In a practical scenario, you might come across below error message when you try to boot up your Windows XP computer:

“The file C:windowssystem32c_1252.nls is missing or corrupt”

Now , the boot process gets halted and your system does not start. This behavior of Windows XP renders entire hard drive inaccessible and leads to critical data loss situations. At this point, you need to carry out hard drive data recovery by sorting out this issue.

Reason of this behaviour

As stated in above error message, the problem is caused by *.nls file. The file is stored in the System32 folder of Microsoft Windows operating system. The *.nls file issues are caused by corruption or loss of the ‘c_1252.nls’ file.

NLS is stand for the National Language Support. These files are code pages, which are consisted of various tables that are used for translating text into other alphabets or languages.

How to solve the issue

Following are the possible way outs that you can try to fix this problem:
Use MS Windows XP boot CD to start your system and run chkdsk/r command via command prompt.

Replace the damaged system file (c_1252.nls) by using Windows Recovery Console.

Download and install latest service pack of Microsoft Windows XP.
When none of the above works, format the hard drive and reinstall Windows XP. This method resolves most of the hard drive and operating system related errors. But it also removes all the files from hard drive and need hard drive recovery software to retrieve lost data.