SSD in Dell Win 7 laptop failing, won't boot, request help w/ USB boot

Rich, you're in good hands with SIW2 and PaulBlack, so I won't butt in except to say that I don't think you're "hosed". It's not like the files you want aren't readable, it's only a matter of figuring out the right way to get at them when Windows itself won't boot. If all your attempts are futile, a competent shop should be able to copy them off for you.

It may be a bit more complicated because, IIRC, Dell's Ultrabooks use M.2 SSDs, so it's not as simple as popping out a traditional hard drive and putting it in an external enclosure to plug into another machine. But a competent shop should still be able to do it.

Just as a point of clarification, note there's a distinction between this and what most people refer to as "data recovery services". The latter more often refers to special laboratory techniques to try and coax a failing hard drive to give up its data when it's becoming unreadable. In your case the data isn't unreadable, you just have to figure out the right working environment to get at it.

Not really sure how to use Rufus but I will give it a try. I downloaded the 1.94 GB Linux iso file... Thanks again!

When I try to boot from the USB with the Linux, it says "BOOTMGR is missing, press ctr-alt-del to restart...did I not do the Rufus thing right?

Thanks..


Rich

SIW2 said:

Not quite


Embracing Linux: Bootable USB Drive - YouTube

Easier to use Yumi as in the video above. If you need efi support, use Yumi UEFI beta version

watching this now, thank you!!!!

99% sure we did it!! Copying the files from the user>Rich folder to an Ext HD...LOVE YOU ALL. Thanks so much, looks like I'm saving my files and I LEARNED SO MUCH!

Will confirm after I hit the gym, have to sweat on the exercise bike, too wound up now!

Rich

You guys are the best. I copied the contents to two separate USB HDs, and will now replace the laptop SSD and rebuild my laptop this weekend. So disappointed I went with a 'tiny' 250 GB SSD hard drive when I could have had a 1TB dick drive. I would have backed that up regularly, but lesson learned. Thank you all again.


Best,

Rich

Now you are on a time constraint. i got that sort failure before. and on an old xps too. what i did was swap in a dummy, reinstall windows on that (bare windows don't take long), then use something like acronis to clone (not backup not restore not reimage), CLONE 1:1 bit for bit the failing disk into another dummy, and then later try to recover ur data through several means. but at least u will have time to attempt. if the data is really life-death importance, u could even clone the clone, and try out a variety of methods. u said problem is with booting into windows, and also safe mode, but at least that means the disk is still recognized to a point as a hard drive, so cloning might still work (i am of the impression ur disk's structural integrity is still there but ur OS is corrupt).

but of course that means u need 2 extra HD.. they dont need to be really expensive ones maybe 2 x old travelstar or momentus 250's or 320's.

when it comes to actual recovery, my own experiences with a variety of recovery software (Easeus/Wondershare ...) never worked completely. most of the time it crunches out remnants of files which no longer work or are titled just by file type. My advice for you on this is NOT to use data recovery software, - as soon as u can, plug the clone into an external casing and connect to ur new dummy system as a data disk, then physically maneuver around the drive, do not forget to navigate to (users/user/desktop) and see what u are able to physically copy out. i don't call this recovery, i call it salvaging.

sometimes that's all u can do, salvage.

EDIT*

Oh oops sorry slow in responding,
and did not read page 2.