Can't see my old explorer file comments from XP in Windows 7

Hi!. My first post....

I just put together a new PC with decent motherboard, AMD quad CPU, 8 GB RAM, solid-state C:\ main drive, new 2 TB disk slave drive F:\, plus an older external drive G:\. I loaded Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64 bit.

I have many video files (mp4, flv, mpg, mpeg & wmv). These were compiled on another computer running XP Home SP3. The problem is that I can no longer access file details, which is a huge problem. So, when I right-click a file name, hit Properties, Details, Comments, my old text notes are either missing or there is no comments field, depending on file type. I see all users have full rights, and I unchecked Read-only and Hidden File and applied to all. No change. I tried copying files to the other drives ... no change.

The mp4 files don't show my old notes in the empty Comments line. The flv files show no comments line at all. The mpg and mpeg have a blank Comments line that cannot be filled in; same for Nero VOB files. The wmv files, however, are the only ones that show the old notes in the comments line.

As for pics, the jpg files seem to have their comments intact (whew!).

If I put the external drive back on the XP machine, the comments are there. I later installed Nero 9 from their website ... no change.

Do you have any sage advice? Is there some utility software that could help me access the missing comments? I don't want to install XP as a dual boot just to see old comments. Thanks very much!!

Hi,

I believe that Windows XP used some feature of NTFS called Alternate Data Streams to store text comments. This is no longer supported from Vista onwards.

The below may help you, but I have not used it myself:

Good software to handle NTFS alternate data stream in windows explorer? - Super User

Hope this helps!

Thanks, but the articles didn't help. I just want to see my old comments. I have tried changing the file name to a .wmv type of file, but that didn't help at all. Is there an alternative to Windows Explorer that would have this missing functionality? Maybe some software that reveals comments made with XP?