I have all of that (since the old partition is still intact, afaics from mounting it in a different fedora instance) but some of what you recommend needs to be running the fedora instance I can’t get in to properly, and much of the other stuff I listed is not as easy to rediscover (even if I could get back in!). But, I am trying a few more things, and have asked about specific solutions (eg convincing the boot mechanism to use another partition for /) I still want to give more of a chance to, before, in the end, I will have no choice to do something along the lines of what you suggest. Thanks again for the positive, solution-orineted approach.