Laptop won’t turn on? How to get your files back

When a laptop refuses to turn on, the first worry is rarely the laptop itself. It is the photos, documents and work inside it. The good news is that a dead laptop does not usually mean dead storage. In many cases the fault is in the charger, battery or motherboard, and your files are sitting untouched on the drive. How easy they are to reach depends on how your laptop was built, so it helps to work that out before anyone starts taking it apart.

First, is it really dead?

A few quick checks can save you a lot of worry. None of them put your data at risk:

• Check the charger. Look for a charging light, and try another charger of the correct rating if you have one. Failed chargers and worn cables are common.
• Try a hard reset. Unplug the charger and any USB devices, hold the power button for around 30 seconds, then reconnect the charger and try again.
• Look and listen. If you hear fans, or the keyboard lights come on but the screen stays black, the laptop may be running with a failed screen. Connect an external monitor if it has a video port.

Stop straight away if there is a burning smell, if the case is bulging or lifting (a sign of a swollen battery), or if liquid has been spilled on it. Do not try to power it on in any of those situations.

Where your data actually lives

Laptops store data in one of three ways, and this decides what happens next.

A removable 2.5-inch drive

Older laptops often have a standard SATA hard drive or SSD. If the fault is elsewhere in the laptop, the drive can often be removed and read from another computer.

A removable M.2 SSD

Many modern laptops use a small M.2 stick. These are also removable, although you need the right adaptor because SATA and NVMe versions are not interchangeable. If the SSD itself has failed, it needs specialist work. See our NVMe and M.2 SSD data recovery page for more.

Storage soldered to the motherboard

Recent MacBooks, many thin laptops and a lot of budget models have their storage chips soldered directly to the board. There is nothing to take out. On these machines, and especially on Macs with a T2 chip or Apple silicon, the data is encrypted and tied to the hardware, so the chips cannot simply be moved to a different board. The usual route to the data is getting the original board working, at least for long enough to copy the files.

Why encryption matters

Many Windows laptops now arrive with BitLocker or device encryption switched on, sometimes without the owner realising. If you connect the drive to another computer, you may be asked for a recovery key, and without it the data cannot be read. Before anyone works on the laptop, sign in to your Microsoft account on another device and check whether a recovery key is saved there. If the laptop belongs to your employer, your IT department may hold the key. Note it down somewhere safe, because any recovery of the drive will need it too.

What not to do

• Do not keep pressing the power button. If there is an electrical short on the board, repeated attempts can cause further damage.
• Do not authorise a repair without mentioning your data. Replacing a drive or motherboard, or reinstalling Windows, can leave your files out of reach. On a laptop with soldered storage, replacing the board can mean losing the data for good. Tell the repairer plainly that the data comes first.
• Do not run a reset or reinstall. If the laptop does come back to life and offers to “reset this PC” or reinstall the system, stop and copy your files first.
• Do not force anything. Laptop connectors and ribbon cables are delicate, and many modern models are glued together. If the drive is not easy to reach, leave it alone.

If it comes back on

Treat any recovery as a temporary reprieve. Copy your most important files to an external drive or another computer before doing anything else, starting with whatever you could not replace. A laptop that has failed once may not start a second time. Once your files are safe, set up a proper backup so that next time a dead laptop is only an inconvenience.

When to get a specialist involved

Call in a data recovery lab if the storage is soldered, if the drive is not detected when connected to another computer, if it clicks or makes other noises, or if the laptop has had a knock or a spill. We will find out where the fault is and tell you what is possible. You can read more on our laptop data recovery page, and if you have an Apple laptop, see MacBook data recovery.

Laptop won’t turn on?

Leave it switched off and call Data Retrieval on 020 7064 4996, or request a quote online. We offer a free assessment with no obligation, so you will know where you stand before any work is done.