Windows XP, one of the most popular operating system, comes in Home edition and Professional edition. Users have the option to choose the edition they want. But, laptops come preloaded with the Windows edition which the computer manufacturers choose to install. However, users can always install another edition of Windows. But what if all the data that had been stored on your hard drive gets lost when you change the edition of your favorite Windows operating system. Well, you will have to opt for Windows Data Recovery using the most updated backup. But if the backup is unavailable, don't worry, you can use Partition Recovery Software .

Consider you buy a new laptop that came pre-installed with Windows XP Home Edition. After a few months, you find it necessary to upgrade the operating system with the retail version of Windows XP professional. After successful upgrade, when you start working on your system, you find that the Start Menu shortcuts are unavailable. What's more, all the files in the Shared Documents folder are missing. Further, the default program templates and setting stored in the Default and All users folder too are not there. And you wonder, what could possibly be wrong?

While upgrading all these files have been deleted by the upgrade wizard.
Technical Specifications

There is a file in the System32 folder of the Windows XP computer. This file was created by the computer manufacturer's Out-of-box Experience Wizard that runs immediately after starting any computer that was pre-installed with Windows XP. Actually this file should only be used by GUI-mode setup when the setup restarts. After creation of this file by the wizard, when upgrade is performed by the setup, it checks this file and analyzes that it needs to restart the setup as well. Owing to this, it deletes the above mentioned files.

Resolution:

Sorting this problem is easy with the backups in place. Just restore the missing data and program shortcuts. However, if you do not have a backup, then it is a cause of concern, as you will need to look for Windows Recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a robust software for recovering lost , deleted or formatted files from any storage media, including, USB flash drives, external hard drives, memory cards, and so on. Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000, this Partition Recovery software supports recovery of more than 185 different file formats from different file systems including FAT, exFAT, and NTFS.

Author:- K MADHAV

Windows users usually implement dynamic disk when they need to span a volume across multiple disks. As the name suggests, dynamic disks are meant to provide dynamic storage environment. However, similar to basic disks, if the file system of dynamic disk gets corrupt, it either starts behaving abnormally or becomes completely inaccessible to the user. The present discussion represents one of such scenarios together with Partition Recovery methods that can be implemented to extract the possible data.

Consider a realistic case when you use a Windows-based computer with a dynamic disk. The disk contains important files and folders that you cannot afford to lose. Then, suddenly you observe that a dynamic volume starts showing its start as 'Failed'. The volumes can no longer be started and accessed. Consequently, you cannot view or open the various files and folders stored on this volume.

Explanation

Such instances usually indicate data loss, however, the common causes for 'Failed' dynamic volume are:

You cannot start the dynamic volume automatically The dynamic disk is damaged The file system of dynamic volume is corrupt

User Action

Users need to perform the following action if they encounter a dynamic volume that shows its status as 'Failed':

Make sure that the underlying disks for dynamic volume are online. Return the disk status to 'Online' if they are not online

If the dynamic volume fails to come to 'Healthy' status even if the dynamic disk has returned to 'Online' status, you should reactivate the dynamic volume manually. The dynamic volume can be a RAID-5 or mirrored volume with some previous data. If this is the case, you should bring back the disks containing recent data online or restart the volume manually

Run chkdsk.exe on your dynamic volume if all the above measures fail. The last option to solve the problem of corrupted dynamic volume is to recreate it and restore the deleted data from backup.

At times, the data backup is either absent or you fail to restore from it. In such situations, use a Windows Data Recovery tool. These are exclusive Partition Recovery tools designed to scan and locate lost/missing partitions or volumes from Windows based disks.

Windows systems not booting is a common and old problem that never goes away. While the reasons for such problem might differ from situation to situation, the most persistent cause is file system corruption. Damage of file system (either FAT or NTFS) installed on a Windows based hard drive primarily occurs due to improper system shutdown, virus infection, operating system malfunction, and more similar reasons. Since, the system becomes unbootable after file system damage, all the files and folders saved on your hard drive become inaccessible. In such cases, if the user needs to repair the corrupted file system, then s/he can run CHKDSK command with suitable repair clause. However, if the command fails, and you have not maintained any backup, then the user can only access its hard drive data by using a commercial Hard Drive Recovery Software.

Consider a practical case, where you encounter the below error message while trying to startup your Windows XP based system:

“STOP 0x000000ED (0xaaaaaaaa,0xbbbbbbbb,0xcccccccc,0xdddddddd) UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME” The four parameter fields in the above error message change as per system's configuration.

After the above STOP error message pops up, the system becomes unbootable, rendering to inaccessibility of hard drive data. In addition, the same error message appears every time you try to start your system.

Cause:

The root cause for the occurrence of the above error message is corruption in file system. The message can also be caused due to damage in UDMA cable.

Resolution:

To resolve the above STOP error message and access the data, you will need to take below actions:

1.Replace the UDMA cable with an 80-wire cable. 2.In case of file system corruption, run CHKDSK/ R command. The command checks and repairs the file system to maximum possible level.

While the command to repair file system is successful in most cases, it can also fails in certain situations. For such cases, the user needs to reinstall Windows XP operating system and restore data from an updated backup. But, this solution might fail to resolve your problem under below situations:

1.You have not created any hard drive data backup
. 2.Your hard drive data backup is damaged, insufficient, or incomplete.

To recover your data in such cases, you will need to search for a third-party Hard Drive Recovery Software. Such tools provide absolute Hard Drive Recovery post any logical damage.

Author:-K MADHAV

Microsoft Windows 2003 Server is a popular and advanced server operating system by Microsoft Windows. It includes a wide range of features, which make it more reliable, stable, and business-oriented. One such feature is to facilitate partition extending. The operating system enables you to extend a hard drive partition as per your storage requirements. You can extend a Windows hard drive partition using either Disk Management Snap-in or any third-party application. However, in some cases, the partition extending process gets interrupted and the hard drive data becomes totally inaccessible. This behavior leads to significant data loss and you need hard drive recovery to get your valuable data back.

In a practical scenario, you may come across an error message similar to the following one, when you attempt to extend a Windows hard drive partition using any third-party application:

“A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this message appears again, follow these steps: Disable or uninstall any anti virus , disc defragmentation or backup utilities. Check your hard drive configuration, and check for any updated drivers. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer. Technical Information Stop 0x00000024 (0x0019033c, 0xf016e7a0, 0xf016e49c, 0xe061dcdc)”

The partition resizing process gets halted after the above error message. In this case, Windows can not recognize such partition and it become inaccessible. To get your valuable data back from affected hard drive, you have to fix this problem using hard drive data recovery solutions.

Cause

This behavior might occur if application uses following FSCTLS and IOCTLS control codes for extending a partition:

FSCTL_EXTEND_VOLUME IOCTL_DISK_UPDATE_PROPERTIES IOCTL_DISK_GROW_PARTITION

Resolution

You can try out the below methods to sort out this problem:

Obtain the latest service pack of Microsoft Windows 2003 Server operating system. Delete and recreate Windows hard drive partitions. However, it causes critical data loss from hard drive. Use third-party hard drive recovery
software to get your data back.

The hard drive data recovery applications are specifically invented to scan entire hard drive using high-end scanning techniques and extract all lost data from it. They come equipped with interactive and rich graphical user interface to offer easy recovery in all data loss situations.

Author:-K MADHAV

Microsoft Windows operating system enables you to perform Unattended Installation to easily and quickly create similar type of workstations, by existing installation media. You can perform unattended installation in both GUI (Graphical User Interface) and CLI (Command Line Interface) environments. You can use this feature of Windows operating system to install or upgrade the operating system with minimum user intervention. However, under some situations, this installation cause critical problems of file system corruption and partition loss. At this point, you need to opt for partition recovery software to retrieve lost Windows hard drive
partitions.

When you perform unattended installation of Windows using Winnt.exe utility from MS-DOS FAT file system partition to the drive that is larger than 4 GB, may lead to NTFS file system corruption. The parameters of unattended installation are specified in Unattended.txt file, as given below:

“[Unattended] OemPreinstall = yes FileSystem = ConvertNTFS ExtendOemPartition = 1”

When you boot your system after completion of the installation process, NTFS file system corruption is detected either by inability to boot because of corrupted or missing system files or by following Chkdsk error message:

“CHKDSK is verifying indexes... Correcting error in index %I30 for file 100 Correcting error in index %I30 for file 100 Index verification completed. CHKDSK detected minor inconsistencies on the drive.

Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.”

If corruption is serious, your system might hang (stop responding) during GUI-mode part of the startup process and may cause several other errors. Such errors may be different, depending upon your system configuration.

Cause

This behavior of Microsoft Windows operating system may occur if drive size is larger than 4 Gigabyte. When file system is converted to NTFS, mirror boot sector must be written to end of your disk, however the location of byte offset is masked to within the 4 GB of disk space due to 32-bit calculation. Incorrect calculation of the disk space results into overwriting of the NTFS file system index buffer.

Resolution

In order to sort out this behavior of Windows operating system and retrieve lost hard drive partitions, Windows data recovery is required. Recovery is best possible using advanced and powerful partition recovery software.

The applications recover partition in all cases of partition loss, using high-end scanning techniques. With interactive graphical user interface and read-only behavior, they are pretty easy and safe to use.

Author:-K MADHAV

Is your Windows XP operating system based computer not booting up properly, even if the hardware components power up properly? The problem cannot be related to the operating system itself. In such cases, you need to start the troubleshooting expedition, which involves getting into operating system, finding out the exact issues, and then resolving it. When it happens, your system does not boot up and you can not get into it. This behavior prevents you from accessing hard drive partitions and stored data. It leads to critical partition loss situations and require partition recovery software to fix it.

One of the most common methods to troubleshoot Windows XP start errors is to use a Windows startup disk. Windows startup disk is a floppy that can help you fix the problem that are caused when either the files that are used by Windows operating system to boot up or startup record for active Windows partition have got damaged.

You can easily create a Startup disk by using a working Windows XP computer. For this purpose, the computer must be similarly configured. To do so, insert the floppy disk in drive and open My Computer. Right-click the icon of floppy disk and choose Format option from context menu. When Format dialog box appears, leave all default settings intact and click Start button. After successful completion of format operation, click Format dialog box and return of the My Computer window. Access root directory by double-clicking the 'C' drive icon, and copy the below mentioned files to floppy disk:

Ntdetect.com NTLDR Boot.ini

After creating the Windows startup disk, insert the floppy in floppy drive of affected Windows computer and reboot your system using Ctrl + Alt + Delete. When you start your system using startup disk, it bypasses boot files and active partition.

In case you do not have a Windows computer with similar configuration, it is not possible to create Windows startup disk. In such situations, you need to format the hard drive and reinstall operating system to fix the problem. However, it removes all the data from hard drive and put you in need of Windows data recovery.

Recovery is possible using Windows partition recovery software. These applications recover partition in safe way with read-only and non-destructive conduct. The applications use high-end scanning techniques to ensure absolute recovery.

Author:-K MADHAV

Modern computers enable you to install two or more operating systems on a single machine and use those operating systems independently. This configuration is known as dual-boot or multi-boot. The most popular combination of dual-boot system is Microsoft Windows
and Linux operating systems. In order to continue Linux installation on a Windows machine, you are required to create a /boot partition using the free disk space available on your hard drive. You are highly recommended to halt Linux installation process while creating space for the /boot partition. However, it may render your Windows hard drive partition inaccessible and cause serious partition loss. In such circumstances, you need to go for Partition Recovery Software to retrieve inaccessible and lost hard drive partitions.

In order to illustrate this problem, consider the underwritten scenario:

You use a Microsoft Windows installed machine that has two partitions- one boot partition and one data partition. You run the Setup of Linux operating system
to install it on free hard drive space. You abort Linux installation process when it creates /boot partition for the Linux operating system. You boot your computer with Microsoft Windows operating system and find out that your data partitions is not accessible.

Or You are able to access the data partition, but if you use a tool that accesses information of partitions, it displays wrong information about the Windows partitions.

Root of the problem

The problem generally occur

s due to corruption of MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table, when you abort installation process of Linux operating system. Hard drive errors might have been introduced by an interrupted installation of Linux operating system.

Resolution

In order to Recover Partition in such situations, you can try out the below steps:

Remove and recreate the damaged Windows partitions, if you have an updated and valid backup in place. If the backup is not updated or is unavailable, you can opt for third party applications to recover lost or damaged hard drive partitions.

The Partition Recovery Software are suitable for virtually every partition loss situation in Microsoft Windows. They deploy advanced scanning techniques to efficiently handle partition loss and ensure absolute Windows Data Recovery. With simple and rich graphical user interface and non-destructive nature, these applications are totally easy and safe to use.

Author:- k madhav

When a Windows XP system is started, the boot.ini file is one of the files that is executed first. It is a plain text file that is stored in the system root. This file also includes entries that provide various boot options such as Safe Mode or the Recovery Console. Hence, it can be rightly inferred that it is a very critical system file that is made both read-only and hidden, so that it is well protected from any mishap. However, there are times when this file gets missing or damaged, which makes the system from getting started. This behavior can appear because of various reasons such as virus infections, power outages, abrupt system shutdown, damaged file system, etc. You should use certain corrective measures to rectify this situation. In case you are not able to resolve the issue then you should use a third-party hard drive recovery software to do the needful.

Consider a scenario wherein you switch on your Windows XP system but it fails to start. An error message is displayed, that is:

“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: Windows\System32\Hal.dll”

Cause:

The root cause of this error message is that the boot.ini file is either corrupted, missing, or contains incorrect entries.

Resolution:

To resolve the issue, you need to rebuild the boot.ini file using the bootcfg.exe tool. To do this, you should perform the following steps: Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM in the disc drive and restart the computer. When you encounter the “Press any key to boot from CD” screen, press a key to boot the computer from the CD-ROM. Press R to enter the Recovery Console. At the command prompt, enter bootcfg /list and press Enter to display the current boot,ini settings. At the command prompt, enter bootcfg /rebuild and press Enter to scan the hard disks. Follow the instructions as they appear on the screen. Type Exit and restart the system. The problem should be resolved.

Author:-K MADHAV

Windows NT operating systems encounter various errors and issues, but the most problematic one is the STOP error message. These errors are commonly identified by an 8-digit hexadecimal code which may sometimes appear if the file, which is required at the time of system boot is corrupt or damaged. As a result, a STOP error occurs and the process of the system comes to a halt. Additionally, the hard drive data becomes inaccessible. An ideal way to overcome such situations is to restore the data from a valid backup file. However, if the backup fails or is not available, then you can rely upon a powerful Hard Drive Data Recovery application to recover your data.

Consider this example – Suppose, you start your Windows XP based system and suddenly the following STOP error message appears:

“Stop: 0xC000012F STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_NOT_MZ

The specified image file did not have the correct format, it did not have an initial MZ.”

Along with this error message, you may also receive the following Trap Code:

“STOP 0x0000006b (0xc000012f, 0xxxxxxxxx, 0xxxxxxxxx,0xxxxxxxxx)”

After this error message pops up, the system stops booting and you cannot perform any other operation in the system.

Cause:

Most probable cause of the error message is:

The system was not able to load the files required for start up as the systems files used are corrupt. This may happen because of hardware malfunction while file copying was in progress. Thus, it is highly recommended to examine the system hardware thoroughly to determine the cause of the problem. This error message can also occur after installing new drivers in the system.

Resolution:

There is no particular file specified in the error message that might be causing the problem. So, you need to perform basic troubleshooting steps to solve the issue. Following are the troubleshooting steps:

Restart your system using Last Known Good Configuration option. Select the VGA mode option from the boot menu. This allows you to see the Windows XP system files on the screen and have a fair idea about the damaged or corrupted file. Use Emergency Repair Disk. This will replace the corrupted or missing driver file on the partition.

In majority of such cases, these measures help you solve the problem. However, if the problem does not seem to go even after usineasures, then you need to re-install Windows XP. A clean re-installation of the operating system results in deletion of all the hard drive data. In such situations, to recover your lost data, you will need to use a good quality Hard Drive Data Recovery application. These applications deploy intense scanning algorithms for Disk Recovery in all logical data loss scenarios.

Author:-K MADHAV