Windows 7: Not able to select a backup

Hey guys,

I recently had to reinstall windows 7 on my laptop as it randomly decided not to boot up. I had a backup of my files saved onto a partition on my laptop but it won't let me restore them for some reason.

I can access the partition from the computer tab and I see the backup there. When I click on it it asks me if I want to 'restore files from this backup', but when accept there are no backups listed.

I originally tried to repair my windows 7 when I had to reinstall it but it came up with a message saying that there were no backups to restore! Any ideas guys?

L

I was just looking at the partition again - It says that it has 57GB free out of 107 but my windows backup is 0 bytes when I look at its properties. I don't know if that is normal though as the only other files in it are only a few KBs each!

Same situation if you go to your Windows Backup panel, scroll down and choose "Restore my Files" ?

That is normal. The backup folders are not empty. I think it is an attempt by MS to protect the innocent who want to fiddle.

An easy way to look at the contents of file/folder and image backups without "barging in" is to install the free Partition Wizard mini Tool and use the "explore partition" option. For file/folder backups you should see a load of .zip files. For images you will see one or maybe two .vhd files (one will be very large).
If you can see them then your problem is to do Windows auto locating the backups.

There are good free alternatives to Windows file/folder and image backup that many people prefer.
eg.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Hey,

I installed the partition wizard mini tool and I have found a lot of large zip files labeled 'backup files xx .zip' which I think is what you were talking about. I can't seem to find any .zhd files however. I installed macrium reflect too but I'm a bit lost understanding how to restore them.

Thanks for your help so far!

L

Hello L, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you are unable to restore the backup normally, then you might see if you may be able to use the tutorial below to manually extract any files you may need from the backup.

Backup - Manually Extract Files from in Vista & Windows 7

Hope this helps,
Shawn

The Windows image files are .vhd not zhd.
For help with Macrium see
Imaging with free Macrium
The method I use to manually restore .zip file/folder backups unzips the lot in a temporary location and retains the file structure automatically. You can do a search to locate any specific folders or files.

How to Manually Recover Windows file/folder Backups

This will retain your original directory/folder structure.

1) Right click your file/folder backup named like "JONES-PC". Select Open and choose a backup set folder eg. "Backup Set 2011-06-23 194949".
2) Double click to open the Backup Set folder. You will see a number of Backup Files folders eg. "Backup Files 2011-06-23 194949". One will be large and be the first main backup of the set. The other folders will be smaller and be subsequent incremental backups.
3) Open each "Backup files " folder and there are your backup .zip files. Start with the large "Backup file ..." folder.
4) Create a recovery folder somewhere (say a data partition or an external drive).
5) Install 7-zip so that it appears as a right click option.
6) Highlight one or more of the .zip files and right click select 7-zip. Highlighting all of them will perform a complete recovery.
7) Choose "Extract files...". Under "Extract to:" browse to your recovery folder.
Ensure "Path mode:" is set to "Full pathnames". Select ok.
8) Do this for all .zip files in each of the "Backup files..." folders.

Hey guys,

When I open my backup folder there is only 1 item in there called 'MediaID.bin and its 1 KB.

Looking back at the partition using the partition wizard all of my files are in a folder called 'found.000' and not in the one called 'L-PC'. The folder is not visible if I just go into the partition normally through my computer though! .zhd was a typo, I meant to say I couldn't find any .vhd files. Any ideas?

L,

If you do not see any Backup Set YYYY-MM-DD HHMMSS folders when you open the (computer name) folder, then you do not have any Windows Backups available. They must have been deleted.