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My relatively new, up-to-date, perfectly operational, well maintained Windows 11 Dell laptop froze up and became unresponsive 3 days ago. After restarting it, it failed to boot all the way, and just kept giving me the desktop with no start menu, no taskbar and task manager was not working so I couldn't do anything. It would, however boot into safe mode. I used that to enter the Windows Recovery Environment and opened up an elevated command prompt. At the instruction of a tech assistant, I was told I needed to delete then rebuild the boot partition. So following those instructions, I went into DISKPART and selected the small 650mb boot volume, then hit "CLEAN". I was told that this would only delete that one tiny partition on at 1TB hard drive - where the vast majority was free space as well as all of my vital, essential, personal files, documents, photos, videos, etc...AND the main Windows 11 installation all lived on an approximately 900GB NTFS partition volume which I expected to remain intact.

Well, it turns out that CLEAN removes the entire partition table for the entire disk, even when you have selected one volume on that whole disk. This would have been nice to have been told in advance.

For the last 3 days and nights, every waking hour has been spent trying to fix/recover the partition table - so that I can get my files and data back from the main volume. To that end, I have downloaded TESTDISK onto a USB flash drive using another working Windows 10 computer and then booted the problematic PC using a different Windows USB bootable to enter the WRE again - and am currently running (from an elevated command prompt) the TESTDISK program. It is supposed to be able to locate and restore the partitions which used to be there. It is currently 81% finished, but has only found 1 small EFI System partition - not the one I am interested in.

If anyone has any knowledge, experience or advice for the situation I am facing, and can offer some guidance for what else I can try if this program doesn't work - I'd really appreciate it. I haven't slept for 4 nights because my whole life is on that hard drive and I rely on it for everything.

Thanks.

DJ44 wrote: 10 Feb 2025, 17:45 My relatively new,

Folks, be specific. What is "relatively new"?

up-to-date, perfectly operational, well maintained Windows 11 Dell laptop froze up and became unresponsive 3 days ago. After restarting it, it failed to boot all the way, and just kept giving me the desktop with no start menu, no taskbar and task manager was not working so I couldn't do anything.

Not even holding the windows key and pressing e to start explorer?

It would, however boot into safe mode.

Wrong procedure. Boot a linux pen drive, run smartmontools. Alternative: Remove disk and connect it to another machine. Run smartmontools from that machine.
Behave like a doctor: Exclude stuff - by checking disk diagnostics called SMART. If there hade been no issue you still could have proceeded with your strategy. Otherwise, you could have cloned your disk as described in the TestDisk manual.

I used that to enter the Windows Recovery Environment and opened up an elevated command prompt. At the instruction of a tech assistant,

Where did that tech assistant come from? I smell a rat.

I was told I needed to delete then rebuild the boot partition. So following those instructions, I went into DISKPART and selected the small 650mb boot volume, then hit "CLEAN". I was told that this would only delete that one tiny partition on at 1TB hard drive - where the vast majority was free space as well as all of my vital, essential, personal files, documents, photos, videos, etc...AND the main Windows 11 installation all lived on an approximately 900GB NTFS partition volume which I expected to remain intact.

Well, it turns out that CLEAN removes the entire partition table for the entire disk, even when you have selected one volume on that whole disk. This would have been nice to have been told in advance.

For the last 3 days and nights, every waking hour has been spent trying to fix/recover the partition table - so that I can get my files and data back from the main volume. To that end, I have downloaded TESTDISK onto a USB flash drive using another working Windows 10 computer and then booted the problematic PC using a different Windows USB bootable to enter the WRE again - and am currently running (from an elevated command prompt) the TESTDISK program. It is supposed to be able to locate and restore the partitions which used to be there. It is currently 81% finished, but has only found 1 small EFI System partition - not the one I am interested in.

Have you had any full disk encryption product installed, such as Truecrypt, Veracrypt or some commercial product? After 81% you should have found at least one partition. Is your "hard disk" a HDD or an SSD?

If anyone has any knowledge, experience or advice for the situation I am facing, and can offer some guidance for what else I can try if this program doesn't work - I'd really appreciate it. I haven't slept for 4 nights because my whole life is on that hard drive and I rely on it for everything.

I would recommend you contacting a professional recovery lab given the importance of your data.

I am having to do everything in a public library with limited time. Testdisk initial analyze scan completed and found 4 of 5 partitions - but all four it found were tiny and unimportant - not the main 850GB one with all of my files and the main Windows 11 installation. However, I did not know this at the time the results came back - and the results screen was extremely difficult for me to see, so when I saw that it found the partitions, I selected WRITE.

So now I have a different problem. I am repeating what I did yesterday, except running a deep scan. My questions for this forum are limited to what I can do given my current situation using the Testdisk program I have on a USB flash drive. Are all of my important files on the enormous/main partition that was not found still all there on the hard drive? Is there any way to undo what was done yesterday, and/or have the partition which was NOT found yesterday found by doing something else? I have researched the Photorec option, however given my current parameters, that would be almost impossible as it would require tools to remove the hard drive, then buying a SATA/USB external connector and even then my understanding is if it worked, would return thousands of numbered files sorted by type.

What can I do with testdisk on my USB drive while the hard drive is still in the laptop? I have windows bootable media on a different USB which is how I was able to get to a command prompt to run Testdisk.

DJ44 wrote: 11 Feb 2025, 16:00 I am having to do everything in a public library with limited time.

Testdisk initial analyze scan completed and found 4 of 5 partitions - but all four it found were tiny and unimportant - not the main 850GB one with all of my files and the main Windows 11 installation. However, I did not know this at the time the results came back - and the results screen was extremely difficult for me to see, so when I saw that it found the partitions, I selected WRITE.

So now I have a different problem. I am repeating what I did yesterday, except running a deep scan. My questions for this forum are limited to what I can do given my current situation using the Testdisk program I have on a USB flash drive. Are all of my important files on the enormous/main partition that was not found still all there on the hard drive?

How should I know where you put your files?!

Is there any way to undo

No, there is no "undo".

what was done yesterday, and/or have the partition which was NOT found yesterday found by doing something else? I have researched the Photorec option, however given my current parameters, that would be almost impossible as it would require tools to remove the hard drive,

No, you can run Photorec the same way you ran TestDisk from your USB pen drive. You just need to connect a disk with sufficient free space to your machine.

then buying a SATA/USB external connector

As opposed to more reliable devices such as docking stations, SATA/USB external connectors do typically do not have a reliable power supply.

and even then my understanding is if it worked, would return thousands of numbered files sorted by type.

No, unsorted.

What can I do with testdisk on my USB drive while the hard drive is still in the laptop? I have windows bootable media on a different USB which is how I was able to get to a command prompt to run Testdisk.

You do not have an adequate recovery environment. Your efforts are prone to fail. Now you talking about "Limited time in a public library",
before it was "For the last 3 days and nights, every waking hour has been spent trying to fix/recover the partition table". Where is that library that is opened 3 days and nights continuously? These contradictions really undermine the credibility of your statements.
I don't know what your "inability to view results on a screen" means, are you lacking glasses or for what reason can't you read the content of a screen?
You are telling stories that are impossible to believe to me.

It seems that you cannot run a TestDisk deep scan due to time restrictions. Currently you do not seem to have external storage to clone your possibly dammaged disk.
So far you ignored my advice. Instead you are trying to go for an imaginary quick fix.

Smartmontools, as recommend above, takes a moment to run.
ddrescue can be interrupted and restarted when using the map file feature (log file).
Photorec can be stopped and restarted, too, but is only the tool of last resort.

The partition search of TestDisk, though, once interrupted, cannot be continued where you interrupted it.

Unfortunately you ignored my questions, so far.

You are disregarding the fact that your disk may be dammaged and that using TestDisk will dammage it even more.
You want to recover data in an unbearable working environment.
You are providing contradictory statements.
You are asking me where your data is located.

All this is confirming my opinion that you should rely on external help.