THE ULTIMATE       HOW-TO:          RECOVERING      DATA FROM            AN UNBOOTABLE       COMPUTER

When you woke up this morning, you didn’t think that your nightmares would become a reality. Blissfully unaware of your fate, you sit down at your computer, turn it on, listen to the sweet sounds of it responding to your commands, and then…nothing. Your operating system has decided that it wants to take a permanent vacation to OS Heaven. So, what just happened? Well, your computer is now unbootable. That means that it cannot get from point A (starting up) to point B (running programs) because the system it uses to operate itself is dead.

The best possible outcome is that you can restore the operating system and get right back to playing Diablo III, but if that doesn’t work, you can still get most or all of your data from the hard drive. Here are three simple methods you can try to recover your data from your mostly dead computer.

GO LIVE! Bottom line – without an operating system you cannot access the data stored on your computer. Don’t worry, if your CD drive is still operable you can recover your data by using a Live CD. The beauty of the Live CD is that it acts like an operating system for your computer and allows you to pull the information from your hard disk without having to actually boot into the main system. For a list of the top five Live CDs, click here. Booting up your computer directly from the Live CD is easy and it allows you to use your computer as usual. We recommend that you don’t spend time dawdling and just recover your data to another machine, and back up everything onto an external drive for retrieval later.

GO TO ANOTHER COMPUTER! This method is best for use on desktop computers – laptops and notebooks are a little trickier to Frankenstein because all of the internal parts are crammed so closely together. With that said – you can remove the hard drive from your unbootable computer and attach it to another computer by inserting it into the hard drive bay of another computer. Or, you can use a USB enclosure, making your hard drive into an external hard drive. Turn on the other computer and access your data. Easy peasy.

GO NETWORKED! For this final method you’ll need a startup disk with a remote recovery agent, and access to a local area network. These things will allow you access the data on your computer from another computer on your local area network. This works best on home networks where the security firewalls aren’t as dense as those on corporate networks. These three methods for data recovery from an unbootable computer are tried and true. Unfortunately, they may not solve your issues. If you find that none of these methods work, you might consider that you’re dealing with a hard drive failure. Keep your chin up! With the right information and the dedication to get your computer working again, you’ll be back to playing Diablo III in no time.

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