How to Transfer Files Off a Laptop Without the OS
Whether you're dealing with a functional hard drive in a non-functional laptop or just a malfunctioning operating system, you can still retrieve your files without engaging the primary OS. If the computer is working, you can use a live USB to access the hard drive. The other option is to remove your hard drive from your laptop and use an enclosure to access it as an external hard drive.
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Live USB
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A popular method for testing Linux distributions, you can install a whole operating system on a USB drive and run it without making any changes to your computer. The trick to this is that you'll need a secondary computer to download the ISO file for a live system and then install it on a USB drive. Lincoln Spector of PCWorld recommends using Puppy Linux with Universal USB Installer. Once you're running your live session, you can either use a secondary USB drive to copy files from the internal hard drive or you can connect to the Internet and upload your files to a cloud storage service.
Hard Drive Enclosure
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Another solution is to remove the hard drive from the laptop and put it into an enclosure. You can purchase an enclosure at any major computer retailer both offline and online, but you will need to know what sort of hard drive your laptop uses. Your laptop likely uses a 2.5" SATA drive -- but check your manufacturer's website to be sure before purchasing any hardware. Once you've installed the hard drive in the enclosure, you can access your hard drive via USB like any other external media and copy files onto another computer.
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Choosing a Method
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If you're not comfortable opening up your laptop, or you have a laptop that does not offer easy access to the hard drive, using a live USB may be easier. It's also cheaper, as most people have spare USB drives laying around. However, the ISO files required to create a live USB are large -- often several hundred megabytes -- so you may not be able to download it via a public connection if you don't have a secondary computer available.
Warnings
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There's no guarantee that files can be recovered from a malfunctioning laptop. If the operating system isn't working on your old laptop, there's a good chance that the hard drive is failing. All hard drives fail with time, and in laptops, the sort of movement (and drops) that accompany portability can cause the moving parts in a hard drive to break. If you hear any clicking when you use the hard drive, it may be a sign of oncoming failure.
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References
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