Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery

Microsoft Windows operating system enables you to create dynamic disks to take advantages of the features, which are not provided by basic disks. These features include- ability to create mirrored volumes (fault tolerant volumes) and ability to create striped and spanned volumes (volumes that span over multiple hard drives). The volumes of dynamic disks are known as dynamic volumes.

Dynamic volumes are considered as more reliable and stable than basic Windows hard drive volumes. However, in some situations, you may accidentally delete the dynamic Windows volumes and come across serious data loss situations. In such circumstances, you need to go for Windows data recovery solutions to get your valuable data recovered.

You can delete the dynamic volume using Disk Management snap-in tool in Microsoft Windows. However, if the deleted volume contains significant data, serious problems may occur. However, you should not panic in such cases, as it is possible to recover deleted dynamic volumes from Microsoft Windows hard drive. It is possible only if you have not created a new hard drive volume and formatted on the disk space, occupied by deleted volume.

When Windows Disk Management snap-in deletes any volume from dynamic disk, the file system boot sector (the first sector of volume) of particular volume is deleted, and then the volume entry from Disk Management private region database is removed. Rest of the dynamic volumes are physically intact (including stored data and information). As NTFS file system volumes keep backup of the boot sector, you can easily recover Windows volume by restoring boot sector.

How to Recover Deleted NTFS File System Volume?

Recreate exactly same hard drive volume, but do not format it. The process may become difficult if you don’t remember exact size of the deleted volume, particularly because Disk Management tends to round the partition sizes.

Recover backup boot sector using Dskprobe.exe utility.

Quit the Dskprobe.exe utility after rewriting NTFS boot sector.

Click the Rescan Disks option on Action menu in Disk Management. It mounts the volume for quick access.

If the above method does not work, you need to use Windows data recovery software to recover lost data. The applications are incorporated with indigenous scanning techniques to thoroughly scan whole hard drive and extract all lost data from it. Such Windows recovery tools have interactive user-interface to offer easy recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery software successfully recovers lost Windows hard drive volumes, both dynamic and basic. The software works well with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000. It supports recovery from all NTFS5, NTFS, FAT32, VFAT, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes.

Windows XP is the most widely used operating system of Microsoft. It has been the choice of millions of users across the world despite facing stiff competitions from newer Windows operating systems. It has got online tutorials on the Internet as its users are all over the world who contribute regularly to such forums. It is a very robust system that emphasizes on performance and flashiness alike.

Also, the drivers of certain hardware for Windows XP are easily available over the Internet. However, despite being such an efficient system it can sometimes pose problems. These problems can occur because of power surges, virus infections, human errors, file system corruption, etc. In such cases, you should employ corrective measures to resolve the issue. However, if you are unable to do so, you should use a third-party Windows data recovery software to recover Windows files.

Consider a scenario wherein you get the following error message when you start your Windows system:

“File is missing or corrupt: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\Pci.sys”

Cause:

The most possible cause of this error message is that pci.sys file is either missing or corrupted. Because of this, you are not able to boot Windows system. Even if you are able to access the system, it may freeze frequently.

Resolution:

To resolve this error message and to access the Windows system, you need to perform either of the following methods:

Restore the file by using the Windows Recovery Console: Use the Recovery Console to expand Pci.sy_ from the i386 folder on the provided CD to the \%SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers folder on the hard disk.

Use in-place upgrade to restore the file: To do this, you should replace all missing and corrupted files using the Windows Installation CD. This process takes the same time as taken during the installation process. Moreover, you can lose some of the customized settings for the system files.

However, if you are not able to recover Windows system even after using the aforementioned methods then you should use a third-party Windows data recovery software to recover Windows files.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery software is a Windows data recovery tool that is used to recover Windows files. It is used to recover lost information from the FAT and NTFS file systems. The software can recover more than 185 different file types from various media such as hard drives, memory cards, external hard drives, pen drives, etc.

It is packaged with a Boot CD, which proves quite handy when the system is unable to boot. This Windows recovery utility is also capable of recovering email items from MS Outlook and Outlook Express. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.

Are you unable to boot your Windows XP computer in dual-boot configuration? Are you facing error messages on startup related to missing or damaged system files? If your answer is ‘Yes’ for any of these questions, you can not access your business-critical data from your Windows hard drive. Such situations may lead to severe data loss situations. To retrieve lost data, restore from most recent backup. If the backup is not updated or not available, Windows Data Recovery becomes need of hour.

In a practical scenario, you might come across the below error message when you attempt to boot your MS Windows XP system that is in dual-boot configuration:

“Windows XP could not start because the following files were missing or corrupted:
WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM NTLDR MISSING
You can try to repair this file by starting the Windows Setup program from original floppies or boot from CD-ROM.
Select ‘r’ at first screen to repair”

As stated in the above error message, the system can not boot up and you can not access data from it. Identify the cause of this problem and perform Windows Recovery by resolving it, to gain access of your system:

Cause

The above problem may take place if the below conditions are true:

• You are using Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 in dual-boot with Microsoft Windows XP and you have installed Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 after installing Microsoft Windows XP.
• You recently installed Microsoft Windows NT 4.0.
• Windows NT 4.0 doesn’t detect additional startup characteristics of Microsoft Windows XP, and replaces shared boot files of Windows (Ntdetect.com and Ntldr).

Resolution

In order to sort out this problem, you need to replace Windows XP Ntdetect.com and Ntldr files. You can do it using Windows Recovery Console. If you use MS-DOS for replacing the files, you are required to remove System attribute, Read-only attribute, and Hidden attribute from files.

If the file replacement can not help you to solve the issue, it could be due to damaged Windows data structures. It needs Windows Data Recovery Software to extract lost data from the affected Microsoft Windows hard drive.

The software throughly scan the drive using advanced scanning techniques, to ensure absolute hard drive recovery of lost, deleted, missing, and inaccessible files. The Windows Recovery tools do not demand sound technical skills as they have rich graphical user interface.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a read-only software that performs perfect recovery in all cases of data loss. The software recovers lost data from FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file system partitions. It works well with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000.

Do you want to have extended security features, support for VIA 64-bit CPUs in Windows Vista? If your answer is yes, you should opt for Windows Vista Service Pack 2. Along with the improved security features, this release includes a number of advanced features. However, in some cases upgrading to Windows Vista SP2 may cause a number of issues, which make your system unbootable and render all hard drive partitions inaccessible. It causes partition loss situations and need Partition Recovery to retrieve lost partitions and data.

In a practical scenario, you may come across below error message after installing Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2), you may encounter below error message constantly:

“Error loop (x64)- Error code 0xc0190036”

In place of rolling back, Windows Vista SP2 updates continue try over and over for modifying the file, which contains error. The file checks as:

“Error 0×00190036 mshtml.tlb”

After the above behavior of Windows Vista, the installer does not run in any mode, i.e. you can not go for Safe Mode to try to recover the system. It again tries to install botched Vista SP2. Rebooting the system also does not help, as updater again activates itself.
This behavior eventually cause partition loss by rendering them inaccessible. You need to identify the cause of this behavior and perform Windows Partition Recovery to gain access of your valuable data.

Root of the problem

The above behavior is caused by missing or damaged mshtml.tlb file or other system files. Due to missing files, Windows can not get proper resources to boot up and work.

Resolution

You can sort out this problem by renaming the damaged dll files by going through the below steps:

• Boot your system from Windows Vista DVD.
• Choose ‘Repair You Computer’ option.
• Click Command prompt.
• Type below commands on Command prompt and press Enter key after every line:

C:
cd windows
cd system32
ren mshtml.tlb mshtml.tlb.old

• Exit the command prompt.
• Reboot your system.

If the above method does not work, you need to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows Vista. This method removes all hard drive partitions and need Partition Recovery Software to work around the problem.

The Windows Partition Recovery applications use high-end scanning techniques to methodically scan entire Windows hard drive and retrieve lost partitions. With read-only behavior and simple user-interface, they are safe and easy to use.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most efficient and complete solution for assured recovery of lost Windows partitions. The software is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000. It recovers FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file system partitions.

Windows Data Recovery

Earlier DOS and Windows 3.1 file recovery options were limited to the old DOS Undelete command. This command-line tool helps to recover an undeleted file, but only if no new files were written immediately following the deletion. At the time of accidental file deletion, the the chances were very less.

Recycle it

With Windows 95, the Microsoft launched Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin was designed to give users an easy way to recover deleted files. Files are not permanently deleted when the Recycle Bin is functioning, but they are stored in a temporary location from where a user can easily retrieve it.

The bin is actually a folder, called Recycled, located in the root directory of every partition in the system. Thus, the Recycle Bin stores files deleted from the C: drive in the folder C:\Recycled.

This happens with Windows 98/Me/XP.

Before moving the file to the Recycled folder, Windows renames it according to the format D<original drive letter of file><number>.<extension>. For example, it renames a text file that is the fifth file deleted from C: Dc5.txt. Windows records path information for each file stored in the recycled folder in a hidden file called Info2; this lets a file be restored to its original location if necessary.

Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on your Desktop and click Properties to configure it. In the Recycle Bin Properties dialog box, you can choose to configure each drive in your system independently, or you can simply use one Recycle Bin setting for all drives. Click the appropriate radio button to select one of these options. By default, the Use One Setting For All Drives option is selected.

If you want to turn off the Recycle Bin, click the Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin checkbox; this tells Windows to delete files immediately. Of course, choosing this option completely disables your ability to recover deleted files, so unless hard drive space is at an absolute premium, it is best to leave this alone.

By default, Windows chooses a maximum Recycle Bin size of 10% of a drive’s capacity. So, if you have a 200GB drive, the Recycle Bin reserves 20GB for deleted file storage. Depending on how often you delete files and how large these files are, this Recycle Bin storage amount may last quite awhile.

Third-Party Data Recovery Apps

The data recovery options in Windows beyond the Recycle Bin are fairly sparse. So, it is highly recommended to look for a third-party data recovery application. There are a number of third-party applications available that specialize in windows data recovery.

Protect Your Data

It is possible to recover data even if it isa severe loss. The frequent backup of data is the first line of defense against sudden data loss. Yes, you can reinstall your programs , but if there is no backup then data is gone forever unless it is backed up to storage media such as CDs etc..