Top 2 Ways of Copying Hard Drive from Broken Computer

Is your computer really dead?

Before you start dismantling your PC or searching for adapters and recovery tools, it’s worth asking: Is your computer actually dead, or just temporarily unresponsive? Sometimes what seems like a catastrophic failure is just a fixable issue. Here are a few things to check:

1. Power and Charging Issues

If your computer won’t turn on at all—no lights, no fans, no sounds—it could be a power supply issue, not a dead machine. Try plugging into a different outlet, using another charger (for laptops), or checking the power cable and power button.

2. Display Failures

A blank screen doesn’t always mean a dead computer. Your system could be running in the background while the screen is malfunctioning. Try connecting your laptop or PC to an external monitor to confirm if the issue is with the display.

3. Boot Loop or Blue Screen

If your computer turns on but fails to load Windows, it could be a software or bootloader problem. In these cases, your data is likely safe, and the drive can still be accessed by another computer.

4. Listen for the Hard Drive

With older spinning hard drives (HDDs), listen closely after pressing the power button:

• Healthy drives click once or spin up quietly.
• Damaged drives might click repeatedly or make grinding noises—this could indicate physical failure and may require professional recovery.

Prepare for copying hard drive from broken computer

As long as the problem isn’t a dead hard drive in your broken computer, you can try to copy data from the current hard drive. Here’s what you’ll need to successfully copy the hard drive from your broken computer:

• A working computer: To access the hard drive from the broken machine or create a bootable device.
• External hard drive: To store the recovered data.
• USB flash drive: To make a bootable USB drive.
• SATA to USB adapter or external enclosure: To connect one hard drive externally.
• Screwdriver set: To remove the hard drive from the broken computer.
• Disk copy software - AOMEI Cloner.

How to copy data from hard drive of broken computer

Once you've prepped all the tools, it’s time to copy hard drive from dead computer. There are two common methods for your reference. Pick one method that best fits your need.

	Pros	Cons
Method 1: Boot from a bootable USB	✅Doesn’t require disassembling the computer ✅Everything is copied (OS, apps, and personal files)	❌Won’t work if the computer doesn’t power on
Method 2: Connect the drive to another computer	✅Works even if the computer is completely dead ✅Select necessary files to be copied	❌Requires disassembly ❌Can be tricky with encrypted drives or proprietary connectors

Method 1: Boot from a bootable USB

1. Download and install AOMEI Cloner on a working computer. Connect a USB drive, run the program, and click Tools > Create Bootable Media to create a bootable USB.

2. Connect the bootable USB and the external hard drive you prepared to the broken computer.

3. Power on the broken computer. Press the key for the BIOS menu (usually F2, F12, or Esc, depending on brand) and change boot order to prioritize the USB drive.

4. After booting from the USB drive, AOMEI Cloner will load up automatically. Go to Clone > Disk Clone.

5. Select the old hard drive as Source Disk and select the external drive as Destination Disk.

6. Check the SSD Alignment option if the external drive is an SSD, thus improving the SSD performance. Finally, click Start Clone to launch the cloning process.

7. After cloning, you can connect the external hard drive to another computer to confirm your files are successfully copied.

Method 2: Connect the drive to another computer

1. Carefully open your broken laptop or desktop case.

2. Disconnect the drive and remove any mounting screws or brackets.

3. Connect the old drive to a working computer using the SATA-to-USB adapter or external enclosure you prepared.

4. Press Windows + E to open File Explorer and locate your old hard drive.

5. Navigate to user folders like Documents, Desktop, Pictures, etc. Copy and paste necessary files to another location. You can copy files to:

• External hard drive (for a large number of files)
• Cloud drive (for a small number of files)

Wrapping things up

Copying hard drive from broken computer is often possible—especially if the drive itself isn’t damaged. First, determine if the computer is truly dead or just experiencing power or boot issues. Then, prepare by gathering the right tools and copy files by either booting from a USB drive or by physically removing the hard drive and connecting it to another computer. AOMEI Cloner can help you access and transfer your files—even from a system that won’t boot.