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Does TestDisk have a problem working in Windows 11 (and Windows 10)?

In times past, when I would want to use 'Victoria Drive Utility' (VDU) to find/correct weak/bad sectors on external storage drives, I would:
#1 (In a laptop running Windows 7 & having a backup of the drive), I would delete the partition (VDU could not work on a drive controlled by Windows).
#2 Run VDU
#3 Recover the partition with TestDisk and it worked 99+ percent of the time.

The windows 7 laptop stopped working so I bought a new one which has Windows 11 Home.

TestDisk NOW has about a 99% failure rate at recovering partitions that I intentionally deleted.
I had 1 case where "I could see that" TestDisk found the partition (including the partition label), but TestDisk stated that there was no partition to recover (log attached).
Is there a fix or is there anything I can do?
Please advise, Thanks
Just FYI These drives are SATA HDDs connected to the laptop via a UGreen USB to SATA adaptor.
BTW I tried using TestDisk booting a Levono M92p SFF Desktop using a Win7 PE USB drive, but TestDisk just hangs. The DOS box appears, but TestDisk just hangs there and does nothing (including not creating a log).

TraceyEndUser wrote: 13 Nov 2025, 18:55 Does TestDisk have a problem working in Windows 11 (and Windows 10)?

In times past, when I would want to use 'Victoria Drive Utility' (VDU) to find/correct weak/bad sectors on external storage drives, I would:
#1 (In a laptop running Windows 7 & having a backup of the drive), I would delete the partition (VDU could not work on a drive controlled by Windows).
#2 Run VDU
#3 Recover the partition with TestDisk and it worked 99+ percent of the time.


The windows 7 laptop stopped working so I bought a new one which has Windows 11 Home.

TestDisk NOW has about a 99% failure rate at recovering partitions that I intentionally deleted.

If you suspect TestDisk being broken you should mention the TestDisk version AND platform (32 bit or 64 bit).

I had 1 case where "I could see that" TestDisk found the partition (including the partition label), but TestDisk stated that there was no partition to recover (log attached).
Is there a fix or is there anything I can do?

You did not state if you were running TestDisk as an admin.

Instead of supposing that TestDisk is faulty you could follow a physician strategy: Exclude things!
You can attach your secret adapter that I can't look up and that unfortunately does not seem to have a model name to another Win 11 machine.
Try out your other disks!
Install your disk into a desktop computer. Your supposedly cheap adapter might not have come with a proper power supply. Using a docking station is safer.

Please advise, Thanks
Just FYI These drives are SATA HDDs connected to the laptop via a UGreen USB to SATA adaptor.
BTW I tried using TestDisk booting a Levono M92p SFF Desktop using a Win7 PE USB drive, but TestDisk just hangs. The DOS box appears, but TestDisk just hangs there and does nothing (including not creating a log).

Be so kind to avoid gamer speak abbreviations when talking to me. You might not have noticed that you are signaling me that you don't want to waste your time by preparing a readable case description.

Thank you!