[Full Tutorial] Broken Laptop Hard Drive Data Recovery

How do I recover data from a broken laptop hard drive?

“I have important data on a broken laptop. How do I recover data from a broken laptop hard drive?”

-Question from Quora

Performing broken laptop hard drive data recovery is possible. However, different methods must be used for different types of damage. Let's see the cases:

How to perform broken laptop hard drive data recovery [2 cases]

According to the above-mentioned 2 cases, we provide different methods to perform broken laptop hard drive data recovery. But before carrying on either of them, make sure that the hard drive is still working.

Case 1. Recover date from workable broken laptop hard drive

If the laptop is physically damaged or broken but the hard drive is still workable, this makes things much easier. You just need to uninstall the hard drive from the broken laptop and then connect it to a new and workable computer. Let’s see how to get data from broken laptop hard drive.

Step 1. Use the screwdriver to unlock your broken laptop case, unplug the hard drive cable, and take the drive out.

Step 2. Purchase a hard drive disk enclosure. Put into the hard drive you’re just taken. Once the hard drive is placed in the enclosure, it functions as an external hard drive.

Step 3. Connect the disk enclosure to the working computer using the USB cable.

Step 4. Then you can open the USB drive and transfer your old files to the working computer.

Case 2. Recover date from dead laptop hard drive

If, unfortunately, your laptop won’t boot up and the hard drive has been damaged as well, things can be much more complicated. Don’t worry, follow the steps below, we’ll help you get back your data. The steps to perform dead laptop hard disk data recovery are divided into 3 parts.

Part 1. Create a bootable disk to boot the dead computer

To get the dead laptop to boot, you need a bootable disk. Therefore, you must create a bootable disk if you don’t already have one. Here are the steps to making a USB flash drive bootable.

Step 1. Plug the USB drive into the working computer.

Step 2. Download, install, and launch AOMEI Backupper Standard. Click Tools, and select Create Bootable Media.

Step 3. Select Windows PE and then click Next.

Step 4. Choose the media you want to copy the ISO file to. Here just choose USB Boot Device and click Next.

Step 5. Wait for the process to complete and click Finish.

Part 2. Boot the dead laptop

Step 1. Insert your dead laptop with the bootable USB stick.

Step 2. To enter the BIOS, turn on the laptop and simultaneously press the Del or F2 keys.

Step 3. Locate the Boot menu in BIOS and look for the Boot Sequence or a similar option.

Step 4. Change the laptop’s boot priority so that it starts from removable devices (bootable USB disk).

Step 5. Press the F10 key to start your laptop from the bootable USB after you confirm it.

Part 3. Clone the hard drive saving the data you need

Step 1. AOMEI Backupper will start automatically when entering the BIOS. Click Clone and choose Disk Clone. 

Step 2. Select the original hard drive that saves the data you need as the source disk and click Next to continue.

Step 3. Choose the USB hard drive you prepared as the destination and click Next to go to the next step. You can also plug in a workable external hard drive and choose it as the destination.

Step 4. Preview all settings and then click Start Clone.

After finishing, you can plug out the USB hard drive (or the external hard drive) and plug it into a working computer to get your data.

Bonus tip: What to do if data lose from the hard drive?

There's a possibility that when you open your hard drive, you may find some files missing or the hard drive is dead. If you find that some files are not where they were before, you can let the data recovery tool MyRecover scan your hard drive and find missing files.

Before starting, download, install and launch MyRecover on your workable computer.

Step 1. Hover the mouse over the hard drive used to have the files you want to get back. Click Scan.

Step 2. Then the scanning process will start automatically. You don’t need to wait for the process to complete if you find the files you want to recover. You can also type in the file name on the upper right search box to find the file you need quickly.

Step 3. Select the files or the whole folders you want to restore. Click Recover xx files.

Closing words

This post primarily introduces how to perform broken laptop hard drive data recovery. We listed 2 common cases and gave the solutions respectively. Check which suits your situation.

A small tip. To avoid the unexpected happens, you’re suggested to use AOMEI Backupper we mentioned above to back up your important files.