My computer froze while I was playing a game, and after restarting, my D: drive disappeared from File Explorer and Steam treated the game as if it were no longer installed. The drive also does not appear in Disk Management. Windows prompted me to initialize it as MBR or GPT, but I canceled because it contains important documents and I do not want to risk erasing them.
The SSD is a 256GB SanDisk drive. BIOS detects it on SATA 2, and the boot menu lists Windows Boot Manager on that drive. However, Windows only reaches the Gigabyte loading screen, shows "Preparing Automatic Repair," and then ends at a black screen with either no cursor or a visible mouse cursor.
I have tried restarting, Ctrl+Alt+Delete, Win+Ctrl+Shift+B, selecting Windows Boot Manager manually, checking BIOS SATA/RST settings, and interrupting startup to trigger Windows Recovery. None of that has brought up the recovery options. I have not initialized, formatted, repartitioned, reinstalled Windows, or run CHKDSK. I also cannot currently open the case to reseat the SSD, and I do not have a usable spare USB drive for recovery media.
What is the safest way to recover the files and eventually get Windows working again without making the drive contents worse?
1 Answer
Do not initialize the disk yet. That can overwrite information Windows needs to identify the existing partitions. Since BIOS can still see the SanDisk SSD, the drive may still be readable even though Windows is having trouble with its partition information or boot files.
The safest priority is recovering the important documents before attempting Windows repairs. Borrow or obtain a blank USB drive, create a Linux Mint or Ubuntu live USB on another computer, and boot this PC from it. From the live desktop, check whether the SSD and its partitions appear in the file manager or GParted. If they do, copy the important files to a separate drive immediately rather than modifying the original disk.
If Linux also cannot identify the partition, try TestDisk from the live environment. It can scan for lost partition structures without writing changes unless you explicitly confirm a repair. Once the files are backed up, you can troubleshoot the Windows installation with much less risk.
Take it one step at a time, and avoid agreeing to initialize, format, or repair anything until the important files are copied elsewhere.
I’ll try that. Thank you for explaining the safest order to handle this—I really appreciate the help.