Mike's Tech Blog

So your Windows computer won't boot up, and you get the dreaded "Hard Drive Failure" message. Not only that,

but you haven't backed up your data for a while. Yes, its a helpless feeling. We all have had Windows fail to boot, and the recovery doesn't work, and we think we are screwed. But there is a way to recover the data on your bad hard drive. Provided that actual data itself is in tact, and the hard drive is functional.

What we are going to do is use an Ubuntu LiveCD to boot up the dead Windows computer from the CD rom drive. Once the dead windows computer is booted up, you can then copy your data files to a jump drive, or even across a network to a server, or another computer.

What you need is another computer, and download an ISO image of Ubuntu. Just in case you don't know what Ubuntu is, I highly suggest that you look into it. Its a free operating system that is much more stable than any windows operating system.

Now to copy an ISO image to a CD, you don't just copy it over there. Rather there is a particular way you have to make the LiveCD in order for it to be bootable. I discussed this in a previous article, you are welcome to take a look if you like.

Once you have made your Ubuntu LiveCD, go into the BIOS of your dead windows computer, and make sure that the CD rom is set to the first bootable device. There are too many manufacturers of motherboards, with as many different ways they are setup for this, so I just have to assume you know how to do this.

Next place the Ubuntu Live CD into the CD rom drive, and reboot the dead Windows computer. After a while, you will see the following screen:

Select the option Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer and your dead computer will boot up in Ubuntu. It will take a little while, but be patient, as you are booting from a CD.

After the computer has booted up, in the upper left corner is a menu bar. Click on Places then on Computer as shown in the image below: