How to recover data from a crashed Windows system

[This article was also posted on our sister website: Tech Authority]

How to recover your data from a crashed Windows 7 computer? (Will work on vista and XP too) 

An easy way to recover data is to install another Operating system so that it can help you to access your hard drive. We'll choose Linux as it is free. 

To install linux on your computer, you'll need a linux distribution (distro). 99% of them are free. Search for list of linux distributions on Wikipedia. You'll find a list of lot of linux based operating systems. livecdlist.com can also help. 

I'll recommend ubuntu, tiny linux, knoppix, fedora, debian, xubuntu, px linux os etc. Download any of 'em and make a bootable usb. Bootable usb can be made using unetbootin, universal usb installer etc. (search for live cd maker). Install this and make a bootable pen-drive (I recommend 4gb). 

Now turn off your computer and restart. As it starts, u'll see boot options (F12 or something else). Press it and u'll see a black window showing boot options. Choose your pen drive to boot and then hit enter. After booting u'll see a menu provided by that linux distro. choose live cd or try.

Then you'll see ur new OS which is running from ur usb. Now u can access ur hard drive. Connect an external/portable hard drive and then copy all of the data. After it, shut down ur computer; all of the data has been backed up. Now go on and format ur hard drive by using windows 7 (or other Windows) installer DVD/ USB.

BIOS Password Recovery methods

Have you lost the password that you have set for your BIOS? Haven't you set any password but your system is asking for password. Well, here our experts are telling 2 methods to recover your BIOS password.

Method 1

Check with the laptop’s user manual if there is a procedure given to remove and replace the CMOS battery. Usually, the CMOS battery is located around the main battery or inside the hard drive or memory compartment. If you can reach it, switch off the laptop, remove the main battery and then remove this CMOS battery. Then wait for around 15 – 20 minutes before putting them all back in place. This should clear out the BIOS password.

Method 2

Download the utility ‘CmosPwd’ from ‘http://www.cgsecurity.org/cmospwd-5.0.zip’ and unzip it to a folder on your desktop. Now similarly, open a command prompt and execute the file you downloaded. Follow the procedure in the window and try if your BIOS password is reset.