How to Copy Files off a Laptop That Will Not Boot

The laptop powers on but Windows never loads, and your files are on it. This copies them to a USB drive without booting Windows or writing anything to the internal drive.

Make a Windows 11 installation USB on another PC

On a working PC, download the Media Creation Tool from microsoft.com/software-download/windows11 and run it with an empty 8 GB or larger USB stick plugged in. Choose USB flash drive. You also need a second USB drive with enough space for the files.

Boot the laptop from the USB

Plug the installation USB into the laptop, turn it on, and tap the boot menu key right away. It varies by maker: usually F12 on Dell, Lenovo, and Acer, Esc or F9 on HP, F2 or Esc on ASUS. Pick the USB drive. When the Windows Setup language screen appears, stop. Do not click Install now.

Open a command prompt at the setup screen

Press Shift + F10, type the following, and press Enter.

notepad

Copy folders using Notepad's Open dialog

In Notepad, click File, Open. Change the file type dropdown to All Files. Click This PC on the left. The internal drive is usually not C: here; look for the drive with a Users folder. Plug in the second USB drive now and it appears with its own letter.

Browse to Users, then your username. Right-click Documents, Pictures, Desktop, or any other folder and choose Copy. Open the USB drive, right-click an empty area, and choose Paste. There is no progress bar, so wait before closing anything.

If the internal drive shows a lock icon, it is BitLocker encrypted. Get the 48-digit key from account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey on another device, then unlock it in the command prompt (replace D: with its letter) and copy as above.

manage-bde -unlock D: -RecoveryPassword YOUR-48-DIGIT-KEY

Or pull the drive and use a USB adapter

If the laptop will not boot from USB at all, remove the internal drive and connect it to a working computer with a USB enclosure or adapter. Check whether it is a 2.5-inch SATA drive or an M.2 NVMe stick, because the adapters differ. If the drive clicks or keeps disappearing, stop powering it on; each attempt can make recovery harder.

Do not repair yet. Skip Reset this PC, Startup Repair, and anything that mentions formatting or reinstalling until the files are on the USB drive. Those can overwrite the data you are trying to save.

If you want a friendlier file browser. An Ubuntu live USB booted with Try Ubuntu gives you a normal desktop and file manager for the same job and reads Windows drives without installing anything.