Windows 2000 - Relation between start-up issues and data loss

Sometimes, at a restart, your Windows 2000 may be displaying an unexpected error message following which the booting process may be halted and the data in the drive becomes inaccessible. In such situations, taking any chance can result a permanent loss of valuable data in the drive and user is always suggested to go for Windows data recovery software. The error message that you receive, can be any of the following:



“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM”


OR

“System hive error”

Cause:

The above errors can happen if any of the below condition is true:

* If a PCI controller card, manufactured by Promise Technology Inc has been installed in the computer and you are installing/starting-up Windows 2000 operating system.
* Possible damage to the system hive or it is missing from the registry.


It may happen sometimes that Windows 2000 OS may fail to load heavy registry files. This is the situation, when a huge block of data has been written by the write process to the system sub-key and the sub-key indeed is meant to retain only that information, which is needed to start-up the system.


Resolution:

* The first and the foremost thing that you can do is to check whether there is any CD, DVD or any other device is connected to the system. Thereafter, you should also check for the correct boot sequence in the BIOS.
* Remove the PCI Controller manufactured by Promise Technology. As it has been observed quite a few times that if you have installed a Promise ATA66 controller, you may receive such error. Then, restart Windows 2000 setup, after enabling the IDE controller on your motherboard.
* If you failed to resolve the issue with the above step, then, try replacing the backup copy of the system hive. In order to do so, try restarting Windows 2000 from the start-up disk and on the Welcome screen , press 'R' to repair. If asked, give the administrative password and press 'C in order to run recovery console. Thereafter, select the installation, which you want to repair.
* Still, if you are unable to fix the errors and the data is still inaccessible thereof, then recover your data from the valid backup and make a fresh installation after formatting the disk drive.


Formatting will wipe out all the data from the drive. Here a user is suggested to go for any trusted Windows data recovery utility like Stellar Phoenix Windows Data recovery. Its an absolute boon to the Windows users, as it can recover any lost, deleted, formatted or inaccessible data.