In-place upgrade or Clean Reinstallation of Windows XP Operating System leads to Data Loss

Every user of Windows has worked on at least two versions of the mighty operating system

. Needless to say, almost all of them have upgraded their systems from one version to another, using in-place upgrading, or using clean installation. Installation of an operating system is of two types, Not only that, there are times in the life of a computer user, in which they have to reinstall the same operating system. Irrespective of the situation faced by him/her, a user is quite prone to data loss, more so, if he/she doesn't have a backup in place. In such a situation, he/she has to opt for Windows data recovery means to effectively recover Windows files.

Consider, you reinstall Windows XP in the same folder on your laptop. You click on Upgrade (Recommended) after running Winnt32.exe, or on the 'Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP' that appears on inserting Windows CD-ROM, click Install Windows XP.

After it finishes, you find that you have lost all the data that was stored in 'All Users' folder, along with default program templates and settings stored in Default User folder. Not only that, other important things like, Start menu shortcuts, items in Startup group and My Documents folder that are stored in Shared Documents folder may be lost.

Technical Information with Regards to this behavior:

When you start your Windows XP laptop for the first time, a file named Undo_guimode.txt is created by the OEM Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard. This file, if present, in WindowsSystem32 folder of the hard disk creates a clash in the system when the setup upgrades Windows, thus deleting the stated profiles.

How to Resolve:

Use the latest backup to restore the missing data and program shortcuts.

However, if you do not have a backup, you will need to use a Windows data recovery software to be able to recover Windows files.

These are third party tools that scan your hard drive and apply complex recovery mechanism to recover all the inaccessible and deleted data files from your system. However, before downloading a Windows data recovery tool, do check its recovery capability by scanning your drive with its trial versions.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is an efficient user-friendly software that has an interactive interface, a detailed context-sensitive user documentation, and read-only nature. Capable of recovering more than 185 different file formats, this Windows data recovery software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP and 2000 operating system.

In-place upgrade or Clean Reinstallation of Windows XP Operating System leads to Data Loss

By: Robin Watson

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