New
#1
Emergency Windows 7 USB boot without reinstall?
My Windows 7 system went down, and like others, I need to restore some data not included in my backups. I bought a new Windows 10 PC, so am not looking to recover or reinstall my old system; just want one-time access to get some files and app data, then I'll re-format the disk and dispose of the old PC.
I have a reinstallation disk (CD), and see many tutorials for creating a USB boot drive, but they all seem to rely on reinstalling the OS, and working from there. I don't want that (full install wipes my data, repair install gets hung up on the corrupt disk). Isn't there a way to just boot from a USB to access the old files?
Maybe this is a dumb question, or I'm missing the obvious. Advice?