I have a Windows PC with two physical drives: a nearly full C: drive and a second SSD that was over 500 GB and mostly contained games from Steam and Epic. After taking the PC in for port and freezing problems, Windows started repairing the second drive during boot. Once Windows loaded, the drive letter had changed from G: to D:, some files were missing, and one manually installed game only had a few files left. Windows also reported that the recycle bin on that drive was corrupted and repeatedly asked to empty it. Epic detected that its games needed repair, but it was looking for the old drive letter. The drive is still visible, but Windows now reports only about 89 GB instead of roughly 500 GB. What could have caused this, and what should I do?
2 Answers
First verify that you are looking at the correct physical drive, not an 89 GB partition or another disk. In Disk Management, compare the disk model and total capacity with the SSD you originally used. If the remaining space is unallocated, do not create a new volume over it. If the full capacity is present but the filesystem is damaged, recovery tools may be able to locate the old files, but every write to the drive lowers the chance of recovery. Once the data is safe, you can assign the original letter G: again and point Steam or Epic back to the existing library folders; that is separate from recovering the missing files.
Changing G: to D: would only change the path; it would not delete files or reduce the drive's capacity. The more serious clues are the automatic repair, corrupted recycle bin, missing files, and the drive now appearing to be only 89 GB. That could mean the wrong partition is being viewed, the partition table or filesystem was damaged, or the SSD itself is failing. Open Disk Management and check the physical disk's total size, partitions, and whether any space is shown as unallocated. Do not initialize, format, run more repairs, reinstall games, or write new data to it until you know what happened. If the missing files matter, shut the computer down and use a professional data-recovery service or make a sector-by-sector image with suitable recovery software. Also ask the repair shop exactly what hardware they changed and whether they reinstalled Windows or altered the drive partitions.
The drive-letter change may explain why Epic cannot find the games, but it does not explain the missing capacity. If Disk Management shows the full SSD with an 89 GB partition and the rest unallocated, the partition layout was changed. If the entire physical disk reports around 89 GB, check the SSD model and connections because it may be the wrong disk or a hardware problem.