Hi,

Sorry for any formatting issues due to using my cellphone for all of this. Also sorry if this is not the right sub for this, but I kinda need help urgently and you’re in the same time zone. If you know another subreddit that could help me with this, don’t hesitate to post it in the comments. Thanks!).

The situation: am a freelance subtitler with two deadlines due on Monday. All my subtitle files are stored on OneDrive, but the video files are stored locally, because the software doesn’t handle cloud-stored video files as well. I had planned on working this weekend. I have a Lenovo Legion 5 with the necessary software. I worked until 6 today, closed my laptop (was still connected to power source), made dinner, ate, relaxed a bit and then wanted to check some things so I took the laptop to the couch. The laptop was unresponsive, though the power source light turned on when I connected the cable (it’s an official lenovo charger).

I looked up some articles, and one suggested disconnecting the charger, holding the power button for 30 seconds, then reconnecting the charger and trying to start it up. Didn’t work. Same thing, but holding the power button for 60 seconds, didn’t work either.

Saw an article mentioning the novo button, so I looked up what that did, and decided to push jt. The laptop flickered to life and I was able to choose recovery mode. After that, I watched [this video](https://youtu.be/IgdAzvBcJyo) about how to use the command screen to make everything work again without losing your files.

I followed his steps, but after 4:54 (so after the command lines ‘CD regback’ and ‘dir’, I got this result:

Volume in drive C is Windows-SSD
Volume Serial number is xxxx-xxxx

Directory of C:\Windows\system32\config\RegBack

7-12-2019 10:14 <DIR> .
7-12-2019 10:14 <DIR> ..

0 files 0 bytes
2 Dir(s) 432.831.098.880 bytes

The line before the last one is important, as the guy in the video says that his trick doesn’t work if it says 0 bytes. He recommends doing a system restore, but I don’t know what my next step should be. I’m terrified I’ll exit this command screen and have an empty laptop without files.

On the other hand, I have a 1tb SSD, and I know I had about 430 gb of free space, so I hope that last command line is a sign that my files are still on there somewhere.

If anyone knows the best way to move forward in a way that restores my laptop to how it was before it shut down, with my files, applications and settings intact, I’ll be forever grateful, and yes, I should probably look into a kind of Time Machine backup for windows.

2 comments

  1. It’s more of a r/techsupport question, but there’s a few things you can try first:

    1. Do a System File Check using the sfc tool. It can be used at the Advanced Startup stage as you can’t boot into Windows.
    Do the Advanced Startup as you did for opening the Command Prompt.
    Follow the instructions mentioned under the “HOW TO REPAIR WINDOWS 10 FROM SYSTEM FILE CHECKER OFFLINE” of this [article.](https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-sfc-scannow-command-fix-problems-windows-10)

    If you still can’t boot into Windows, then:
    2. Try a System Restore from the Advanced Startup options, but it will only work if you had System Restore enabled previously and it created restore points recently. Worth a try.

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