NTFS turned RAW after dual boot, DMDE recovered files but .aseprite/.PNG/.JPG corrupted – any chance to recover?
Here’s the situation:
I was trying to set up a dual boot system with a friend — Windows and Bazzite (Linux) on two separate drives.
The C drive already had Windows installed, and we created a new partition (150GB) from a 1TB D drive to install Linux (which became the L drive).
Before doing anything, we created a restore point in Windows. Everything seemed fine.
However, after booting into Linux and then restarting the computer to check if everything worked properly, Windows would no longer boot.
We spent around 9 hours trying to figure out what went wrong, and it turns out that the NTFS signature and MFT are completely corrupted, and the entire C partition is now shown as RAW.
I wouldn’t have a problem reinstalling Windows, but I really need to recover my .aseprite files. I cannot realistically recreate those assets 1:1 — they are sprites for a game I’m working on.
I tried using DMDE to copy files to my working D partition. The process seemed to go relatively smoothly, and I managed to recover copies of .aseprite and .blend files (the latter are less critical, but still useful).
However, after trying to open them, it turned out that most of the files are corrupted — they won’t open in any program, including PNG and .aseprite files.
Right now, I’m trying another approach in DMDE: scanning both NTFS and RAW instead of NTFS only, but I’m not sure if this will help.
My guess is that the issue might have started when Windows reported that the restore point was successfully created, but something actually went wrong, and restarting the system caused the corruption.
(The entire text was translated using AI so I could explain the situation as clearly as possible in my own language.)