The operating system organizes and keeps all information on the disk in the form of files. A file can be a text you write, peripheral device you used, or data you acquire. Hence, there can be three different types of files, i.e. ‘regular’ – which stores data (text, binary, and executable), ‘directory’ – stores the information used to access other files, and ‘special’ – defines a physical device or first in-first out (FIFO) format. However, any sort of damage to these files may create a perilous situation of data loss. It can also result in system crash and thus, lead to complete inaccessibility of data. In some worst scenarios, you may be left with the last option to reinstall the operating system. Reinstalling the operating system requires formatting the hard disk, which in turn causes erasure of vital disk data. In order to easily and efficiently recover all your lost data, you need to go for file recovery through a reliable third-party utility.

 Suppose you are using a Windows XP based computer. While trying to start a program in your system, you may get the following error message on your screen:

 “Error starting program. The Comdlg32.dll file cannot start. Check the file to determine the problem.”

Before resolving the error, let us discuss the primary causes responsible for this error message.

 Cause:

 The causes of this error message are:

• Some programs have a tendency to replace the Windows files with their own files. Hence, the ‘Comdlg32.dll’ file might have been changed or substituted with a file from some other program.

• Sometimes, two different versions of the same DLL file create confusion and might cause the error which you are seeing.

 Resolution:

 Solutions to rectify this error are as follows:

• For Windows XP users: To fix this error, you have to update your Windows XP with the latest service pack and install KB884883 update. Now, restart your system.
• For Windows 98 users: To resolve this issue in Windows 98, you have to substitute the damaged file with a new copy of the original file through the System File Checker tool.

Hence, these resolutions will replace the corrupt or unreadable ‘Comdlg32.dll’ file and make it readable by the your computer when it needs. However, if this solution doesn’t work, then you should format the hard drive and reinstall Windows. The formatting process deletes all the data stored in your system. You can easily restore this data using an updated backup. If the backup is missing, you should take help of competent third-party Windows file recovery software. These third-party tools can smoothly recover all your lost, deleted, or inaccessible data in almost all cases of data loss due to formatting or corruption of the partitions, virus infections, system crash, etc.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a comprehensive tool that supports recovery from all Fat or NTFS based volumes. The software has an advanced ‘Cloning’ feature to create an exact replica of the storage media. Moreover, it is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, 2000, and NT4 (SP6).