How to Recover Data From Dell PC in No Boot Situation

Is your Dell PC not booting up? Are you worried about your data? Do not worry, I understand how important those data are, today in this post I will help you with few troubleshooting steps to make your Dell system bootable, but in case it does not work then I will provide you effective solution on how to recover data from Dell PC in no boot situation. Let start with a real-life scenario:

Dell Inspiron laptop not booting

My dell Inspiron laptop is not booting. It first showed that “No bootable devices were found. Possible causes could be a corrupt OS image or a boot device is not enabled”When I went into settings >general> Boot Sequences, it did not show the option to “apply” UEFI boot option. What should I do?

Source: Dell Community

Like the above users, there are multiple users who are facing no boot issue with the Dell system and data is one of the biggest concerns for those users.

Please follow the steps mentioned below to fix no boot issue and recover your data on Dell PC.

Also Read: Recover Deleted Data From Dell Inspiron, XPS, Latitude & Alienware PC

Perform Power Cycle

Most of the time a simple hard reset makes your computer to boot up. To do so, shut down your computer, unplug all the external peripherals from your PC like external HDD, USB flash drive, etc. In case of a laptop, unplug the battery if you can. Now press and hold the power button on your computer for 10-12 seconds without the power cable connected and without the battery in case of the laptop. Doing this will remove all the static electricity from the PC. Now restart your PC, your system may boot up and you can get your data back. In case the issue still persists, move on to the next step.

Perform BIOS Reset

Shut down your Dell PC if it is on. Now start your computer and immediately keep on tapping F2 on the keyboard to boot into the BIOS. Nowadays Dell computer comes with different BIOS interface. If your BIOS interface looks like the picture shown below then click on Restore Settings or Load Defaults whatever option you have to set the BIOS to default. Confirm the BIOS default and hit OK. Now click on Exit. The system will restart and the system may boot up.

If your BIOS interface looks like the below pic then, press F9 on the keyboard to Load Optimized Defaults or Load Optimal Defaults. Now press F10 to save the settings and hit Exit.

The system will restart and the system may boot up. If system boots to Windows after BIOS reset then backup all your data to avoid data loss in the future. In case the issue still persists follow the next step.

Fix Boot Option Name in BIOS

If you are receiving an error “Operating System Loader Has no Signature. Incompatible with SecureBoot. All bootable devices failed Secure Boot verification” then following the steps mentioned below fixes this error most of the time.

Start your Dell computer and immediately keep on tapping F2 to enter the BIOS.

On the left-hand side you will a General option, click on the + sign to expand the general option and select Boot Sequence.

Click on Add Boot Option located under Boot List Option.

On the pop-up window, Type in Windows Boot Manager under the Boot Option Name and type in /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI under File Name. Now click on the small box with three dots in it which is just in front of the file name as shown in the pic below. Hit OK, all the entry you entered will disappear but do not worry, hit OK. Look on the bottom right of the screen and click on Exit. Please refer to the picture shown below:

Your computer will restart now, a restart may take some time and your computer should boot to Windows. Backup all your data to avoid data loss in the future.

Make Changes With The Boot Sequence

Most of the time making changes in the boot sequence fixes the no boot issue. Start your computer and keep tapping F2 to enter the BIOS.

Expand the General option, choose the Boot Sequence. Check the Boot List Option. If the Legacy is checked, try to set it to UEFI, click on Apply on the bottom right of the screen. In a few cases, the UEFI option is grayed out. In such cases, go to the Advanced Boot Options and uncheck “Enable Legacy Option ROMs” and enable the secure boot. Make sure to click on Apply after making each change. Please refer to the picture.

Click on Exit after making the changes, the computer will restart and may boot to the Windows. If not, then go with the opposite settings, many times this has worked with many Dell users. Set the settings in the BIOS as mentioned below:

Boot List Option- Set it to Legacy

Secure Boot- Set it to Disabled or Off

Load Legacy Option ROMs – Put a check in the box to enable it.

Hit Exit to restart your PC. The computer should boot to Windows. Backup all your data to avoid data loss in the future.

Also Read: Recover Lost Data After Updating Windows 10 to Version 1903 or 1909

Recover Data From Crashed Dell System

In case none of the above steps helped you then use Windows Data Recovery which is a perfect Dell Data Recovery software to recover data in no boot situation.

Arrange the Following Beforehand

• Another Working Windows Computer
• Empty USB Flash Drive or CD/DVD
• Plugin the DVD/CD or USB drive to another Computer.

Download and install the Dell Data Recovery tool on another working computer, connect an empty USB flash drive or CD/DVD to another working computer.

Need to Create Bootable Media For Dell Computer

Launch Dell Data Recovery tool on your working computer and choose Recover from Crash Computer (Last option in the pic) and click on Start.

Now connect a blank USB flash drive or CD/DVD to the working computer and is recognized. Now click on Start.

If bootable media si connected and recognized, it will show you on the screen, select your USB or CD/DVD bootable drive and click on Create.

It will now pop up to inform you that it will format the flash drive. Make sure there is no data on the USB drive or please backup all the data in the flash drive before this process. Click on Format. 

Firmware should start downloading.

Upon complete download of firmware, it will format the bootable drive like a USB flash drive. Device format will delete all the data so make sure data is backed up.

It will initiate the creation of the bootable drive, please don’t unplug or remove the USB flash drive or CD/DVD during this process.

Bootable drive should be created after some time.

After the bootable drive is created, start the Dell crashed PC and immediately keep tapping the F12 to enter Boot Menu Screen, select the USB or CD/DVD from the list, make sure to connect the bootable USB drive or CD/DVD to the crashed computer before going to the F12 screen. Restart your Dell crashed computer and start recovering data from the Dell crashed PC.

On following the steps provided above your Dell crashed PC will become bootable, now restart your Dell crashed computer and select the hard drive where data has been lost and click on Start.

Let the scan complete, preview the data you want and hit Recover.

Once recovery is complete, save the data to a different location such as an external HDD or another storage device. Do not use the same Dell HDD where data was saved or else it will overwrite the data.

Recover Data from External Storage

In case, your system still does not boot up then you can unplug the HDD from your Dell computer and go through the steps on how to recover data from external storage provided in the link mentioned below.

Complete Tutorial to Recover Data from Dell PC

Conclusion

I hope by now you are aware of all possible options to recover data from your Dell Computer in no boot scenarios. Try all the steps provided in this article to fix no boot issue. If nothing works then it is highly recommended to use Dell Data Recovery software to recover your precious data.