Your laptop will not switch on, or the old PC has started clicking, and the thing you really care about is not the machine. It is the family photos, the work documents and the years of files inside it. People across Neasden, Willesden, Kilburn and the rest of London ask us about this all the time, so here is what to do first, what to avoid, and what is realistically possible.
First, work out what has actually failed
A dead laptop and dead files are not the same thing. Often the files are perfectly safe on the drive and something else has failed, such as the charger, the battery, the screen or the power circuit on the board. A few quick checks:
- Try a different charger or socket. Then unplug the charger, hold the power button for about 30 seconds and try again.
- Plug in a TV or monitor. If the lights come on but the screen stays black, a failed screen or backlight can look exactly like a dead laptop, and your files are untouched.
- Read any message on screen. “No bootable device” or “operating system not found” can mean a software problem or a drive problem.
- Listen. Repeated clicking, grinding or beeping from a hard drive is a mechanical fault. Switch off straight away.
What to stop doing
The biggest enemy of recovery is trying one more time. Every attempt on a failing drive can make the damage worse.
- Do not keep restarting a machine that clicks, freezes or hangs.
- Do not use “reset this PC”, repair tools or a Windows reinstall until your files are safe. These can overwrite the very data you want back.
- Do not open the drive, tap it or put it in the freezer. Those old tricks do more harm than good.
- Do not install “free recovery” software onto the problem drive. Anything written to it can overwrite lost files.
- Do not pay anyone who phones you offering to “recover” your data. Our guide to scam pop-ups and fake Microsoft calls explains how those work.
Hard drive or SSD: why it matters
Older laptops and many desktops use a spinning hard drive with moving parts. A failing one often gives warning signs: it gets slow, files will not open, or it makes noise. Newer machines use an SSD, which has no moving parts and tends to fail with less warning, sometimes by simply not showing up at all.
It also matters whether the storage can be removed. In many thin laptops and most modern Macs it is soldered to the board, so taking the drive out and plugging it into another computer is not an option.
Encryption can catch you out
Many modern Windows laptops can encrypt the drive, and Macs use FileVault. That is good for security, but it means a drive moved to another computer cannot be read without the recovery key. For Windows that key is often stored in your Microsoft account, and for a Mac it may be in your Apple account. Do not wait until something breaks: on another device, sign in and check that you can find it.
Check the places your files may already be
Before you assume everything is lost, look around. Photos are often already in iCloud, Google Photos or OneDrive, and documents may sit in a cloud folder or in email attachments. Your phone, an old USB stick or a family member’s computer might hold copies you forgot about. Sign in to your accounts from another device and see what is there. It costs nothing, and it tells you how much really needs rescuing from the dead machine.
What we can do at your home
Our technicians come to you, so you do not have to carry a failing machine across London. If the drive still spins and the computer can see it, we can often connect it to our own equipment and copy your files onto a separate drive before we touch anything else. Once your data is safe, we can repair the machine, replace the drive or set up a new computer. Our PC repair and laptop repair pages explain how a visit works.
We cannot promise a result, because it depends on the fault. If a drive is physically damaged and needs specialist laboratory work, we will tell you that plainly rather than keep the clock running.
The work is charged by time at our normal labour rate of £75/hr, or £60/hr during our Halloween sale, which runs until 31 December 2026. Parts, such as a separate drive to copy your files onto, are quoted separately before we buy anything. Our no fix, no fee promise covers our time if we cannot complete the agreed work.
Back up so it never happens again
The simplest habit is to keep two copies of anything important, with one of them away from the computer. That can be cloud storage, or an external drive that does not live in the laptop bag. Check now and then that you can actually open a file from the backup. Photos on your phone are worth syncing to the cloud as well.
If you would like help, we set up cloud backup on Windows and Mac. And if the machine is old enough that you are wondering whether it is worth saving, our guide on whether to repair or replace your laptop will help you decide.
We also visit Kilburn, Golders Green, Cricklewood and the rest of our London coverage area. To arrange a visit, send us a message or call 07766 760516.