When your laptop suddenly stops working, it can feel like all your important data is lost forever. But don't panic! Just because you have a "dead laptop" doesn't mean your files are gone for good.
This guide will walk you through the steps to recover files from a dead laptop, depending on the type of storage it uses, so you can breathe a little easier knowing your valuable data might still be within reach.
Simply because the laptop is dead, does not mean its data storage is dead!
A laptop being "dead" usually means there is an issue with its motherboard. On most machines, the motherboard is separate from the hard drive or solid state drive that holds all of your data. This might allow you to recover data from your laptop hard disk without hassle if the drive itself is in good condition.
It is very rare for the motherboard and your hard drive to die at the same time. This means that you can remove the drive from the laptop and get all of your data!
The drive being a separate component simplifies the; here's how to get files off a dead laptop. In this case, you can take your drive and place it into a very cheap piece of equipment that allows you to plug it into another computer, which allows you to recover hard drive data from your laptop very easily. What equipment you get will be based on the type of drive you have.
Most laptops used to have drives that look like this to recover data from a 2.5" laptop hard drive. This is called a 2.5" SATA drive. On the left is a hard drive, on the right is a solid state drive:
To plug this drive into another computer, you need something like this:
This is often how recovering files from a dead laptop is done, though it's not always this simple.
More modern laptops use drives that fit into an m.2 slot, that look like the drive below, which facilitates easy laptop SSD data recovery:
This drive requires a different adapter, because it uses a different connector. For this drive, you will need an enclosure like this:
*If you're unlucky, you have a laptop where the hard drive is soldered onto the motherboard. In these cases, special non-standard tools may be necessary to extract the data. These are rarely able to be recovered at home.
On these devices, you cannot simply remove the drive to plug it into another computer. Some of these devices require specialized tools not made available to the public. Some of them require specialized software in addition to specialized tools that are also not made available to the public. If you dislike this type of design, let the manufacturers of these products know with your wallet & your voice that you will not purchase their products as long as they continue this practice. Demand better options for how to recover data from your dead laptop!