Data Loss After installing Windows 2000 on Windows XP Operating System

Dual booting or Multi booting is the practice of installing two or more operating systems on a computer system. While multiboot system provides various benefits, it might result as a STOP error message. Such STOP error messages result as unbootable hard drive and data inaccessibility. In such situations, an updated backup enables you to restore the lost data. But, in case of absence of an updated backup, you need to perform Data Recovery. To do so, you will need to use advanced Data Recovery Software.

Consider a practical scenario, where you encounter the below error message after you install Windows 2000 on Windows XP based computer:

"Starting Windows...
Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows 2000 Setup using the original Setup floppy disk or CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."

You might receive a different error message in case if the Windows XP install was an upgrade from Windows 2000:

"BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO
STOP 0x00000074"

Data stored in Windows XP based hard drive partition becomes inaccessible after any of the above error messages appears.

Cause:

The above error messages are mainly caused as Windows XP system files conflict with the system files of Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 bootstrap loader files are not aware of the modifications that have been made in Windows XP operating system. However, if you try to install Windows 2000 in a different hard drive partition while your system is running Windows XP, you may encounter the below error message:

"This CD-ROM is from an older version of Windows than the one you are presently using. Setup functionality from this disk will be disabled."

Resolution:

To resolve the above issue and access the data, you will need to follow these steps:

-Boot your system in Windows 2000
-Copy the NTLDR and Ntdetect.com files from the i386 folder from the Windows XP disk to the root of the system drive.

If the above resolution fails to overcome the problem, then you will need to use powerful Data Recovery applications. Such Data Recovery Tools incorporate high end scanning algorithms to systematically scan, recover and restore the lost data from formatted hard drive partitions. You can also recover your corrupted Windows partitions through partition recovery software.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the foremost Data Recovery Software. It provides complete recovery and restoration of data from lost, deleted, formatted and corrupted hard drive partitions and volumes. The software is compatible with FAT16, FAT32, vFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems. It supports Windows Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000.