Any way to save files from a broken hard drive?

Jericho6991

Reputable
Jan 15, 2015
1
0
4,510
Running an HP Pavilion Touch smart laptop, and the hard drive broke so it won't even boot. I have it under warranty and ready to ship to HP, but they said they'll only attempt to transfer the Documents, Music, Pictures, and Video folders, but what I need to save is my sticky notes. I looked for ways to back it up and stuff but all I find is software to download that backs it up for you, which is nice and all but how am I supposed to download that software when my computer won't even boot due to the faulty hard drive?

My main question here is, is there a way to save files with a messed up internal hard drive, or at least a way to access them somehow so I can at least copy and paste the sticky notes and email them?
 

Makaveliii

Honorable
Mar 3, 2013
77
0
10,660
Generally speaking, if the HDD is internally broken such as a head crash, no software in the world will retrieve your files, which is why people pay companies hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds to retrieve their data for them. I am sorry but it seems you are at a loss.
 
Hey jericho6991. Are there any signs indicating that the drive is at least spinning e.g. vibrating, or making the usual noise when it spins up? I'm afraid that there's little chance that you'll be able to get your data in a traditional why with the help of data recovery software, Linux Live CD/USB, if the HDD has failed completely. But you could always try with a professional solutions, such as a data recovery company (note that this could prove to be quite expensive sometimes).

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD