On Sun, Jun 9, 2024 at 6:41 PM Michael via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
thank you so much. I have a problem with the request though. I only have windows now running ubuntu through wsl and I am not well versed through the command line. Could you give me some further direction?

Use a Live System CD (https://www.system-rescue.org/Download/).  
Flash the .iso image to a USB pen drive and boot from it.  It has all the system rescue tools.
It boots giving you a bash shell with root privileges; tread carefully and don't do anything that you don't understand

You will need:
1. lsblk to see all the block devices and the partitions on it -- let's say your device is /dev/sdb
2. smartctl to dump the SMART parameters of your drive e.g. sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb
3. parted to list the partition details e.g. sudo parted -l to list the partition details of all the block devices (see below -- sample output from my laptop)
4. Depending on the file system, you must use the appropriate recovery tool.  If it is NTFS then follow the instructions on the screenshot you have posted.

Good luck.

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$ sudo parted -l 
Model: ATA ST2000LX001-1RG1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  274MB   273MB   fat32           EFI system partition          boot, hidden, esp
 2      274MB   290MB   16.8MB                  Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      290MB   255GB   255GB                   Basic data partition          msftdata
 4      255GB   256GB   1049MB  ntfs            Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 7      256GB   291GB   34.6GB  xfs             kubuntu_2404
 5      291GB   299GB   8598MB  linux-swap(v1)                                swap
 6      299GB   2000GB  1701GB  xfs


Model: Lexar USB Flash Drive (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  16.0GB  16.0GB  primary  fat32        lba

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