Performing Disk Recovery when Windows XP Refuses to Load

Every time a newer version of the Windows operating system is launched, people try to upgrade their system to the newer and better version of it. But there are times when your computer's Basic Input/Output System, generally referred as BIOS is unable to manage the storage capacity of the hard drive, or it. At times, the drive is not setup properly in the complementary metal oxide semiconductor, or the CMOS. Not only that, at times the partitions created in the system become damaged or inaccessible. In such situations, the system refuses to comply with user's request and throws some errors. Owing to this, the user does not get to access his data, and requires hard disk recovery.

Consider, you try to boot your Windows XP computer, and instead of the Welcome screen, you encounter:

'Error loading operating system'

This error message prevents you to access hard drive of your computer, and you cannot access your stored data. To get your files back, you need to find out the cause of the problem.

As mentioned earlier, the problem might be due to BIOS, CMOS or damaged partitions.

To resolve the problem,

• First and the foremost, update your BIOS, in case it is causing the problem.

• In case this doesn't resolve the problem, check the settings of CMOS. Verify that it detects the drive. Change the hard drive's 'Access Mode' to Large or LBA (Logical Block Addressing)

• If the above steps do not resolve the problem, chances are it is your partition that is damaged or inaccessible. In such a case, you will need to format the drive, and recreate it. This leads to loss of data, thus calling for Disk recovery using backup, if available. But for those who do not have a backup, there are hard disk recovery tools that can be deployed to recover inaccessible data.

Note: Incorrectly done changes to the BIOS may lead to data loss. Hence, be careful while changing it, otherwise, you will need to opt for recovery tools.

These tools are specifically designed to apply recovery algorithms to the hard disks of the computer, to extract all the data that has not been overwritten. With the ability to read through data, it is able to save everything on the required storage media.

One of the trusted names for disk recovery is Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery. It is a user-friendly software, which has a detailed context-sensitive documentation, read-only nature, and a graphical user interface. Compatible with NTFS and FAT file systems, this tool can be installed on any version of Windows operating system including Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000.

Many tools give us the option to create a number of partitions on our hard disk drive. With the increase in storage device capacity, hard disks easily have capacity running into many TBs. Having different partitions not only allows the user to prevent data loss occurring due to operating system crashes, but allows them to access the system through other partitions. But there are other battles that need to be won. For example, many times people try to shrink or expand their partitions. This happens more in case a user allocates the entire drive for storage of data, without leaving any area unoccupied, and later realizes that either another partition needs to be created, or some partition needs to be expanded, which needs reducing space occupied by another partition.