Windows won’t start or keeps restarting — answered by Engineer Saeed Baatiah
Before anything: unplug everything except the monitor and keyboard — a USB stick or external drive can make the machine try to boot from it. Then try booting into Safe Mode. If Safe Mode works, the problem is a recent program or driver rather than hardware, and that is fixable. And most important: **do not accept a system reinstall before your files are pulled off** — anyone proposing a format first is selling you their easiest fix rather than your best one.
Start with the cheapest possibility: unplug everything except the monitor and keyboard. A USB stick, an external drive, even a card reader can make the machine try to boot from it and stall — an extremely common case, solved in a second, and frequently paid for. Then disconnect power entirely for a full minute (and remove the battery if it is removable) before powering on again.
Then Safe Mode, the most valuable diagnostic test available to you: if the machine boots into Safe Mode, the hardware is sound and the problem is a recent program or driver — a category fixable without data loss. If it will not boot into Safe Mode either, the likelihood shifts toward hardware or corrupted system files, and that needs examination rather than experimentation.
And the rule that protects your data: **do not accept a reinstall or a format before your files are pulled off**. Extracting files from a non-booting machine’s disk is possible in most cases — the disk is attached to another machine, or booted from a USB stick. Anyone proposing a format as the first solution is offering their easiest fix rather than your best one, and this is how most people lose their data at repair shops.
- Unplug everything but monitor and keyboard — a very common cause
- Safe Mode works? The problem is software or a driver, not hardware
- Never accept a format before your files are extracted — usually possible