Data Recovery Software Help

Windows XP is considered as a reliable and secure operating system. But at times, you experience certain difficulties while trying to shutdown Windows XP based computer. One of the reasons behind such behavior of Windows XP is hard disk damage or file system corruption. In such circumstances, it becomes essential for you to reformat or reparation the hard disk and to restore lost information from backup. However, if data backup appears to be corrupt or invalid, Data Recovery Tools can recover the lost or inaccessible files.

Consider a situation, where you click to shut down your Windows XP system and it shows one of the following symptoms:

• You receive an error message related to a file or service
• Your computer system stops responding

Cause

A Windows XP computer shows above behavior due to the following causes:

• Faulty file or service
• Device driver issues
• System or program file problems
• Incorrect CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)/BIOS (Basic Input Output System) settings
• Hard disk or file system damage

Solution

To solve this problem, you need to take these steps:

• If you receive an error message pertaining to a file or service, you need to follow these methods:

1     Check the specific file or service listed under one of the tabs of msconfig.exe (Start > Run > msconfig). You need to turn off this file or service by unchecking it.

2      If you can’t find the file or service listed under msconfig.exe tabs, then it might be the case of improper removal of a program or Windows component. To solve this, you require reinstalling it and then removing it properly using Add or Remove programs tool.

• If you observe that your computer stops responding whenever you try to shut it down, follow these steps:

1     Try to shut down after booting the system using the Safe Mode option

2     If the problem persists, it can be a device driver issue. You can use Device Manager to examine and solve the same.

3     Next, you can use System Restore or Last Known Good Configuration option functionality.

4      If the same problem keeps coming back, try to perform an in-place upgrade of Windows XP that is repair the corrupted Windows installation.

5      Check for one or more improper CMOS/BIOS settings.

6      If you still experience that Windows is getting stuck while shutting down, run chkdsk utility through Recovery Console to determine and correct file system issues. If it fails to fix them, you need to reformat or repartition the hard disk and use your recent data backup to restore the lost data. In case of backup problems, you can use Disk Recovery applications.

7     If chkdsk can’t access the hard disk, contact a Data Recovery company for help as your hard disk might be damaged.

Image via Wikipedia

ATAPI (Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface) is an interface that enables your computer to support optical drives as CD-ROM, tape drives and other similar devices. ATAPI adds to the controlling power of your computer so that the basic IDE interface and controllers can be used for other device types, like CD-ROM and tape drives. But at times, you observe serious hard disk issues while using ATAPI hard disk in Windows XP. The hard disk metadata information gets corrupted. In such situations, you need to use your recent data backup to restore the lost files. However, if you discover that the data backup is not up-to-date or corrupt, you need to scan your hard disk with Data Recovery Tools for salvaging the lost files.

As a practical scenario, if you are using an ATAPI hard disk that is larger than 137 GB in size, you might observe one or more of the following symptoms:

• You choose to resume from hibernation and the computer restarts instead
• You encounter issues while starting, shutting down or restarting your computer
• You notice hard disk corruption when you choose to enter in hibernation or standby mode
• You experience problems while running programs and saving or opening documents
• An unrecoverable Windows error occurs and you experience hard disk damage when Windows writes a memory dump file

These issues are specific to Windows XP (Home Edition, Professional, Home Edition SP1 and Table PC Edition).

Cause

There are two particular reasons for the above issues:

• When ATAPI driver writes memory dump or hibernation files, it doesn’t use 48-bit LBA (Logical Block Addressing)
•  For a large and  48-bit LBA enabled hard disk, flush cache command is not issued when you enter Windows into standby or hibernation mode

Solution

To solve the above problems, you can practice the following solutions:

• Use the CHKDSK command to diagnose and repair the hard disk
• If the problem continues, you can reformat the hard disk and hence refresh all metadata information. You need to use your recent data backup to restore the lost files. When the data backup is damaged or unable to offer required information, you need to use Data Recovery Software. With high-end scanning algorithms, these Data Recovery tools can provide you safe recovery in all logical data loss scenarios.