If I do a custom upgrade, how do I get my files back?

[Mercuril]

Hi there!

I'm going to be a university student at Indiana University in the fall, so during orientation I picked up a student version of Windows 7 Ultimate for my HP Compaq laptop, which I bought back when Vista was brand new --I cant afford a new laptop right now, and the hardware is still good anyway. I will be upgrading from Windows Vista Basic.

My school's IT department recommends doing a "clean" install to avoid any software problems after the installation. I dont really know what the difference between a clean install versus a regular one would be, but I have the IT department's instructions on how to do a clean, custom install, instead of the standard upgrade. I want my computer to work well with the school's network, so I am fine with that.

The only thing that makes me uncomfortable is that they say custom upgrades delete all of my computer's files.

I HAVE AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE, AND DID A COMPLETE BACK UP THIS AFTERNOON. All of my information is safely stored on my external terabyte.

My only question is, how do I sync all of my files from the external hard drive back onto my computer after this is done? I want to make sure it's possible to put everything back on my compuer before I go doing this custom installation and erasing everything.

Thanks!

 

[Product FRED]

If it runs Vista, it will run 7 better than Vista ran on it.

The difference between a clean install and an upgrade is this: A clean install is when you wipe the hard drive, including all of your files (which you hopefully backed up beforehand) and then install Windows. And upgrade is when you go from Vista to 7 without losing any files or programs.

You really should not do an upgrade because things get buggy as you start to use the computer. Things won't work correctly and you'll run into a bunch of problems. Copy all of your important files onto your external drive, boot into your Windows 7 disc, wipe the hard drive using "Quick Format", and then install Windows normally.

Here's a tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

If you have an upgrade disc, you can still do a clean installation: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

 

[theog]

Take a look here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11470-windows-easy-transfer-transfer-computers.html?ltr=W
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/615-backup-user-system-files.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/648-restore-backup-user-system-files.html

 

[bigmck]

The Clean Install is definately the way to go. After you have backed up your files, boot your computer with the Win 7 disk. It should only take about 45 minutes to install Win 7. You will then have to reinstall your programs and you will be good to go. Win 7 is a big improvement and you will be glad you switched. Good Luck,

 

[Mercuril]

Ah, thank you all so much! I knew there was probably a way to restore my files and progams, but I just wanted to make sure I knew how to do it before I went around installing new things!

And I am so relieved to hear that Windows7 will work better on my computer. I've heard nothing but good things about it. I know my processor and RAM are pretty low-tech by today's standards, but I'm hoping that some of my problems with running more than one application at a time will be resolved when I install this new software. I'm actually pretty excited!

Thanks, guys! I wasnt expecting such quick and helpful responses!

 

[theog]

Ah, thank you all so much! I knew there was probably a way to restore my files and progams, but I just wanted to make sure I knew how to do it before I went around installing new things!

Programs will need to be reinstalled.
You are welcome.

 

[Mercuril]

Alright, now I'm a tad bit worried.

I just installed Windows 7. It looks great. I'm sure it runs great too. Now I am trying to reinstall my files. I used the "Restore User and Backup Files" walkthrough that theog provided.

So I'm at the point where it is asking me which backup I would like to put on my computer. The external hard drive I have has backups for my dad's laptop, my laptop, and our major old family computer that no one uses anymore.

Only my dad's backup is showing up. Now I am freaking out... we have none of the same things. I have a ton of programs and documents and media that I NEED and PAID FOR, and now I cant find them. I know my backup is in the external hard drive somewhere; now how do I get it out?

I know these links you guys have given me are helpful, but the ones I have looked at arent doing the trick; can someone actually write out for me what I need to do?

 

[richc46]

Welcome

I doubt tht your files are lost, as long as you followed instructions.

Try to find it with this.

DiskDigger | The trusted data recovery solution

For added safetu you may want to back up the external, before using diskdigger. I have not heard of any problems, but these files seem very important to you.

 

[gregrocker]

Use the drop down file display type menu in Explorer select Details view, then order your External HD by date/time by clicking that column head.

Now find the file by the date and time when you saved your backup. Now you can use the file transfer or backup program which saved the backup for you to restore it to your new install.

If you have problems, try browsing into the files yourself and figure out how to drag them to the corresponding folders (Document, Photos, etc) in the explorer tree to the left.

It is for this reason that I never use backup or file transfer programs, just drag the folders I use to the external into one big folder named for the backup occasion. You may have to try to adapt the backup folder to use it like this if its automation fails, as it can.

 

[Mercuril]

Okay... so under my folder titled "(My Name)'s Backup Folder" are a bunch of files that I dont recognize. It says that some were created on the day I did my first backup and others were created just a few hours ago, when I backed up my computer again. I dont understand what these files are, but honestly, the computer is probably smarter than I am when it comes to that sort of thing. The files are made up of thousands of kilobytes --like over 600,000 kb per file. I figured those were all of my files compressed into a file that the backup program could read or something, and I didnt worry about it.

The problem is, the backup folder DOES NOT contain any of my documents, songs, video, or photos. At all. I figured they were compressed into these files that I dont recognize, so I clicked on one of the files,and it said that Windows couldnt open it because Windows doesnt recognize the file format. How can it not recognize the file format? It made the file format!

...Okay.

I am willing to upload my documents, video, photos, and everything else I had (I really didnt have many programs... as you can probably tell, I basically use only iTunes, Microsoft Office, and Internet) to a USB flash drive. Is there a way I can restore my computer to the software it had before Windows 7, with all my files back? Could I get my files back that way?

What am I supposed to do to get my files back?

The links you have been sending me are informative and explicit, but they are not helpful in my situation. They assume that 1: Windows can find my backup folder in the external hard drive which it cannot. It can only find my father's backup folder. And 2: My files are neatly organized into all the subfolders, which they are not. They are compressed into folders that the computer made during the backup but no longer recognizes. So basically, I cant read anything in my backup folder.

Can someone please talk me through this?

 

[theog]

What backup program are you using?
Is your father backup from other PC?

 

[madtownidiot]

Instead of making a backup, simply copy all your media and personal files to your external drive using the copy and paste functions. That way the format doesn't get changed. As posted earlier, you will have to reinstall all your programs, so there's no real need to make a backup anyway.

When you're sure you have everything you want to keep, then insert the install disk, restart your computer and boot from the DVD.

One recommendation I make is to use the drive options to repartition your HDD, 1 partition of at least 40 GB for windows and programs and the rest for media and personal files in a separate partition, so that in the future, if you ever have a problem that can be more easily solved by reinstalling windows, you can do so without having to worry about losing any of your files. Smaller partitions also make windows run faster. I have a 4 year old dell that boots in 32 seconds and outperforms many of the newer dual and quad core systems that come preloaded with windows 7, partially because of the way I formatted the HDD, and partially because it's a clean install with no factory bloat or unnecessary startup programs.



Good luck

 

[Mercuril]

What backup program are you using?
Is your father backup from other PC?

Yeah, my father has his own laptop, and I have mine. We put both backups on the external hard drive.

I am using the backup program that came with my external hard drive. Before I upgraded to Ultimate, whenever I plugged in my hard drive to my computer, a little popup asking me to okay the backup program would pop up, but it's not doing that now.

What the backup program said it does, is this: The first time you backup, it scans all of your files, and then uploads them one by one onto the external drive. That took like four hours the first time I did a back up. Then every other time you do a backup, it scans your whole computer again, but then it only uploads files that have been modified since the last backup date. So the backup I did yesterday only took an hour or so.

My external hard drive is a terabyte that I bought from Best Buy; it was made by Toshiba.

xx

madtown, you're assuming that I havent switched from Vista to W7 yet, but I have. It is too late for me to back up my files. I would have loved to have seen this information before I did the software switch, but it's too late for that now. All my files are gone.

xx

I am not a hardcore gamer and my life isnt based on my computer, so I am trying to tell myself that maybe I should just give up. I found my music and video files that are compatible with iTunes and iPod, so that's what would have hurt financially. I havent reinstalled iTunes yet, but I'm sure those files are fine. They are files that I recognize.

What really upsets me is that I'm a writer (unpublished, with a desire to stay unpublished, so at least it's not a career problem). And I have copies of old stories and new, all sorts of drafts, and now they are gone. If you are not a writer, you would not understand, but those documents are honestly a part of me, and I look over them from time to time to improve myself.

What does frustrate me is that all of the sudden, my Norton Antivirus Spyware I had, is gone. I guess I have to reinstall that too. But I dont know how to do that, so I will have to wait until I see my dad... And he will not be happy that I screwed up the backup...

 

[Thorsen]

Have faith friend, your files should still be there if the backup was done. Did you install the backup program to your new win 7? or is the program stored on the external?

You can also look on your C: for a windows.old file. The install might have created this type of file/folder to hold all of your data when the new install took place.

Another good thing to try since this can be confusing is to write down the names of all the backup files available and check each one to narrow it down so you know where it is not.

 

[electrotune1200]

USB_Portable_Ext_Hard_Drive Support

If you go to this page... A little more than halfay down the page, you can download and install the Toshiba backup software.

Installing that will probably retrieve your backup.

 

[Mercuril]

Thorsen, the backup program came with the external hard drive, so it is not on my laptop and is still stored on the hard drive.

I'll do a search for the .old files too; I didnt know that's how they did that...

Electrotune, thanks for the link; I'm about to start reading it and will download it if it's the right one.

 

[Thorsen]

the windows.old folder is where windows stores all your previous files when you do an upgrade. This is an option though when you do the upgrade so I dont know if the system created the file, but its worth a look.

 

[Thorsen]

As for the text files, as these are small, there is a good chance they have not been overwritten during the upgrade. If they have not, you can use diskdigger to search for these files.

Tech info: When files are "deleted" they are not really deleted they are taken out of the list of files and changed to "Free space". This free space can then be written to, but the data that was previously there is not changed unless a file is written over it or you format the drive and overwrite the free space. This is usally done be changing all place values to zero's. (Edit: more info) Using programs like Diskdigger or Recuva look in this free space for files and allow you to restore these files if they have not been completely overwritten.

 

[theog]

You may need to download the update for win7 for your backup app.

 

[gregrocker]

As long as you are sure you were using the Toshiba external driver's own backup app - and not the one built into Vista which just popped up and started working for you - then this is a time when you should call Toshiba Tech Support to get them to help you make their backup utility work for your new Win7 install. They have all of the workarounds, know its limitations and emergency methods to extract data.

If you are within a year of purchase, support should be included in the warranty. If not, they may give you enough help to get you on your way before charging you for it, although it may be a price you're willing to pay for your data. my friend got tech support to retrieve data from an off-brand which is almost a year old.

Remember: Drag and Drop in the future. It is as easy as dragging the folders over to your external in the explorer tree to left, or drag your entire named User Account to be sure you get everything. Don't let the folder go until you are sure it is gonna drop in right directory.

Good luck.