How to Access Your Files When You Have a Broken Computer Screen

One of the defining features of laptops is their portability. Being able to bring your computer with you and let you work in any location is one of the main hooks in getting one. However, this also opens up a notable flaw with laptops: vulnerability.

The laptop screen happens to be one of the more vulnerable parts due to its fragile materials. It happens to be one of the parts that take damage when the laptop ends up falling to the ground or hard surface.

This may happen to you. If you ever end up with a broken computer screen, you can still salvage your laptop. Today, we will at ways and steps to save your laptop despite having a broken computer screen. Let us look at these steps to help you recover your files and much more.

1. Connecting a Secondary Monitor

You can still do something with a broken or dead screen, especially with a laptop. A desktop has separate parts that can be easily replaced, such as the case for its monitors. For laptops, this would depend on the model, but this is a viable solution that you can attempt first.

Check if you have an HDMI port on your laptop. Some models would have an adaptor for HDMI cables. You can connect this to any monitor or TV that has an HDMI port.

This can act as your backup monitor before sending your laptop for repairs and replacements.

Don’t have an HDMI cable available? You can also use a VGA cable, and some would have mini-display adaptors that allow for use with VGA cables. These tend to be present in older laptop models but this also gives you a backup approach.

With this setup, you can work on backing up your files for emergency purposes.

2. Have Your External Hard Drive Ready

With a broken computer monitor, you can still work on your laptop with an external monitor as your backup display system. Despite this, you might want to have your files backed up in either an external hard drive or on cloud storage. Using an external hard drive would be much faster to address.

In this case, you can make backups for your photos, videos, and other media files. Important documents also take priority.

Some laptops would have a full backup system as in the case of the Mac OS with its Time Machine system. This helps if you happen to be using a Macbook or a laptop that runs on a Mac OS.

3. Data Recovery Services

Aside from having a backup drive ready, consider the idea of working with data recovery services. There would be cases that the monitor might not be the only damaged part. As a precautionary measure, bring your laptop to a service center to recover all the files on the computer.

They can also check for any potential issues on the hard drive. This includes the assessment of firmware damage and corruption, electrical and logical failures, bad sectors, and so on.

One way they can assess the hard drive is by having it checked and accessed on a separate computer while they fix the other components of the damaged laptop.

4. Access the Hard Drive in a Separate Computer

In the topic of data recovery, we mentioned earlier that one method for data recovery services to retrieve and back up your files is to connect and access your hard drive as an external volume.

This process also applies to desktop computers, in which you can take the hard drive and access it on a separate computer.

This helps with backing up and recovering the files stored in the hard drive. Although for this step, you will need certain components for this to work out.

This needs a USB Hard Drive Enclosure, which will allow you to use a USB cable to connect the hard drive to the computer’s USB port.

If the other computer happens to be a desktop computer, you can connect the other hard drive as an internal hard drive as well, setting it up as a secondary storage volume.

5. Programs for Data Recovery

There would also be situations when you want to check for deleted or lost files during such a situation. Use recovery programs to help you back up your files and recover the ones that got deleted by accident. This helps when you don’t have a backup on your external drives.

Otherwise, you can always seek help from professionals on data recovery and repair services. They can help you retrieve the files that you may have lost in the whole debacle, whether from external damage on the laptop or due to virus attacks.

6. Replace the Hardware

This would be the last step in the case of a broken monitor. This would be easy for desktops as you only deal with the monitor as a separate device. You can use a TV with an HDMI port for it to act as a monitor.

For laptops, you will need the help of a Service Center if the laptop model you own still falls under warranty. They can assist in backing up your data and providing you a fresh installation of your OS. As for hardware, they can replace the damaged portions, including the monitor.

Otherwise, you can also check with other capable computer repair centers. They would also have replacement laptop monitor parts, in case you prefer to take that route.

Access and Backup Your Files Despite a Broken Computer Screen

As long as you can find a backup monitor, a broken computer screen is still possible to remedy and salvage. Take action by backing up your files this way, or you can continue using the computer with this alternate monitor. Whichever the case, make sure to be ready for contingency measures for your data.

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