After you repair, upgrade or reinstall Windows XP, you might lose your critical data, which is stored in All Users folder, and may lose default settings and program templates that you have stored in Default User Folder. Also Startup group items, Start menu shortcuts, pictures, music or documents, which are saved in Shared Documents folder, might be missing. At this point of time, you may also lose your hard drive partitions if you have used Dynamic Partitioning. And in case, if you haven’t partitioned the hard drive, all of your critical data may get lost.

This problem could occur after you repair, upgrade or reinstall Windows XP on the computer, which has Microsoft Windows XP preinstalled by the computer manufacturer (also known as OEM or Original Equipment Manufacturer).

Cause

You might experience this behavior if Undo_guimode.txt file is still there in Windows/System32 directory on hard drive of your computer that has Windows XP preinstalled by the manufacturer when you perform any of the above mentioned tasks. It is a wizard file that is created when you first start your computer.

This file is created by the OEM OOBE (Out-of-Box Experience) when it shouldn’t be. It should be used by GUI-mode Setup only when the Setup restarts. After OOBE makes this file, during upgrade, repair or reinstall, it sees the file and assumes that this is restarting Setup and removes the profiles, partitions and data from your hard drive.

Resolution

There are two possible salutations are available to fix this issue. These are:

o If you want to stop this problem from being occurred in future, obtain latest service pack of Windows XP.

o If you wish to recover your lost partitions and data from them, go for Partition Recovery.

Partition Recovery is the procedure of scanning your affected hard drive, locating lost partitions and then retrieving them. It can easily and automatically be performed using Partition Recovery Software. Stellar PhoenixWindows Data Recovery software is a tool that can carry out a safe, automated and efficient Partition Recovery for you in all cases. It works well with FAT and NTFS file systems. Phoenix Partition Recovery is compatible with all versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

Author:-K MADHAV
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