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I am following through the steps listed in the manual to repair NTFS boot sector. Testdisk is able to list all the files when I select the "List" option. Nevertheless, I am stuck after that. I press "q" to quit, hoping to find a "Write" option, but I am unable to find in the menu. Where is it located, and under which submenu, since I can't find an option that says "Write". I am using the testdisk.exe as an administrator.

The manual mentions these steps next:
If testdisk is able to list your files, choose
• quit the file listing
• choose Write
• confirm
• Quit

Is the NTFS boot sector listed as bad ? If it's the case, choose BackupBS, confirm and Quit
If it's OK, run "cmd" (right click run as administrator) and "chkdsk /d d:" (replace d: by the correct drive letter)

Hello cgrenier, thanks for this swift reply!

No, the NTFS sector is listed as:

Boot sector
Status: OK
Backup boot sector
Status: OK
Sectors are identical.
A valid NTFS Boot sector must be present in order to access any data; even if the partition is not bootable.

(But, I cannot boot the hard drive. It shows up in my File Explorer but doesn't show any partly-green-filled bar alongside indicating the space occupied.)

Now, I did run "chkdsk /f g:" for a day, and it is taking forever to run. After about 15 hours of execution, I got the ETA as 244 hours!
Meanwhile, the command threw up hundreds of lines of "File record segment 41BF is unreadable." Is it still possible to get my data from the hard drive or it's dead and I should order a replacement? I am so tensed.

Would there be a difference in "chkdsk /f" and "chkdsk /d", or that would also take ages to run? (I am running 9th Gen Intel i7 processor, so I think that the processor is not the bottleneck.)

Looking forward to your reply.

I just ran "chkdsk /d g:" and it threw up an error - "Invalid parameter - /d". Which parameter should I use to just fix the filesystem on the hard drive?

Or would it be faster if I quick-formatted the hard disk and then used photorec to recover the files? Or would you recommend against it?

Duplicate your drive with ddrescue. Lots of broken sectors may cause your delays.
Use smartmontools or Crystaldiskinfo to check the health of your drive.

I am on Windows 10, and I don't have any laptop with Ubuntu installed. Moreover, I do not have another spare HDD to copy all my data onto. Are there any other options?

I ran "chkdsk /d g:" and it threw up an error - "Invalid parameter - /d". Which parameter should I use to just fix the filesystem on the hard drive? Is it "chkdsk /f g:"? I did run "chkdsk /f g:", and after about 15 hours of execution, I was still getting the ETA as 244 hours!

Is it faster if I quick-format the hard disk and then used photorec to recover the files? Or would you recommend against it?

Lastly, I also tried to copy the files off the testdisk utility, and it always showed the error (in red) saying that the files were unable to be copied.

Is it still possible to get my data from the hard drive or it's dead?

darshan wrote: 16 Mar 2020, 11:20 I am on Windows 10, and I don't have any laptop with Ubuntu installed. Moreover, I do not have another spare HDD to copy all my data onto. Are there any other options?

No.

I ran "chkdsk /d g:" and it threw up an error - "Invalid parameter - /d". Which parameter should I use to just fix the filesystem on the hard drive? Is it "chkdsk /f g:"? I did run "chkdsk /f g:", and after about 15 hours of execution, I was still getting the ETA as 244 hours!

Is it faster if I quick-format the hard disk and then used photorec to recover the files? Or would you recommend against it?

A quick format does not solve anything but it destroys data.

Lastly, I also tried to copy the files off the testdisk utility, and it always showed the error (in red) saying that the files were unable to be copied.

Is it still possible to get my data from the hard drive or it's dead?

Maybe. If you continue as you did before you will likely increase the dammage.

cgrenier wrote: 15 Mar 2020, 18:45 If it's OK, run "cmd" (right click run as administrator) and "chkdsk /d d:" (replace d: by the correct drive letter)

Hello, I ran the command "chkdsk /f g:" and when the whole command was executed, it still hasn't resolved my issue. My disk is still not working. It is being recognized, but when I click on it, the file explorer keeps loading that green progress bar in the address bar and hangs.
Please tell me the solution I am really worried

There is nothing to add.
Given your constraints there is a good chance to even minimize the chances of a professional service.
Good luck!