Friday, June 11, 2010

How to Recover data when boot.ini file is missing in Windows XP

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.
  • However, if you still are not able to start your system then you should use a third-party hard drive data recovery tools to recover the inaccessible data. Such read-only tools perform hard drive recovery without overwriting the original data.

Stellar Data Recovery Software is a hard drive recovery tool that enables you to recover lost, deleted, or inaccessible data from both FAT and NTFS file systems. It is able to recover more than 185 different file types from various storage media such as hard disks, external HDDs, pen drives, iPods, etc. In addition, this hard drive recovery utility recovers deleted emails from MS Outlook and Outlook Express. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and Server 2000.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

How to Recover Inaccessible Partitions in External HDD


Partitioning in a hard disk refers to the segregation of the storage media into logical spaces, called a partition. This process helps you in keeping similar type of data in a single partition. For example, if you have an external hard disk then you can make two partitions in which you can keep software dumps in one of the partitions and games or movies in the other partition. So, partitioning is a very effective practice that enables you to keep your hard disks healthy for a longer duration. However, sometimes the partitions may get corrupt and inaccessible due to various reasons such as human errors, virus infections, power outages, etc. In such cases, you should employ appropriate measures to rectify the issue. But, if you are not able to sort the problem then you should use a third-party partition recovery software to recover the trapped data.

Consider a scenario wherein you have a 160 GB external hard disk. In this, you have created two partitions for data storage in your system. One day, when you try to access the drive you are unable to do so. An error message is displayed, which could be either of the following messages:

The volume X: is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?

The disk in drive X: is not formatted.

There was an error accessing drive X:. The disk is not formatted.

In addition, when you try to run CHKDSK for the mentioned drive, you are unable to do that as well. An error is displayed, that is:

“The type of the filesystem is RAW.

CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.”

Cause:

The root cause for the aforementioned error messages is that the file system has corrupted. The possible reasons behind this situation are:

Damaged records in Master File Table (MFT) and MFT
mirror.

Corruption in partition table, LDM database, or the volume boot sector.

Resolution:

To resolve this situation, you should format the volume as suggested in the error message. However, by doing this you would lose all your data. Also, sometimes even after formatting the volume you are not able to access the partition. In such cases, you use a third-party partition recovery tools to recover partition. Such read-only tools are able to recover trapped data from the inaccessible partitions without overwriting the original content by using sophisticated scanning algorithms.

Windows Data Recovery is a partition recovery software that recovers lost, formatted, or deleted data from FAT and NTFS file systems. It is capable of recovering more than 185 different file types from various storage media such as hard drives, external hard disks, pen drives, iPods, etc. In addition, this Windows data recovery tool is able to recover deleted emails from MS Outlook and Outlook Express. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and Server 2000.


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