With the increase in popularity of Microsoft Windows operating system, there has been a steep increase in the demands of the customers, and changing times. And the users, love to upgrade their systems from one version to another, to enjoy additional features and interactivity. But it has always been advised to the users of computers that they should backup their partition data frequently, and especially before an upgrade. This acts as an insurance for them, in case the system develops some problems, and their crucial data is at the verge of loss. The backup helps them comprehensively recover partition data, and avert data loss. Otherwise, the user has to opt for a partition recovery software.

Let use take a practical example to understand this more in detail. After upgrading your Windows system to Microsoft Windows XP, consider, you receive following error message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

Windows\System32\Hal.dll

Reason: The problem occurs in case Boot.ini file contains incorrect entries. It is also possible that the mentioned file is missing or has become damaged.

Troubleshooting: Enter the Recovery Console by first inserting the CD into the drive, and then restarting the system, by booting from the CD, and pressing R to start the Recovery Console. When prompted, type your administrator password, and press Enter. At the command prompt, type the below mentioned command, followed by pressing Enter: bootcfg /list After all the entries in current Boot.ini file have appeared on screen, at the command prompt, type the below mentioned command, followed by pressing Enter: bootcfg /rebuild

After this, follow the directions that appear on screen to add Windows installations to the Boot.ini file, as guided below:

On getting message similar to undermentioned, press Y,

Total Identified Windows Installs: 1

[1] C:\Windows Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)

On getting message: 'Enter Load Identifier', type 'Microsoft Windows XP Professional' or 'Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition', depending on which version of XP you have upgraded to, followed by Enter.

And, on getting message: 'Enter OS Load options', type '/fastdetect', followed by Enter. Once done, type 'exit' to quit from the Recovery Console. When the computer restarts, the updated boot list appears, and, you get a message: 'Please select the operating system to start', indicating that the system is functioning properly.

But in case the above steps do not sort the problem, then you will have to reinstall your Windows XP, thereby losing all the partition data. But, the presence of an updated backup can certainly help you recover partition information, along with all the data saved in that partition.

However, if you didn't create a backup before upgrading, and your data has been lost, then you can use Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery to retrieve your vital data. Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000, this partition recovery software works with exFAT, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system volumes.

Daisy a student of Mass Communication doing research on Partition recovery. He is also a freelancer for Files Recovery Software .