By Michael | Last Updated
"I want to access and copy some files in my old Windows computer, but I failed to boot into it. Is there any way to copy files without Windows?"
It is lucky that the unbootable Windows computer cannot stop us accessing the data stored in it most of the time. So, how to copy the data in the unworkable Windows OS? 2 Powerful solutions are provided for you to copy data/files from hard drive without Windows here.
Step 1: Make a Windows installation drive and boot the unbootable Windows computer from it.
Step 2: Click Repair your computer in the lower-left corner of the installation wizard.
Step 3: Select Troubleshooting > Advanced options > Command Prompt.
Step 4: Input Notepad.exe into the open CMD and press Enter to execute it.
Step 5: In the Untitled notepad, click File and choose Save As. Then, connect the storage device to the computer to save the copied files.
Step 6: Click This PC and change Save as type to All Files. After that, locate to the files that you want to copy and copy them with copy-and-paste or Send to feature.
If you want to copy most of the data in a volume or even the whole specialized data-storage volume in the unbootable Windows computer, it's more recommended to copy files/data without Windows by using a third-party tool named iSunshare CloneGo. iSunshare CloneGo works well on copying/backing up/restoring Windows partitions with or without booting into Windows OS. For more details, let's move on.
Step 1: Find an accessible Windows computer and then get iSunshare CloneGo in it.
Step 2: Insert a USB drive into the computer installed with CloneGo.
Step 3: Launch CloneGo and click Make Boot Disk to create a WinPE drive with partition copying feature. As the WinPE drive made with the Wim file is more compatible with the Windows OS, it's suggested to choose Select WIM file to make PE.
Step 4: Choose the inserted USB drive and the drive will be formatted after obtaining your permission.
Step 5: Boot the non-working Windows computer from the WinPE drive. And also connect a storage device like external hard drive to the computer.
Step 6: Copy the data-storage volume to the connected storage device by clicking Copy > choosing the data-storage volume as the Source Partition > selecting a volume in the storage device as the Target Partition > hitting Start to begin the copy process.
Tips: Files will be wiped from the target partition, once you start the copy operation.
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