On Sunday my C Drive took a crap.  Wouldn't boot.  Tried repairing
it with the Win 10 install, but wouldn't work.  Now I'm dreading the
SEVERAL DAYS of reinstalling programs...So I pulled my C Drive, which
is a 128 GB SSD, out, and put my new 1 TB empty drive in and did a fresh
install of Win 10.  Once that was up and running I installed my C Drive
into my docking cradle and checked it.  Everything was still there, but somehow
the Boot Sector had been wiped...so I backed up all my C Drive info and then
wiped the drive, did a fresh install of Win 10, then restored my backup and
everything is kosher again!

Moral of the story?  ALWAYS back up...at least once a week...

What you went through is everybody's nightmare.....
 
I have an SSD that's about 3 years old and not knowing how long it's going to hold up, does concern me. Once a month I do have Acronis doing a backup, but still, I dread this happening.
 
Glad to hear you're up an running (pretty quickly too). :) 

Yep...I was ready to cry because I had NOT backed up....
I got REALLY lucky in that the C Drive was intact, and it
was only the boot sector that had been hit...

I've learned my lesson!

Glad you recovered it all, but sorry you had to go through all that! I did a planned clean install of Win 10 and that was bad enough.

Was your SSD shot?

BassDaddy
Was your SSD shot?

No...it was perfectly fine...just had to "redo" it....

The MBR got wasted...how I have no idea...I just
"rebulit" it with the Win 10 Install and then restored it...

Glad you got it all back Larry, but I would never be able to trust that SSD again if it happened to me.
 
bitflipper's ordeal pushed to get my backup house in order.  I run weekly full backups of EVERYTHING with nightly differentials in between.  All to external drives so I can take them with me in a lockbox.
 
I also have a nightly job that backs up project data to a different external drive for a 3rd copy.
 
 

I don't think it was the SSD Bob.  I had recently ran an older installer...and I think
that might have done the damage...because everything is working perfectly fine
after the wipe and restore...

bring back floppy disks!
:)

you could make a windows recovery or system repair disk...
http://www.howtogeek.com/131907/how-to-create-and-use-a-recovery-drive-or-system-repair-disc-in-windows-8/
 
the advance repair option may have fixed the boot sector or files...
 
I built one and have it on a 4Gb USB in the drawer if I ever need it... but I also have backups.