I reinstalled windows 7 (activated), can i restore files from a clone?

antonio2501 said:

yea. it's the windows.old folder. i figure since it's a saved folder from a previous installation that it would have a lot of characters for the path. renaming is going to be fun.

Files are on disk and are valid NTFS names. Not too long at all! If their names were too long.... they couldn't be there. It's the windows shell that's only accepting 260 characters maxmium.

Can you rename c:\windows.old to c:\q succesfully?
To which folder are you trying to copy c:\windows.old ?

antonio2501 said:

if i use the Andvanced Recovery method to reinstall windows, or use a system image (none at hand gives me the option to factory settings) would i need to reactivate?

Yolu always have to reactivate your windows7. You don't have to reactivate in case of "clone" or "system image" restore (to same hardware). Why do you bother?

antonio2501 said:

renaming worked and i was able to save windows old. i have another problem. after saving windows.old, i deleted it, in order to make space and try and back up or clone that version of windows because it is activated. it is on a 3TB hard drive that is faulty. i just need the activated version of windows. is there any way to find out why there is more that 900GB of data that i can't seem to find? it's a newly installed version of windows, with the windows.old folder deleted.

Maybe in a restore point(?)

• Empty recycle bin of all users
• Show hidden and Protected Operating System Files and search for large files. Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics is the tool to use