I think Windows 10 OS has been deleted from HDD, can someone advise?

Hi everyone,

Last night I tried to reset Windows 10, by using the recovery feature in the settings. I saved some of the files onto a USB stick (just word documents and excel files that I wanted to keep). The reset process was taking ages, it got up to 14% within a couple of hours and then I went to bed and left it going.

I woke up this morning and it had froze, it was still on 14% and was doing nothing, I knew I had no choice but to turn the laptop off and hope it would just either carry on or at least let me go back to Windows 10 as it originally was, but I was wrong.

When I turn on the laptop it just keeps restarting and restarting and nothing happens. I tried the HDD on a different laptop and it comes up with "No operating system found" so now I'm guessing I've lost Windows 10 and will have to purchase it again?

That's one of the problems, the other problem is that I saved those files I wanted to kep on USB, but when i try to open hem on my other laptop they are .PFILES? Protected files? How can I open them or are they corrupt now as well?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I'm not familiar with .pfiles, so can't help there.

Create a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 blog

add Kyhi's recovery drive to it (read my quote in the middle of the OP in this thread:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 blog

Boot into Kyhi's recovery drive, run Macrium Reflect. Under the restore menu will be a utility to fix Windows boot problems. See if that fixes the booting problem. If it doesn't, then you are probably going to have to clean install Windows 10 by running setup.exe from the USB flash drive when booted into Kyhi's recovery with it. Here's some more tips on doing a clean install - the only difference is booting into Kyhi's recovery drive first and running setup.exe from the same USB flash drive to get Windows setup started:
Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 blog

I'm not familiar with .pfiles, so can't help there.

Create a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 blog

add Kyhi's recovery drive to it (read my quote in the middle of the OP in this thread:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 blog

Boot into Kyhi's recovery drive, run Macrium Reflect. Under the restore menu will be a utility to fix Windows boot problems. See if that fixes the booting problem. If it doesn't, then you are probably going to have to clean install Windows 10 by running setup.exe from the USB flash drive when booted into Kyhi's recovery with it. Here's some more tips on doing a clean install - the only difference is booting into Kyhi's recovery drive first and running setup.exe from the same USB flash drive to get Windows setup started:
Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 blog

Thanks for your time, appreciate it. I'm currently creating The Windows 10 installation flash drive, I've had a look at the next step, do I need a seperate flash drive for Kyhi's step?

No. Just download the ISO file for it, Mount the ISO file to get a virtual drive then copy the boot.wim file over.

That's one of the problems, the other problem is that I saved those files I wanted to kep on USB, but when i try to open hem on my other laptop they are .PFILES? Protected files? How can I open them or are they corrupt now as well?

Have a look at this link:

I'm not familiar with .pfiles, so can't help there.

Create a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 blog

add Kyhi's recovery drive to it (read my quote in the middle of the OP in this thread:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 blog

Boot into Kyhi's recovery drive, run Macrium Reflect. Under the restore menu will be a utility to fix Windows boot problems. See if that fixes the booting problem. If it doesn't, then you are probably going to have to clean install Windows 10 by running setup.exe from the USB flash drive when booted into Kyhi's recovery with it. Here's some more tips on doing a clean install - the only difference is booting into Kyhi's recovery drive first and running setup.exe from the same USB flash drive to get Windows setup started:
Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 blog

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Fixing the windows boot didn't work but after following your instructions I was able to install Windows 10 again, thank you so much for your help.

Have a look at this link:

Thanks for your time, unfortunately that didn't work for me