I am sure that you may have faced problems, like me, while booting your Windows XP system. This is a very prevalent situation that may appear due to incorrect boot settings or hardware incompatibility. If not corrected, then this problem can result in making the valuable data inaccessible, which means huge data loss. To overcome such problems, you can check the booting preferences in the BIOS section including other methods. Having said that, if the system still does not boot then the services of a file recovery software should be used.

For instance, when you start your Windows XP system, it fails to start. An error message is displayed in this regard, that is:

“Non-system disk or disk error
Replace and strike any key when ready”

Cause:
Such scenarios can appear when there are no boot files present in the storage media assigned as the boot device. In such cases, the boot device can either be a floppy disk, a CD ROM, a DVD, or a hard drive disk.

Resolution:
To bring normalcy in the booting pattern of your system, you should perform either or all of the following methods.
You should take out the non-system disk from the booting device. For instance, there may be a floppy in the floppy drive or a CD in the CD-ROM drive.
Modify the booting preferences of your computer. This can be done using the BIOS section before the startup. You should select a booting device that has got the boot files installed.
If you are not using any removable device and use a hard disk instead, then you should ensure to install a bootable operating system on the hard drive.

Restart the system once you have performed the aforementioned methods. It should be able to start perfectly.

However, if you look closely at the last method it suggests to install a fresh copy of Windows XP, which can overwrite the existing data. And you would lose the valuable data in the process, which is not a desirable proposition at all. Hence, to recover the trapped data without any data loss, there is a requirement of using the services of a third-party file recovery software. These file recovery tools are packaged with a Boot CD that proves very useful when the system does not boot.

When it comes the file recovery tools, Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most trusted one, which recovers trapped or deleted files from inaccessible file systems. Recovering more than 185 types of files, this file recovery software is supported by FAT, NTFS, or exFAT file systems. In addition, this email recovery software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.