drive is attached to another Mac.^[5][6]

On Windows, the freeze that arrives after you have typed your password is a documented case of its own. Microsoft describes credentials being accepted and then the user profile and desktop failing to load, often leaving a black screen with nothing but a mouse cursor, and its first remedy costs nothing: the keyboard shortcut Windows logo key plus Ctrl plus Shift plus B, which restarts the graphics driver. If the desktop comes back, copy your files off while it is up. If it does not, the same two routes apply: Route A below on a machine you can open, Route B if you have installation or recovery media ready.^[7]

Route A: remove the drive and attach it to another computer

The most dependable route is also the most physical: take the storage drive out of the dead computer and attach it to a working one. Kingston, which makes the hardware for this, describes the two options plainly. An enclosure is an external case that houses the drive and connects by USB or Thunderbolt. An adapter is a lightweight converter, such as SATA to USB, that leaves the bare drive exposed. Either has to match the drive's interface, SATA or NVMe, and its form factor, such as 2.5-inch or M.2. Once connected, the drive works like any external drive, which is what lets you copy your files off before anything formats or reuses it.^[2]

A drive that stays invisible on the working computer is the most common dead end here, and it has its own guide. Work through the cable and power checks there before you conclude the drive is gone.^[2]

External drive not detected: what to check next

Route B: start the machine from recovery media

Windows

Two Microsoft facts shape this route on Windows. A recovery drive is not a backup: it restores the device to factory settings, and the recovery media does not include your personal files, so owning one says nothing about your data. And a recovery drive can only be used if it was created while the PC was working. Without one, Microsoft's guidance is to create installation media on another working PC using a USB flash drive of at least 8 GB, and it warns that anything already on that flash drive is deleted. Microsoft's documented routes for a PC that will not start are repair and reset options rather than a file-copy tool, which is why Route A is the more dependable route on Windows.^[8][9][1]

Mac

On a Mac the built-in route is stronger. macOS Recovery is the Mac's built-in recovery system, with utilities to reinstall macOS, repair or erase the startup disk, restore from a Time Machine backup, and more, including Disk Utility and Terminal. Getting there depends on the chip. On Apple silicon, press and hold the power button until you see 'Loading startup options', click Options, then Continue. On an Intel Mac, turn it on and immediately hold Command and R until an Apple logo or spinning globe appears. Apple states that reinstalling macOS keeps your files and user settings intact, but erasing the disk is a separate action in the same menu, so the order does not change: copy first.^[10][11]

Mac to Mac: target disk mode

Apple silicon Macs do not use the T-key method. For those, Apple routes file transfer to another Mac through starting up in macOS Recovery, which is the route above.^[12]

Do not reinstall or erase yet

When the desk routes are done

If the drive is undetected after every check, or it is clicking, the honest answer is that the desk routes are finished. A drive that clicks has a mechanical fault with its own rules, and repeated power-ups work against you. A drive that behaves as if it is dead still has a recovery path, but it runs through a lab, and the cost question is worth reading before you commit to one.^[2]

Clicking hard drive: what the noise means and what to do

Is a dead hard drive recoverable?

Related reading

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