systemtest

One would need to research the density and durability of the nand cache. This may be entirely different than what is used in the cheap consumer grade SSDs. This may be large geometry and SLC, thus it would have billions of write cycles. It has to!

Each .jpg has a small tiny .jpg within itself. This is the preview information. Sounds like rest of the file has not been correctly recovered due to a multitude of reasons.

Regardless of how "safe" ccleaner is purported to be, it's best to have some kind of fallback position when running it for the first time. Happy to see you got out of the mess unscathed.

Disk imaging is a good thing. Install folders are good things.

Curious. Since there is no safe NTFS facility to do it, but ccleaner does it while working in/under NTFS; one can conclude that CCleaner is unsafe.

Bad advice. I could never advocate getting rid of system discs in any situation. If they bother you, put them aside in the closet.