My computer doesn't boot any mode.

[tommyhardware]

Hello,

It turned on, all the lights came on, followed by the ACER logo on the screen, and finally a black screen came that said:

“We apologize for the inconvenience, but windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this.”

Followed by some more text, and then it asks how I would like to start windows up, in safe mode(s), last known good configuration, or start windows normally.

So I hit “start windows normally” just like always and it started to boot up, with the Microsoft Windows 7 loading screen. Then BAM, the black screen with the different options popped up AGAIN. I then tried every single other boot option, all the safe modes, everything, and every time it would show that black screen with the different boot options(that don't work).

So I hit F8 and tried all the options in there, reboot, debugging mode, all of them, they all did the same thing and brought back to that dreaded black screen.

I know I will probably have to do a complete restart of my computer, but before I do that, how can I backup data from a non-functioning laptop? Right before this happened, I was going to back up my data, but then this happened! I have a hard drive I could save it to, but how can I get it to work when I can't even get my computer up?

Thanks for any help.

 

[WR2]

Hello tommyhardware;

Two options that I like to use:
(a) remove the laptop hard drive and use attach it as a 2nd (or extra) hard drive in a desktop system.
2.5" HDD SATA to USB 2.0 External Enclosure

(b) use a linux LiveCD to boot up a whole different OS that will see your all your HDD files allowing you to copy off the important personal files and program data prior to doing a OS recovery. You can send them to a USB thumb drive or external USB HDD.
Ubuntu LiveCD (or USB thumb drive)

 

[tommyhardware]

Awesome thanks. I never would have thought of trying Linux! I will go that route.

 

[tommyhardware]

Best answer selected by tommyhardware.