Recover Files After Your
PC Crashes



What Cause Computer Crashes?

  • Has your computer crashed and you are wondering how you will get recover? There are many reasons that may be the cause of it. Some of the most common are:
  • Operating Systems Failure: When the OS crushes, then, most probably you will get the blue screen of death shown below. This means that you will no longer have access to your computer system.
  • Computer Viruses: Viruses interfere with normal computer functioning and may lead to the crush of a computer system. There are many viruses and their ability to prevent computer functioning are different and unique for each virus.
  • Computer Memory Problems: When the computer’s memory has failed, it is most likely that it will crush.

To read more about ways to prevent computer crashes, Click Here.

Computer Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

When a computer crashes, it is most likely the HDD that has crashed. The HDD stores your files and is the home of your computer’s operating system. The HDD may fail because of the above said reasons or because of damages. Here is an image of the Hard Disk Drive:

What do you do when your computer crashes?

There is still hope for getting your files when a computer crashes. It is highly advisable that once your computer crashes and you wish to retrieve any files from the computer, you should stop using the said hard drive immediately. This will prevent you from overwriting any data in the hard drive before you are able to perform data recovery. There are three main ways you can use to recover your files when your computer crashes:

Option 1: Recover Files with an External HDD Installation

1. Remove the crashed HDD from the computer in which it was installed.

2.Insert the crashed HDD into the external HDD case

External hard drives can save your data


3. Switch on the external HDD and it will automatically be detected by the computer.

4. From My Computer screen, you will be able to open the crashed drive. Hard Disk Drive C in My Computer is the main drive of the computer while your external HDD will either be F, H, E, I and G as shown:


View Hard Drives

5. Once you open your crashed HDD, copy the files you want from the folders and paste them in the main internal disk of the computer you are using or on a USB flash disk. You can even burn the files in a CD or DVD.

Note: If you cannot get an external HDD case to use, you can install the crushed hard disk drive as a new primary drive in another computer and follow the steps outlined above to copy and paste the needed data into another drive.


Option 2: Recover Files with Backup Utility.

Another way of recovering your files is through your backup utility. This will only be successful however if you had earlier on created a backup utility for your files. Here is how to recover your files from the backup utility when your computer crashes:


Use Back Up Utilites in Windows to Avoid Data Loss


  1. Open the backup utility: You will do this by clicking on the start button then on the programs, then accessories, and then on the system tools and finally the backup button. You can do it as shown below:
  2. Open the advanced mode: When you click the backup button, the restore wizard will open and once that happens, click on the advanced mode link written writing within the body of the dialogue box.
  3. Click on Restore: On the appearing welcome dialogue box, click on the restore button. Once that opens the relevant dialogue box, choose the backup files you wish to restore.
  4. Restore your files accordingly: This will depend on your options whether you want to restore them to their original location or whether you want your files to overwrite existing files. You can also restore your files to your specified desired location.


Option 3: Recover Files Using Recovery Utility Software

Aside from copying and saving your files from a crushed disk, you may decide to use disk recovery utilities softwares for your recovery plans. For instance, utility software such as SpinRite that are sold and others such as Recuva which can be downloaded and used freely can be used for recovering files from a crashed computer. Such software are able scan your HDD for files that were either deleted or lost and recover such files.



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