Recover inaccessible or lost files due to Windows upgrade

At times, while trying to upgrade your current Windows operating system to a newer version, the system encounters problems. During this process, after the initial verification process, the system stops the installation process and all the data in the hard drive becomes completely inaccessible. There are several possible reasons behind this problem, which can be resolved with certain recommended solutions. However, if those suggestions fail to solve the problem, you can use any file recovery software to recover the seemingly lost or inaccessible data back.

In the above situations, the system fails to respond with several error messages on the screen. One of the mostly encountered error messages, while upgrading Windows 2000 to Windows XP can be read as below:

“Setup was unable to verify drive C:
Your computer may not have enough memory to examine the drive, or your Windows XP CD may contain some corrupted files.
To continue, press Enter.”

At the occurrence of the above error message, when you press the 'Enter' key, another error message is displayed as below:

“Setup cannot access the CD containing the Windows XP installation files.”

Possible reasons behind the above problem:

• The BIOS settings are incompatible with the new OS, Windows XP.
• The Windows XP setup disc may have damaged
• The hard disk may be corrupt.
• The motherboard does not support Windows XP.

Below are some of the suggested workarounds for the above listed causes behind the problem:

• If your current BIOS version is incompatible with Windows XP, then verify and upgrade the version. You can use the Microsoft Windows Upgrade Advisor tool to verify and download the recent BIOS versions. Similarly, from there, you can get all the motherboard compatibility information.
• If the Windows setup disc has the problem, try to clean the CD with any soft cloth and cross check the disc by running it on another system. If, the disc does not run, try using another disc.
• If your hard disk has any corruption, then boot the system in Recovery Console and run the 'chkdsk' utility to scan the disk for errors. Moreover, if you find any corruption to the Master Boot Record (MBR), run the utilities, 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr' to repair the same.

However, after trying all the above options if the system still remains inaccessible, then you need to take the help of any reliable file recovery utility.

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Software that can recover lost or formatted files back from your Windows system

Image by Artform Canada via Flickr

These days, computers have been a necessity. The business class or working users store their important official data in the computer hard drives, while the home users use their computer hard drive storage to store their personal data. In this way, computer memory store many important data, including text documents, photos, songs, movies, audios, videos and many such files/folders. As the Windows operating system is being used by the most number of computer users in the world, these operating-system based computers are hugely targeted by various viruses/malwares. Though, users take steps to safe-guard their valuable data in the drives, sometimes, it becomes practically impossible to prevent the infection/corruption. In such situations, you can take the help of any file recovery software to recover your data back.


There are several situations, which corrupt important system files and make all the data in the drive completely inaccessible. Many users encounter such issues after installing a new software. After installing a device software that has probably come with your camera or any such device, when you restart the system, the system fails to boot and displays error messages on the screen. In such situation, the error message that you receive can be read as below:

“Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate”


The above error message indicates that the system registry file, which stores all the options and configuration settings of the Windows OS, has been damaged or corrupted.


In order to solve the above problem, you need to perform a set of systematic steps. First of all, you need to copy the system registry files from their original location to a newly created temporary folder. You to create a general set of registry files and place them at the location. These new registry files will help you boot the system. However, these files do not have any information, before the change and you need to restore the registry by performing 'System Restore'. This resolution process is quite confusing and can be performed only by the advanced users. Hence, it is suggested to format and restore the data from any valid backup.


However, if you do not have any valid backup, then you need to recover the lost, formatted or inaccessible files with the help of any file recovery software. These data recovery software are designed with highly innovative techniques to retrieve lost/inaccessible files and restore them back, with their original internal structure intact.

READ MORE » Software that can recover lost or formatted files back from your Windows system

Miray HDClone Professional Edition

HDClone copies the complete contents of hard disks and other IDE/ATA, SATA/eSATA, SCSI, USB, and Firewire media on a physical level. This allows to create even backups or copies of complete operating system installations smoothly. In combination with the special 'SafeRescue' mode of HDClone, this technique is also perfect for rescuing data in case of defective hard disks. Furthermore, HDClone works independent of partition layout, file system and operating system (i.e. it works with FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc.). Thus, it also works with proprietary data formats which could not be accessed otherwise.
Besides copying complete drives, it is also possible to apply it to certain partitions only.

HDClone, the universal cloning tool

» NEW: defragmentation "on the fly" for NTFS
» NEW: Compressed file images
» NEW: Command line version for automated cloning & imaging
» NEW: automatic downsizing of NTFS partitions
» NEW: 4k sector alignment for modern hard disks
» NEW: SmartCopy & AutoExpand now supporting EXT4
» cloning and imaging of Windows 7 + running on Windows 7
» HotCopy & LiveImage while running Windows
» SmartCopy & AutoExpand now supporting ext2/ext3 file systems
» supporting hard disks > 2 Terabytes (= 2000 GB)
» for data rescue, backup, migration, mass installations etc.
» creates logical and physical 1:1 copies (= sector copies)
» builds logical and physical image files
» for use with hard disks and many other storage media
» self-booting and running on Windows XP/Vista/Server

[ Functionality ]
HDClone creates physical or logical copies (clones) and file images of hard disks and other mass storage media. HDClone is a perfect tool for backups and copies of entire software or operating system installations. A special 'SafeRescue' mode makes HDClone an invaluable tool for rescuing defective hard disks and other media. HDClone works independent of partitioning scheme, file system, and operating system. It also works with proprietary formats which otherwise would be unaccessible.

[ HDClone on Windows (XP/Vista/Server) - NEW: Windows 7 ]
• create copies and images - even of the system volume - while Windows is running
• access to special media & controllers (SCSI, SAS, RAID, Dynamic Volumes ...)
• using familiar Windows drive letters
Each HDClone software package now contains a Windows program (HDClone/W) in addition to the self-booting program (HDClone/S). Since both are operated identically, you do not have to change over when switching between HDClone/s and HDClone/W.

[ File images - NEW: now featuring compressed images ]
Instead of a direct copy from medium to medium, you can also store an exact image of medium in an image file. These images files can be stored, archived, or transmitted via network and the Internet. They can be restored at any time or place to a medium which then behaves just like a direct copy had been made.

[ NEW: Defragmenting NTFS 'on the fly' ]
HDClone can perform a perfect defragmentation on NTFS volumes during copying or restoring from a file image. This defragmentation only needs a fraction of the time usually required for defragmentation. Hence, it consumes almost no additional time compared to the copying itself.

[ HotCopy & LiveImage ]
HDClone now can create copies and file images of drives and partitions during Windows operation - even for the system volume.

[ Faster with SmartCopy mode - NEW: now supporting EXT4 ]
HDClone creates logical sector copies (SmartCopy) of FAT, NTFS, and ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems in only a fraction of the time usually needed - yielding an equivalent result. SmartCopy can clone an entire Windows XP base installation in less than 20 seconds for example.

[ AutoExpand - upsizing 'on the fly' - NEW: now supporting EXT4 ]
Let HDClone upsize your FAT, NTFS, and ext2/ext3/ext4 partitions automatically on the fly during copying.

[ NEW: Downsizing NTFS partitions 'on the fly' ]
Let HDClone downsize your NTFS partitions automatically on the fly during copying. This allows you to adjust partition sizes during cloning or to migrate to smaller media. Perfect for migrating to (usually smaller) SSD drives.

READ MORE » Miray HDClone Professional Edition