Windows 7 cannot find external hard drive

[TboneMelon]

I recently had to reset my laptop to factory settings in order to reload windows 7 that came with my HP Pavillion notebook. Before doing so I followed microsoft instructions to backup my data onto an external hard drive. 45 GB data was backed up. After everything was reset, I went to backup and restore at the start menu. Then I selected: backup to restore files from. Browse network locations. Windows cannot find the external hard drive. If I type in G:\ I can see the back up file and if I select it, the OK button is not active. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum if you go in to disk manager does the drive show with a drive letter it may need to have a drive letter assigned

 

[Megahertz07]

Open Explorer. Can you see the drive? If not, open disk manager, expand the columns so we can read them, with the sniping tool take a snapshot an then post the image as an attachment.

 

[TboneMelon]

Sorry but I cannot find a disk manager. I searched the term and nothing came up.
Attached is a snipe of where the back up data are located on the G drive.

thanks

 

[Layback Bear]

This tutorial by Golden will guide you to Disk Management.

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

Jack

 

[TboneMelon]

Attached is disk management screen shot.

 

[TboneMelon]

Sorry, please use this screen shot Capture2. It has the external hard drive

 

[Megahertz07]

As an external HDD it should have been formatted as NTFS.
Lets do a check disk to see if it's ok and fix any problems.
Open a CMD window and type chkdsk g: /f

Back to the backup program, the files aren't on the network. It says to hit Refresh so the program will look at local drives.

 

[TboneMelon]

Attached is copy of CMD window after typing: chkdsk g: /f

Also went back to backup and restore and hit Refresh button and still does not see local drives.

Thanks

 

[Megahertz07]

Your disk is ok.
Try to open Explorer, go to the G: drive, find the backup file and double click on it.

 

[TboneMelon]

I have open up the back up file. What next?

 

[Megahertz07]

Right click - open

 

[TboneMelon]

Sorry to be so dense, but which file? See attachment

 

[Megahertz07]

The Restore file.

On Explorer settings you should uncheck - Hide extensions from known files.
Malware can use hided extensions to spread virus.

 

[TboneMelon]

The restored files from my external hard drive are back on my computer. It created a Systems Recovery folder on my desktop. The files are shown on the attachment. I tried to go through the Backup and Recovery in windows again, but I still cannot see the files on my C drive.

I'm sorry but I am not much of a computer person and I don't know how to get those files back to where they came from.

Thanks for being so patient.

 

[Megahertz07]

You did a full disk restore.
There are many folders you won't need and it's taking your HDD space.
- Go to the C:\System Recover Files\2017-02-27\C folder (as shown on your above image).
- Select (Program Files + Program Files(86) + SWSetup + Windows) (Be sure Users folder isn't selected) and then hit Shift+Delete.
- Confirm delete of the folders.
- Open C:\System Recover Files\2017-02-27\C:\Users
-There will be a Public and <name> folder. If you used to have more than one user you'll have it shown there.
- Select <name> and there you will find your personal folders (My Documents, My Pictures etc)
- Open C:\System Recover Files\2017-02-27\C:\Users\<name>\My documents
- Select all files and folders (Ctrl+a) and then cut (Ctrl+x)
- Go to C:\Users\<name>\My documents and then paste (Ctrl+v)
- You just moved all your files and folders from C:\System Recover Files\2017-02-27\C:\Users\<name>\My documents (restored backup files) to C:\Users\<name>\My documents
- Do the same (cut and paste) for the other folders - My Pictures, My Music etc
-

 

[TboneMelon]

Megahertz07
Great. It worked. I now have all the files back on my computer.
Thank you so much for your help and for being patient with me.

TBoneMelon

 

[Megahertz07]

You're welcome. Glad to see you recovered your files.