Emergency Boot Kit: Backup and restore files without Windows

Emergency Boot Kit File Manager can copy files from your computer, even unbootable one, to external USB thumbdrive or USB HDD. Save your data in emergency situation when Windows no longer boots.

Supported filesystem types: FAT, NTFS, EXT2/EXT3, ISO9660, UDF and BSD UFS; Unicode is fully supported for all of them. Builtin editor and viewer for text files can handle numerous ANSI/OEM encodings and UTF-8/UTF-16. Removable disks e.g. USB and Firewire are mounted and dismounted automatically, like floppy disks in Windows.

Example: Saving Files From Unbootable Computer With Emergency Boot Kit

Boot in Emergency Boot Kit, choose "File Manager" in the main menu.

1. Choose target folder
Open the drive you are going to backup to, in the one of file manager panels. To do this, press Alt+F1 key.
In popup window choose target drive using ↑ (UP) and ↓ (DOWN) keys, then Enter or by clicking it.
The following screenshot shows choosing of drive E: (USB flash thumbdrive).

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Choose target drive
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Choose target drive

Left panel should display contents of chosen drive. In this example, it shows contents of drive E:.

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Choose target folder
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Choose target folder

If target folder already exists, enter into it in file manager. If this folder is non-empty, delete its contents or use some other folder for backup.
If backup drive does not yet contain target folder, then you may create it (F7).

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Create target folder
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Create target folder

2. Select files and folders to backup from the source disk
In another panel of file manager, choose source drive for backup. Press Alt+F2 to do this.
In popup window choose desired drive using ↑ (UP) and ↓ (DOWN) keys, then Enter or by clicking it. The following screenshot shows choosing of drive C:

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Choose source drive
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Choose source drive

Right panel shows contents of chosen drive. You may navigate to desired subfolder using ↑ (UP), ↓ (DOWN) and Enter keys. (Tab key changes active panel.)

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Choose source folder
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Choose source folder

Select files and folders to backup (on right panel). Use Ins key to mark them yellow, also you can use NumpadPlus and NumpadMinus to mark/unmark by file name mask like *.docx.
The following screenshot shows right panel with selected files, ready for backup.

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Ready for backup
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Ready for backup

3. Start backup process
To copy selected files and folders (right panel of file manager in this example) to destination folder on the backup drive (left panel in this example) press F5 key, while right panel is active (Tab key changes active panel).
A popup window should occur. Press Enter key or click Copy in popup window to confirm target path.

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Confirm backup
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Confirm backup

Backup process should start immediately. You should see progress window showing information about files being copied.
If you backup to removable media, like USB flash, you should see asterisk on yellow background in the right bottom corner of your screen.
Asterisk shows that removable device is in use now and you should not unplug or eject it.
Wait until asterisk disappears and then unplug device or eject the disk. If you fail to do so, data loss may occur.
If you want to interrupt file copying, press F10 or Esc.

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Backup progress
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Backup progress

When copying is done, progress window disappears.
The last screenshot shows contents of System_backup folder of drive E: after backup.

Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Backup done
Save Files with Emergency Boot Kit - Backup done

Example: Builtin text editor and viewer

Emergency Boot Kit File Manager contains builtin text viewer (press F3 to invoke it) and builtin text editor (presss F4 to invoke it). Both tools fully support Unicode. Screenshot shows copying of rectangular text block:

Emergency Boot Kit - Internal Text Editor
Emergency Boot Kit - Internal Text Editor