Question
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Topic
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Windows XP installation/ data issues
LockedHi all – I’ve had a look around on the forums (although most of it I didnt understand) and tried a solution, but that didn’t solve it… so here goes..
My “normal” installation of XP kept on getting BSOD during loading – I couldnt catch the error to see what it was. After several attempts to fix it – I decided to do a reinstall without formatting the partition as I’m desperate not to lose the stuff in there including irreplaceable photo’s files etc (yes yes I know…). Ok so now a new windows XP runs as a basic build, BUT I can’t see any of the data from the previous install. The partition this install is in says it has 256gb out of 260gb free so it’s not in here (or is it just not being recognised..?), the other partition at first wasn’t even registering, after going into control panel and the storage part of admin services I could see the partition but it hasn’t been assigned a letter, and just says 205gb of free space.
However..when I boot up I’m still being asked which version of Xp I want to load and when I try the other one I get the “….hal.dll” error. When I tried to do the recovery from the XP disk it only gave me one (1) choice instead of the two (2) I’m seeing on bootup, so I don’t know if I’m able to do the fix that way as I can’t tell which one is being offered.
ok all that explained I need to know two (2) things: can my previous install be fixed? OR and more importantly can the data/ files from the first install be recovered in any way? Even if it means buying a new HDD and installing a new XP onto that and sending the borken HDD away? I REALLY hope the data has not been “lost” or otherwise become irretrievable (and yes I’ll backup from now on..*sigh*)
If anyone is able to help in ANY way – I’ll be very very grateful, feel free to ask for email details etc if u need and I’ll try to answer any question as best I can.