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How To Backup Data Without Booting Into Windows (The Easy Way)

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At times, we come across Windows boot issues that prevent us from booting into Windows 10/8/7. Sure, one can use Windows recovery tools to fix most of the startup related issues, but there are some errors that can’t be fixed via the recovery environment.

If you’re having boot problems on your Windows PC and can’t fix them even after using recovery tools (see how to fix boot problems using startup repair) present under System Recovery Options, you may want to back up your documents, pictures, music, and other data before reinstalling Windows.

While there are advanced methods and software available to back up data,  not everyone is comfortable using command line tools and paid software. So, in this guide, we are going to show you a smart way to backup data from your Windows and other drives to a USB drive when you are unable to boot into Windows.

Backup data without booting on Windows 10/8/7

NOTE: In this guide, we have used screenshots of Windows 7, but the guide works for Windows 8 as well as Windows 10. The procedure is pretty much the same.

Step 1: Turn on your PC, press F8 key during the startup and then select Repair Your Computer option under Advanced Boot Options to boot into the recovery environment. If you can’t see Repair Your Computer option under Advanced Boot Options, you will need to use the installation media.

Or

If the above method doesn’t work, place your Windows installation DVD in the optical drive or insert the bootable USB, reboot your PC. Make necessary changes to the BIOS to make PC boot from CD/DVD. You can also use bootable Windows USB as installation media. This method is ideal for Windows 10 and Windows 8 as F8 key mostly doesn’t work on Windows 10 and Windows 8 PCs.

Step 2: Users who aren’t booting from DVD or USB can simply skip this step. Press any key when are asked to do so. When you press a key, Windows starts loading files from the DVD you will see “Windows is loading files” message.

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step1

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step2

Step 3: In a while, you will see the Install Windows screen. Here, select your language, keyboard type, language, and then click the Next button.

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step3

Users who have used Repair Your Computer under Advanced Boot Options will see the following screen:

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step21

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step22

Select the keyboard input method and click Next button and type in the password and then skip to Step 5.

Step 4: In the following screen, you will see the Install now button. Don’t click Install now button as doing so will take you to the next screen. Click Repair your computer option located in the lower left corner to start System Recovery Options. System Recovery Options will search for Windows installations and list them. Select the operating system, click the Next button to see available recovery tools.

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step4

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step5

Step 5: In this screen, you will all available System Recovery Options.

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step66

Step 6: Click on Command Prompt. No, we are not going to use the command line to backup data but we are using the Command Prompt to launch an application with GUI so we can easily move or backup files from a familiar user interface.

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step7

In the Command Prompt, type Notepad.exe and press Enter key to launch our favorite Notepad application. Once the application is launched, click on File > Save As (you use Ctrl + S keys as well) to launch Save As dialog.

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step8

Step 7: Save As dialog is what we wanted as from here, we can easily browse all drives and folders without a problem. Click on the Computer icon in the left pane and then browse to the drive or folder that you want to backup and then copy your files to a USB drive. That’s it!

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step9

Backup Data Without Booting into Windows Step10

Please note when you are browsing a drive or folder, all files may not appear as Save As dialog is showing only text files. To view all files, select All Files in Save as type drop-down menu. Also, note that the Send to function in the context menu may not work. You may need to copy and paste required files onto the USB drive manually. Good luck!

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Comments

  1. Thomas says

    Thank you so much for this elegant tip! I have been looking constantly since my computer broke down yesterday without being able to boot and this works!

    Additional tip for people who were in my situation and couldn’t find their files in My Documents or other folders linked to the profile (Downloads, My pictures,…): For my issue, it seems that Windows worked on a recovery of my computer. It didn’t work though but Windows in the meantime moved all the information of my user profile from c:\windows to c:\windowds.old!

    Thanks to the information from this page, I managed to back everything up what I had missed before.

    Final little tip: if you plan on making space on your hard drive to reinstall windows, I used the “cut/paste” function to remove the files, as the “delete” function would send the files to the recycle bin which wasn’t available from the “save as” of notepad.

  3. Anees says

    Thanks A lot I lost my data previously but after some research, I visit this site and now I know not to save data

  4. Jay-jay says

    I am only starting high school but i need some assistance. You see my acer windows 7 was work fine but my cusor wouldn’t move so i hit some random combinations and reset my computer a couple of times.But then,on one reset it wouldn’t show me the login screen just a black screen with the cusor. Thats the problem.And if i wait a while a message appears on screen saying
    “Wireless configuration

    Notification dll has not been registered, program will not work
    Correctly.”
    I would like some help as my dad ran a pc scan but nothing came up. If or when you tell me what to do, don’t expect an answer for a while because i dont have
    wi-fi. But i would be very greatful.

  5. Bob Mansfield says

    Please HELP as I still get: Error code 0x80004005: Unspecified error. I’m unable to back up and files.

    I have tried to read your exact solution and made every attempt to no avail. I just need to recovery as many if any my files, etc. before I try a clean install of Windows 10. I have a HP Pavilion g6 laptop. Your help is greatly appreciated,

  7. Rhykeda Mason says

    I keep getting a message saying “An unexpected error is keeping you from copying this folder. If you to continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to Search for help with this problem.
    Error code 0x80004005: Unspecified error

  8. Bunty says

    Thanks to you sir… Your method is a great one. Keep helping people and keep learning..thanks from India.

  10. Richard Clarke says

    Thanks for this. Really needed to restore a laptop without an optical drive at work. Peace.

  14. Mike says

    I tried this, and got to the “Save As” dialog box, and then I clicked “Computer” and the options are OS (C:) 44GB free of 581GB, RECOVERY (I:) 10GB free of 14gb and “Boot (X:)”, 30 MB free of 33MB. When I click to get to OS C:, several folders appear. I selected “Users”, and found two folders (our user folder, and a public folder). Hovering over our user folder, it said it was empty. When I right clicked it and chose “properties”, then it started calculating all the data in that folder and showed it was around 370 GB full. I can’t find where My Pics, My Vids, My Docs are. Am I looking in wrong spot?

    What has caused all of this is the other day PC was running REALLY slow, so I tried to reboot, and then got stuck in startup repair mode for 24 hours. HDD light stayed solid thruout, and could hear no activity from the tower, so I powered down and tried to boot in safe mode, but that also went to startup repair, so powered down again, hit F8 and got to repair your computer option, and am trying the notepad idea you have suggested here.

    At this point, I just want to save my pics and vids. Don’t want to do too much else in an effort to fix the PC, fearing I’ll lose stuff. Most of my pics and vids are backed up on external hard drive, but not all. Please help!!

  16. martin says

    i have followed your route through and cannot find my data folders nothing ???!!!
    please help and contact me via email martin_20″hotmail.co.uk

  20. Morten Lieng says

    I hoped that this worked on my surface pro 3. I get a error message: Stopcode: unmountable boot volume and it stops. I have made a USB boot disk for the surface, running it and are gtting a bit longer. I can now choose troubleshooting, advanced and then “command prompt”… When I choose this, it stops…

    Do you have a clue if there is another way to get into command prompt?

  21. Adriano says

    Beautiful! No need to remove HD! Thanks CHINMAY KAMAT for your comment… Now pasting copied D: to F: and typing dir f: on cmd to see the amount of free space vanishing while copying… Unhappy it was to late to do that with c: :-( But the more important ones were on d: :-)

    My sincerely thank you!

  23. cryingbot says

    When I tried this it says there’s not enough memory to complete this action, the file I tried it on was just 269kb.
    Any solutions?

  25. CHINMAY KAMAT, india says

    This was such an elegant hack.. beautiful.. really helped. Else I would have had to remove the drive and put it in another computer and what not. More specifically I found that using 2 notepad instances, and copying entire drives at once was most convenient.

  28. Haneen Othman says

    If I spent 10 years saying thank you it wont be enough.
    I was about to lose my autocad training files and start all over
    But know I copied every single file and now I am good to go.
    Thank you for this clever trick.
    god bless you.

  30. admin says

    @ Lourwin11 and others
    Glad to know that my guide helped you. Thanks for your kind words.

  31. Lourwin11 says

    thank you so much dude…you are God’s Instrument to save other lives…

  33. Abhi says

    I had win8 on Vaio. I installed win10 via usb.
    Its not booting.
    I followed the above steps

    in cmd, error msg- this app cant run on ur pc. Pls help.

  34. Tammi says

    Thank you!!!! This was BRILLIANT!!! I’m feeling so relieved now that I’m saving my stuff as we speak. It’s been 2 days since I’ve seen my desktop & I LIVE on my laptop! I’m so glad I found this page. I was mentally preparing for an inevitable factory reset after trying everything to fix my boot problem. But I just kept thinking of my files and feeling sad & helpless. It’s still gonna be a pain to go through but at least I have my files now :)

  36. Joey says

    I cant see my HDD ?? I have SSD 128G and a 1TB HDD but when i click on my PC in save as I cant see my HDD? Can someone tell me why?

  37. linda says

    I am SO very grateful for this information! Like so many of the other people who have posted, this simple trick seems to be relatively unknown by many “computer repair” shops and people who should know! I was about ready to give up and just reinstall over my old files when I tried one last google search to find an answer. I didn’t expect any answers, let alone one so very, very simple!!
    Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!l

  38. Isaa says

    Hi guys, first of thank you so much for a great tip and i would like to add something i found that might be very useful for some as it was for me, instead of going back and forth (copy/paste) your files OPEN another notepad from the same CMD and copy paste between 2 notepads, i tried it myself and it helps alot.. Thank you again :)

  39. Ernest says

    Ahh, That’s a great and pretty fast workaround mate. Can’t be more pleased with this. Thanks

  44. Gaurav Singh says

    You should teach those so called “technical executives” of all the reputed laptop companies who directly say that there is no way of saving your files….hattsoff man

  46. arian surya says

    very great solution. i think this is the easiest ways to backup our data. using CMD is too complicated and we have to pay more if we want to helped by service centre

  48. Lin says

    In Step5, only the first option of Startup Repair appears, I am not able to save the files in the Drive C before I use F9 to recover the system. I use Win7 on Asus note book K52J.

  50. Jackie says

    This was so simple, yet one of the smartest methods I’ve ever seen. THANK YOU.

  51. Ashwin says

    In Step 4 in System recovery options, No OS is getting listed. What to do?? Please help.
    Somehow I got into Save as window but there I am not able to see disk where OS is installed.
    Please help. I have some important data.

    Thanks in advance.

  52. Deni says

    I got to the first screen of STEP 4, only. My laptop does stays halted for a while and then goes again into the Windows Error Recovery screen.

    I also tried F8 and got an option to REPAIR with the same unsuccessful result.

    It seems the loading process gets to a point (a file), holds for a while and then gets back to the loop.

    Please advise.

    Thanks in advance.

  53. Malcolm Charlton says

    this would be perfect – if only the enter button on my keyboard worked – if anyone has any idea how to get around this i would be most grateful

  54. Anthony says

    Muah muah! Love you man! Was able to save the most important things, pics, vid and some programs. Could have save pretty much everything but had too much junk that don’t need anyway and would rather start new. Search the web for a month even took my laptop to some shops and every one said there was nothing I could do. I had to reinstall with disc and lose everything. Not true, and you prove them wrong. Thank you

  55. KS says

    What if i can’t even see my C drive and D drive ? there’s only that Boot (X) drive. Please Help ! :(

  56. Maz says

    i’ve been using windows live cd for backup, that also help me a lot as i could take entire system backup
    thanks for the updated tip

    I need to know, how to recover data after format?

  62. John says

    Excellent article. I work professionally in IT and I’ve used this technique before in a pinch to get a backup running of a PC that may or may not fail. I’m sure you’ve been there before. What a headache!

    I also prefer to use other tools like CloneZilla. Especially when dealing with drive failure situations.

    On an unrelated note, after you get everything working using this guide I’d highly recommend setting up Windows backup to automatically run. If you run Windows 7 professional it can be done in a pinch and is fully customizable. In terms of general day-to-day backup software I really do like the default Windows Professional backup suite.

    Anyway, I don’t want to get too carried away. Great article!

  63. admin says

    Thanks for the comment. Yes, most of Windows users aren’t aware of this tip.

  64. nirmal says

    I have been repairing computers for donkey’s years and never heard of this tip before. Excellent…

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