Dell Win 8.1 desktop won't boot - where has the user data gone!

[neil]

What you found the the found.000 folder the the broken chains that weren't lost. But, there still is question of what is missing and what caused the MFT corruption in the first place?

I know that the drive was imaged (without any errors?) and passed basic tests. But, I'm still suspicious of the physical hard drive.

A fair comment, and had I not been under time pressure to get the system back for Monday morning early, I would have done more tests on the drive. As it was, more in-depth testing of a 1TB drive is not a quick process and so it went back as it was. The image (two actually) copied without errors.

Looks like I'll be getting a follow up call to put in place some back up. Although he got his data back, there was still the matter of setting up the system again after a fresh install so there was enough pain in that to get his attention. If the HD does eventually die, hopefully the backup will bail him out.

Thanks again to all who commented in this thread.

Neil