troubleshoot Win 7 stuck on updates

[SirPirate]

Hello Everyone!
I have the following issue: I have an old acer v5-572g running win7 (belongs to my parents) it has priceless documentation it so Im extra careful and thought Id check in for some advice.On boot it gave a black screen (after the lockscreen).I proceeded to restart it a few times and it began running updates.Initially got stuck at 100%, left it there for an hour or so but nothing was happening so another restart.Now stuck at 35%.I need some advice in getting all the data off of it.Ill install win 10 on the thing but Id really like to get into the os to retrieve the data.

[vanished]

You don't need to boot the OS to access the data.  If you put that drive into another system it will be fully readable, unless it's encrypted in which case it should still be readable, you would just need the password, which in this case shouldn't be an issue.  That would be my recommendation in fact since repeated failed boots and updates are only going to risk doing something to the partition and provide no benefit in return.

 

PS, by "another system", I also mean the same physical computer booted to another OS, such as Linux on a USB drive.

[Eigenvektor]

2 minutes ago, SirPirate said:

Ill install win 10 on the thing but Id really like to get into the os to retrieve the data.

You could either attach the HDD to another PC, use an external enclosure to attach it to USB, or boot e.g. a Linux live image and use it to copy the data somewhere else.

 

(If the data is priceless as you say, why is there no backup?)

[SirPirate]

1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

 

 

(If the data is priceless as you say, why is there no backup?)

My parents are old and don't understand the concept...

[SirPirate]

11 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

You don't need to boot the OS to access the data. 

Thanks, Im downloading ubuntu as Ive had previous success with it .
*fingers crossed*

[Vishera]

Just now, SirPirate said:

Thanks, Im downloading ubuntu as Ive had previous success with it .
*fingers crossed*

The data is still there,just don't install it on the drive.

Disconnect the drive and install Ubuntu on a different drive.

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, Vishera said:

The data is still there,just don't install it on the drive.

Disconnect the drive and install Ubuntu on a different drive.

Ubuntu has a live CD, no need to install it. You should be able to boot from the CD/USB-Image and then access the drive to copy the data somewhere else (e.g. other USB stick or network)

 

Just now, SirPirate said:

My parents are old and don't understand the concept...

They may not understand the technical aspects of a backup, but surely they understand the concept of losing their data if the computer breaks? Just a friendly suggestion, you don't have to, of course. It's just that I've been bitten by this before and it's quite painful to lose stuff you can't replace.

 

If you have recovered the data and updated to Windows 10, I'd at the very least enable its automated backups and attach an external drive. That's not the most elaborate backup strategy, but very simply to do and should be simple enough to explain to your parents.

[SirPirate]

2 minutes ago, Vishera said:

The data is still there,just don't install it on the drive.

Disconnect the drive and install Ubuntu on a different drive.

There was a way to run ubuntu just from the usb stick, thats my plan for the moment.
run from usb -> recover data -> clean install of win 10 (hopefully)