Assign user files

[Foghorn]

My hard drive crashed. I have a good backup of the c:\Users folder. I
replaced the drive and did a new Vista install, creating a generic admin
account. I've restored all the files to the c:\users\olduser folder. I then
created a new admin account with the same user name as the olduser. Vista
though created a User folder named c:\Users\Username.PCName. So, all of my
restored files are just stashed away in an inaccessible folder.

How do I or can I assign the restored Users folder to the new account or
recreate the old account on this new PC? I would like to recover all the mail
and other settings from the user folder as well as the data files.

Thanks,

 

[Michael Walraven]

What I would do:
rename the c:\users\olduser folder to c:\users\olduserRestored
delete the current Username account (Username.PCName in the file structure)
check that all of c:\users\Username.PCName is gone, delete the folder if it
remains.
Now create an administrator account olduser, it should be created as
expected at c:\users\olduser
Copy the contents of c:\users\olduserRestored to c:\users\olduser.

You may have difficulty accessing your former data and may need to change
ownership and permissions on the folder c:\users\olduserRestored. You will
also have decide what should be overwritten in your new real account. In
general DO NOT OVERWRITE. As you are copying you will have more
opportunities to copy over any files that got missed, but if you overwrite
some important configuration file (usually the hidden stuff) you may have to
start over.

Have fun,
Michael

 

[Foghorn]

Yikes!

I think I'd be better off to just rebuild the application configs on a one
by one basis then risk that!

Maybe I just long for the good old dos days, but what's the value of a
backup? I learned PCs by having backups. I'd screw something up and just copy
files back into place. How simple? Now it appears the backups will recover
data files, but program files, config files, etc are really of no value. No
matter how diligent the backup, I'm destined for hours or days of
reconfiguration after a crash.

Thanks for the detailed "solution" but with your cautions in mind, the cure
may be worse than the disease.

I'll let you know how it turns out. I've got about 10 more hours of
downloading files for the restoration.


Fog

 

[Michael Walraven]

If you want to be able to 'restore' your entire system, including programs
and settings, you will need an 'Image' backup program. If you are using
Vista Home versions you will need to get a third party package.
Acronis has one but I cannot actually recommend it as I have only used it
one time on a XP machine so don't have enough experience.

Michael