There are various ways to recover files from a Windows PC that no longer works, that does not start or that starts badly with errors. The simplest is to use a USB stick or a Windows installation CD .
You can then download the Windows CD for free, preferably Windows 10 or even Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 and create the Windows installation USB stick.
For Windows 10 just use the Microsoft media creation tool while for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 you can instead use a simple program like Rufus.
Then boot the PC from USB or CD if you are using an installation disk (see how to change the boot order of the PC) and wait until the first screen that leads to the installation of Windows appears.
Without reinstalling the operating system, from here you can easily open a Windows folder, search for files and copy them to a safe location or to a USB stick .
READ ALSO: If Windows doesn't start how to save everything with Linux
After the initial loading, select the Next option and then click the link then for the recovery of the computer that appears at the bottom left.
If you are using a Windows 8 or Windows 10 installation disc, select the Troubleshoot> Advanced options> Command prompt option now.
If, on the other hand, you are using a Windows 7 installation disc, you must choose the option to restore your computer using a previously created system image and then click on Next> Cancel and Cancel again.
You can now open a DOS command prompt window.
Then type the notepad.exe command and press Enter to open a Notepad.
Press on the File menu item at the top of the notebook and then on Open .
Place the cross on the All files option at the bottom and then click on Computer .
In practice , the Notepad is used to browse the computer folders and find all the files on the hard disk .
It is like a mini-Explorer that can be used to search for folders or individual files that need to be recovered.
From this mini explorer, you can press the right mouse button to send a file or folder to the USB drive.
While copying, there will be no progress bar and the PC will appear locked, unlocking only when copying is complete.
On each folder or file you can press the right button and also use the copy and paste to save this data in an external drive.
If you connect a USB drive or a portable hard disk to the computer it will be recognized and will be present in the computer resources so you can move the files.
Just be careful not to double-click the files because the Notepad will try to open them and will go haywire blocking everything.
If Notepad crashes you can go back to the command prompt window, type taskmgr to launch the Task Manager from which to end the frozen Notepad activity.
This procedure is an excellent solution to recover data from an old or broken hard disk on which you do not intend to reinstall Windows.
In fact, keep in mind that if you reinstall Windows 7 or Windows 8 on your computer old files can be kept in a special folder called Windows.old .
READ ALSO: How to install Windows 10 even from scratch (clean installation)
