Windows Refresh not working

AdamM5

Hi

Could someone offer any suggestions to help me get back into an old laptop please?

I recently installed advance system care software on it to try and clean up my ageing laptop and the next time I turned it on I kept getting a black screen after the acer logo. I tried to use a restore point as I thought I had one set up but it wasn't there. I tried a refresh and got the message windows could not complete installation. It restarted and got stuck on setting a few more things up 92% and was like this for about ten hours. I have since retried it a few and it keeps getting stuck.

The OS is 8.1 and when I look through the settings it is saying I have OS 8.1 on volume 4 five times. I have purchased a new laptop now but there are some important files saved on there that I want to get back.

Thanks

JackE

You can more easily and safely get the personal files back by removing the HDD or SSD and connecting it to a USB port of another machine with an inexpensive 2.5" USB-to-HDD/SSD adapter from Amazon (less than $10). Once the personal files are safely copied onto the other machine, then you can put the HDD or SSD back in and try to do an an ALT+F10 erase every factory reset to try to recover the boot section of the drive.

AdamM5

Thanks Jack I will definitely try this. Would it just be as simple as taking it out and plugging the connector into the new laptop?

JackE

>>>Would it just be as simple as taking it out and plugging the connector into the new laptop? >>>

Yep. It should show up as  D : \ or E : \ in FileExplore on the new laptop. Then copy to your heart's content.

AdamM5

Thanks so much Jack I will order one now!

AdamM5

JackE said:

>>>Would it just be as simple as taking it out and plugging the connector into the new laptop? >>>

Yep. It should show up as  D : \ or E : \ in FileExplore on the new laptop. Then copy to your heart's content.

Hi Jack

I have connected the drive to my new laptop and the disk space shows that there is content on there but my file name is not appearing under users? Do you have any ideas on what I can do to access the files please?

Thanks

Adam

JackE

(1) Do you mean you Windows user name that you login with?

(2) Do you recall any of the names of the files that you saved data to? Are they perhaps in the form of Microsoft Office documents or spreadsheets?

You see, I have no way of knowing what your user name is or the file names that you saved data on or even what folders you stored them in. If you can give me some clues to these names---like maybe the first couple letters of a file name that you remember----I might be able to suggest ways of trying to find them on the hard drive.

AdamM5

Thanks Jack, under users it lists administrator but not my user folder. under administrator it has no files at all. Yes I did have some spreadsheets and word documents and PDF's that I wanted to save. also some family history pictures and scans.

I'm just gutted because I thought I had back ups set up but must not have done it correctly.

JackE

In the left pane, what drive letter has been assigned to the drive on the USB port? D : \ ? E : \? F : \? You want to click on the letter to examine the subfolders within it on the right pane. A screenshot of what you're seeing would really help.

Erick-Acer_Retired

Hi @AdMan m5
could you please tell me model name of device