Backup and Restore Files rather than System

[Garyrmn]

Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Backup and Restore

I have just had the hard drive on my notebook replaced, before delivering my
notebook for this small service I carried out a complete PC backup to an
external hard drive and now have the following folders and files;
Backup 2007-12-24 043922 (folder)
Catalog (folder)
MediaID (file)

When I got my notebook back I tried to restore programs and folders from the
backup but Vista's advance restore utility keeps telling me that it cannot
find any backup sets. I now have a big problem because all my work files and
folders are somewhere in that backup and I can't get at them.

Can anyone help? Am I doing something wrong? Is there any other means for me
to recover my data?

 

[Jon]

Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Backup and Restore

I have just had the hard drive on my notebook replaced, before delivering
my
notebook for this small service I carried out a complete PC backup to an
external hard drive and now have the following folders and files;
Backup 2007-12-24 043922 (folder)
Catalog (folder)
MediaID (file)

When I got my notebook back I tried to restore programs and folders from
the
backup but Vista's advance restore utility keeps telling me that it cannot
find any backup sets. I now have a big problem because all my work files
and
folders are somewhere in that backup and I can't get at them.

Can anyone help? Am I doing something wrong? Is there any other means for
me
to recover my data?

Choose 'Advanced Restore' and the 'Files from a backup made on a different
computer' option (rather than the 'Files from an older backup on this
computer' option), and then follow the prompts.

A little unintuitive I appreciate to select a 'different' computer, but
that's the way it works.

 

[Garyrmn]

Jon,

Thank you for pointing out the obvious, I had already tried this several
times, as I mentioned in my original post

Vista's advance restore utility keeps telling me that it cannot find any
backup sets

I really need to find a work around for this rather urgently, so any other
ideas would be appreciated

Gary

 

[Jon]

Jon,

Thank you for pointing out the obvious, I had already tried this several
times, as I mentioned in my original post

Vista's advance restore utility keeps telling me that it cannot find any
backup sets

I really need to find a work around for this rather urgently, so any other
ideas would be appreciated

Gary

Gary

It was obvious, and I'll follow it up with a suggestion that's even more
obvious.

Did it occur to you to click on the folders and open them up, or was such an
advanced procedure beyond you?

 

[Garyrmn]

Jon,

Yup, that occured to me as well, have several files in each folder, all of
which are XML Documents, at least Vista tells me such, and of course
backup/restore does not recognise them.... I also have a 19G vhd file,
presumably this contains my actual missing files, seeing the files doesn't
actually help me to restore them!!

Gary

 

[Jon]

Jon,

Yup, that occured to me as well, have several files in each folder, all of
which are XML Documents, at least Vista tells me such, and of course
backup/restore does not recognise them.... I also have a 19G vhd file,
presumably this contains my actual missing files, seeing the files doesn't
actually help me to restore them!!

Gary

Gary

Ok , well yes the vhd file will contain all your files. The vhd format is
also the same format as that found in Virtual PC, so you could potentially
set up a virtual machine and mount that .vhd as an additional hard drive,
and then retrieve your files. Or if you google a bit, there may be tools
that you can find to mount the .vhd file directly.

 

[danix803]

I have the same problem...
I've googled with no usable results...
The virtual machine thing sounds interesting... However, the bottom line is
that I want MS's backup program to work like it's supposed to... I want it to
be able to find the backup sets that it makes... I've seen hundreds of posts
all over the internet about this and NO solutions... exect this VM thing...
MS backup doesn't work, so yeah... let's install more MS junk to mess up my
computer... that really logical... NOT !!!
I have a DELL XPS 420 with a Maxtor 250GB ext hard
drive... I did a 'Complete PC Backup' to B: drive (The ext Maxtor)
Next, I rebooted and used the system repair from the boot menu... this
formated my hard drive and set everything back to the DELL factory
defaults... re-installing Windows Vista Ultimate, Office 2K7, and all the
other DELL junk...
Now, I'd like to restore the computer to before the DELL repair... the files
are all still on the B: drive, I can see them there...
However, when I go to 'Restore files' -> 'Advanced restore' -> 'Warning -
Continue' -> only the 'Files from a backup made on a different computer.' is
enabled and already has a tick in the radio button -> 'Next' -> 'Looking for
backup devices...' -> I select B: drive -> and it tells me "Windows cannot
find an backup sets on the selected device"
If you have a solution please let me know...