any way to retrieve old profile

edandcelia · 22 Jan 2011

My husband and I just bought a Dell Inspiron with Windows 7 Home on it. He bought it for use at work, and when he took it to work, they upgraded it to Windows 7 Professional. I don't know who they had working on this, but it seems that they didn't make a back-up of anything first, and my husband doesn't know enough about computers to have thought to make one, and he didn't realize that the people doing this to his computer might just not know what they were doing.
Anyway, EVERYTHING he had on the computer before is GONE...right down to the drivers for the wireless and the BLU-ray disc drive. I can put that stuff back, but he had also just finished writing a sermon on the computer, and that's gone too, of course. A lot of work that unfortunately he didn't save anywhere else.
If we take this in to a shop tomorrow, what are the chances that they'll be able to retrieve anything that was there before? We are hoping this is possible!

Golden · 22 Jan 2011

Hi,

It depends if they upgrade install or did a completely fresh install.

In Windows Explorer, can you see a folder called C:\Windows.old?

Regards,
Golden

whs · 22 Jan 2011

Hmm, your chances are either 100% (if there is a Windows.old folder) or pretty slim if that folder does not exist. If you upgrade from a previous system (XP, Vista), there is always a windows.old folder. Not sure whether that is the case in your upgrade. Suggest you check whether such a folder exists. It is pretty big, so you cannot miss it.

LOL, Golden wins the typing speed contest.

edandcelia · 22 Jan 2011

Golly, it looks as though it is there!! :)
Wow, this is great!
How do I use that to import things back onto the computer?
The best part is, I was able to find and open that sermon! My husband is so happy, and you guys are the best.

ccya965041 · 22 Jan 2011

Congratulations:)
You should immediatly backup the files you want into a different folder(just move the files out of Windows.old)

In your case,seems like the one who install Windows 7 Professional,
use a clean installation instead of using Windows Anytime Upgrade.
If they use a clean installation,
obviously they install the operating system on top of Win 7 Home Premium

If they use Windows Anytime Upgrade,all the files should remain in the Hard Disk

whs · 22 Jan 2011

edandcelia said:

Golly, it looks as though it is there!! :)
Wow, this is great!
How do I use that to import things back onto the computer?
The best part is, I was able to find and open that sermon! My husband is so happy, and you guys are the best.

Deal with this folder like with any old folder. Just copy the stuff from there into your new "normal" folders (Documents, etc.). The programs, however, you will have to reinstall. The drivers the system should find automatically.

PS: The safest way to move/copy files and folders is this: Context Menu - Add Copy To Folder and Move To Folder

Golden · 22 Jan 2011

Good news.

In which folder in C:\Windows.old does your data reside? One way is to simply copy the folder with the data files into C:\Users\{Your login user name}

There are probably better ways, but it depends what you want to achieve. Restore the entire old profiles, or simply restore some of your user data/files?

Regards,
Golden

EDIT : WHS is much faster than me this time

whs · 22 Jan 2011

Here are a couple of additional suggestions to keep you out of trouble next time:

1. Before you do any more heart surgeries on your system, take an image to an external drive. In fact, I suggest you take an image once per week. Then, whenever your system is in trouble, you can always set it back to the last image without losing too much. Here is how: Imaging with free Macrium

2. When you are ALL done with the windows.old folder, here is how you delete it: Windows.old Folder - Delete But make sure you really got everything from it that you need. If you take an image before you delete it, you can always go back to the image which you can open like a folder (nearly the same).

edandcelia · 22 Jan 2011

Yeah, the funny thing is, he has a beautiful external hard drive that I bought him.
Most of this heart surgery was done without him being aware of how extensively this was going to change his computer. When I found out about it, I was annoyed to say the least!

Thank you all very much for your wonderful advice.

whs · 22 Jan 2011

We are very glad that you and your husband can sleep well tonight. If you need more help, let us know. I am sure Golden will stay "on guard". His day (in Australia) has just started. I will be back tomorrow.