Laptop corrupted, trying to retrieve files that weren't backed up online

LChan

My Win 10 HP laptop crashed unexpectedly yesterday and now it can't load and fails if I attempt to run Troubleshoot/Repair options that pop up when I turn it on. A system check PASSED on every count (hard drive, processor, battery, etc). When it tries to repair it gets the Stop Code: CRITICAL PROCESS DIED and then I can't go any further. I do not have a backup of the drive. Some files were set up to save on both Dropbox and Google Drive but unfortunately they seemed to have stopped backing up at some point without my noticing so there are personal files that I need to somehow get to and retrieve or I will lose them forever. (Mostly .doc and .scriv writing files.) Any advice for potentially fixing the laptop or simply just extracting the files that I don't have backups of?

KCcruzito

Try booting your laptop into Safe Mode. This mode loads only the essential files needed for Windows to run. If you can access Safe Mode, you might be able to access your files and copy them to an external drive. Here's how to enter Safe Mode: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234
If Safe Mode isn't an option, try to remove your hdd or ssd from your laptop and connect to another device using docking station [Link removed by moderator]
Most likely, your files are still on the disks, and only the Windows OS files were damaged

oleksandr-lukashyn

Hello, try booting your laptop into Safe Mode. If it boots, you can copy your files to an external drive. In this mode, you can also try opening the Command Prompt and entering the following command: “dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth” - it will attempt to fix errors in your system. If you still can't boot normally after this, you might need to consider reinstalling Windows.

However, if your laptop doesn't boot into Safe Mode, try removing your hard drive and connecting it to another working PC. If your drive has a corrupted file system, you can attempt to repair it using TestDisk, or simply recover your files using Disk Drill (recovers 500MB of files for free) or PhotoRec (unfortunately, it can only recover your docx files, not scriv files) or Recuva.