Can't restore 'Settings'...

[Guest]

19/4/2007 / Can't restore 'Settings'
------------------------------------------------

Specs: 3yr old DeskTop PC, Win XP Pro SP2; all the usual, average,
run-of-the-mill, standard modern specs...

-----------------------------------------

PROBLEM:

How can I restore (on my screen) my old DeskTop from the previous XP
Pro install?

The above is my basic problem. If there's a simple solution, fine;
if not, then hopefully whoever reads this will wade thru the whole
story for the detail on my dilemma, just below. I reckon there's
a clue in there somewhere on where I went wrong...

-----------------------------------------

HD couldn't be accessed as Master; only as slave. Looked like MBR was
destroyed/corrupted. Set as Master and re-installed XP. Had my doubts
but went ok. Windows recognized it and must have repaired the MBR.
This was better and less risky than me trying some of those FDISK
commands, et al. Windows warned however that some files and ALL
settings, etc., would be wiped. 's OK. I had previously already
backed all my data to elsewhere.

So be it. Now made an official MS BACKUP of the Documents and Settings
folder prior to the re-install. Did this while HD was hooked as
Slave and saved the backup to the Master HD and to another 'puter
on the LAN. Did BACKUP via the 'Files and Settings Transfer Wizard' -
or was it just via the MS BACKUP UTILITY? Not sure now. Memory BAD.

There was some confusion during the process because I don't think
the Wizard (or MS BACKUP UTILITY) was designed with my kind of
situation in mind; that is, transferring/backing 'Settings' off
an inaccessible, blown-MBR, prime partition (C HD hooked as a
Slave to another Master HD so that the blown HD could be accessed
as Slave. The Wizard/BACKUP options looked funny but ultimately all
seemed to have gone according to Hoyle (OK).

After re-install XP, I executed the BACKUP file and tried use the
basic wizard to restore my settings. No go. Double clicking on
the funny (w/ CD) icon didn't do anything. Went to 'Advanced'
mode. That did the trick. Selected ''Don't replace files'. At first
only 1300 of 1700 objects/files got processed. Nothing got restored -
even after re-boot.


Note: I reckon that a Wizard is a Wizard because he's smarter than
the rest of us. Not so, in this case. The Wizard didn't seem much
of a Wizard to me.

It came up automatically when I double-clicked the MS BACKUP
executable. Therefore, it should have known that that file contained
the Settings backup and should have targetted it automatically and
immediately. If in doubt, it could have flashed (as is typical w/
Windows aps): "Are you sure this is the file containing your saved
settings" or "Please confirm...", after it had made the selection
itself.

Being an idiot (which is the reason for having Wizards in the
first place), I didn't at first realize that I had to give
it the path to that same executable MS BACKUP UTILITY file.
Boy, I can imagine some of the new office secretaries tying
on that one.

What for? Come on, folks. Something wrong here.
What's the point of having 2 super-intelligent programs to ease
the burden on us/we idiots when they can't even do a simple thing
like that on their own?


Anyway, I did note that now we had all my previous accounts added
to the Documents & Settings folder - all in the right places.
Believing that it might do some good, I recreated the 2 old User
Accounts - ADMIN1 and GUEST1. None had used passwords.

After the initial re-install, Windows had put an "Aministrator" and
a "Guest" account on my screen when I booted. After I re-created
my old accts, I was unable to immediately delete the 2 Windows-
created accts (and I'm not sure now, if ever I can). So I reckoned
I should now see 4 accounts on boot. Not so! Now I see nothing...


Repeated the entire settings restoration process but this time chose
'replace all files'. This time, all 1700 files got 'processed' - but
the initial Windows-created accts are still there. Seems like
nothing much got replaced.

Result: Same thing. No change - even after re-boot. (Well, I
presume a reboot is necessary anyway to update the settings).

So, currently we're in a state of mass confusion. Can anyone
please point out where we went wrong?

Thank you so much for your time and trouble,

Ted...


BTW, I took a peek at "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" post in
Windows XP General from shelleyanne 10/13/2005 8:29 AM PST.
Very enlightening....


----------------------------------------

PS - To add to the confusion, when I typed this query up in a
Notebook text file created on my open DeskTop, the first one seemed
to have stayed OK. Then, as I added more and more text and saved the
file again, closed it and later opened it, all my added work seemed
to have disappeared. Panic!

After a moment of confusion, I did a search and found that there were
2 same-name files in 2 different DeskTop folders! one in ADMIN1
(the modified file, in my restored-settings ADMIN1\DESKTOP folder)
and one in ADMINISTRATOR\DESKTOP folder (the initially created file,
in the installation-created DESKTOP folder).

I don't know how this happened as, when I clicked 'Save' that 2nd
time, no box came up (as when one selects 'Save As...'). So it wasn't
a matter of not paying attention to what I was doing, I don't think.

I'm aware of some weird bugs with Notepad, from reading up on it in
some of these forums here. Some are pretty horrid. But in this case
there seems to be something funny going on with the 'Settings'
restoration. I had thought that afterwards I would see my old,
crowded DeskTop on screen instead of this meagerly-populated one
set up by the re-install.

----------------------------------------

PPS - I'm also wondering if there's some way to exclude ".zip" and
other extension files from a Windows Search to reduce the search time.

Thanks,

Ted...

 

[Rock]

19/4/2007 / Can't restore 'Settings'
------------------------------------------------

Specs: 3yr old DeskTop PC, Win XP Pro SP2; all the usual, average,
run-of-the-mill, standard modern specs...

-----------------------------------------

PROBLEM:

How can I restore (on my screen) my old DeskTop from the previous XP
Pro install?

The above is my basic problem. If there's a simple solution, fine;
if not, then hopefully whoever reads this will wade thru the whole
story for the detail on my dilemma, just below. I reckon there's
a clue in there somewhere on where I went wrong...

-----------------------------------------

HD couldn't be accessed as Master; only as slave. Looked like MBR was
destroyed/corrupted. Set as Master and re-installed XP. Had my doubts
but went ok. Windows recognized it and must have repaired the MBR.
This was better and less risky than me trying some of those FDISK
commands, et al. Windows warned however that some files and ALL
settings, etc., would be wiped. 's OK. I had previously already
backed all my data to elsewhere.

So be it. Now made an official MS BACKUP of the Documents and Settings
folder prior to the re-install. Did this while HD was hooked as
Slave and saved the backup to the Master HD and to another 'puter
on the LAN. Did BACKUP via the 'Files and Settings Transfer Wizard' -
or was it just via the MS BACKUP UTILITY? Not sure now. Memory BAD.

There was some confusion during the process because I don't think
the Wizard (or MS BACKUP UTILITY) was designed with my kind of
situation in mind; that is, transferring/backing 'Settings' off
an inaccessible, blown-MBR, prime partition (C HD hooked as a
Slave to another Master HD so that the blown HD could be accessed
as Slave. The Wizard/BACKUP options looked funny but ultimately all
seemed to have gone according to Hoyle (OK).

After re-install XP, I executed the BACKUP file and tried use the
basic wizard to restore my settings. No go. Double clicking on
the funny (w/ CD) icon didn't do anything. Went to 'Advanced'
mode. That did the trick. Selected ''Don't replace files'. At first
only 1300 of 1700 objects/files got processed. Nothing got restored -
even after re-boot.


Note: I reckon that a Wizard is a Wizard because he's smarter than
the rest of us. Not so, in this case. The Wizard didn't seem much
of a Wizard to me.

It came up automatically when I double-clicked the MS BACKUP
executable. Therefore, it should have known that that file contained
the Settings backup and should have targetted it automatically and
immediately. If in doubt, it could have flashed (as is typical w/
Windows aps): "Are you sure this is the file containing your saved
settings" or "Please confirm...", after it had made the selection
itself.

Being an idiot (which is the reason for having Wizards in the
first place), I didn't at first realize that I had to give
it the path to that same executable MS BACKUP UTILITY file.
Boy, I can imagine some of the new office secretaries tying
on that one.

What for? Come on, folks. Something wrong here.
What's the point of having 2 super-intelligent programs to ease
the burden on us/we idiots when they can't even do a simple thing
like that on their own?


Anyway, I did note that now we had all my previous accounts added
to the Documents & Settings folder - all in the right places.
Believing that it might do some good, I recreated the 2 old User
Accounts - ADMIN1 and GUEST1. None had used passwords.

After the initial re-install, Windows had put an "Aministrator" and
a "Guest" account on my screen when I booted. After I re-created
my old accts, I was unable to immediately delete the 2 Windows-
created accts (and I'm not sure now, if ever I can). So I reckoned
I should now see 4 accounts on boot. Not so! Now I see nothing...


Repeated the entire settings restoration process but this time chose
'replace all files'. This time, all 1700 files got 'processed' - but
the initial Windows-created accts are still there. Seems like
nothing much got replaced.

Result: Same thing. No change - even after re-boot. (Well, I
presume a reboot is necessary anyway to update the settings).

So, currently we're in a state of mass confusion. Can anyone
please point out where we went wrong?

Thank you so much for your time and trouble,

Ted...


BTW, I took a peek at "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" post in
Windows XP General from shelleyanne 10/13/2005 8:29 AM PST.
Very enlightening....


----------------------------------------

PS - To add to the confusion, when I typed this query up in a
Notebook text file created on my open DeskTop, the first one seemed
to have stayed OK. Then, as I added more and more text and saved the
file again, closed it and later opened it, all my added work seemed
to have disappeared. Panic!

After a moment of confusion, I did a search and found that there were
2 same-name files in 2 different DeskTop folders! one in ADMIN1
(the modified file, in my restored-settings ADMIN1\DESKTOP folder)
and one in ADMINISTRATOR\DESKTOP folder (the initially created file,
in the installation-created DESKTOP folder).

I don't know how this happened as, when I clicked 'Save' that 2nd
time, no box came up (as when one selects 'Save As...'). So it wasn't
a matter of not paying attention to what I was doing, I don't think.

I'm aware of some weird bugs with Notepad, from reading up on it in
some of these forums here. Some are pretty horrid. But in this case
there seems to be something funny going on with the 'Settings'
restoration. I had thought that afterwards I would see my old,
crowded DeskTop on screen instead of this meagerly-populated one
set up by the re-install.

Sorry I don't have fix for your issues (though at the end of this post I
will suggest a way to resolve it), but in the future I would have approached
it differently. I would have used a drive imaging program (Acronis True
Image Home, version 10) to image the drive to an external hard drive, then
repaired or replaced the problem drive, and restored the image to it. Data,
programs and settings are preserved. Use the drive imaging program on a
regular basis as a means of backing up the system.

Another way to migrate data and settings is FAST, though I would make sure
the original data is intact before disposing of the source data or have
redundancy in backups of the data.

To resolve your issue, instead of fighting trying to correct what you have,
reinstall XP, reconfigure settings as you want them, install the apps, and
restore data from your backup. In the end it will be much faster. and then
subsequently set up a back strategy involving drive imaging.

 

[Guest]

OK. Thanx Rock. I get your point. XP is re-installed and works real well and
fast at
boot (tho' that won't last, after I reinstall all those little programs I
kept stored on here in their original packages).

Will follow up on the 'imaging' item in future. I'm not sure how well that
would work in this case. Remember that my drive's MBR was blown; it wouldn't
work as a Master - but accessible as slave, both via DOS and XP. So I slaved
it to another Master, big enough to copy over everything from the Slave.

So you mean it would be OK to use an imaging program stored on the new
Master HD to image the temporarily-defective HD hooked as a Slave?

I've answered "Yes" to "Did this Answer resolve the issue" but I still hope
there's
a quicker solution. Maybe I did something wrong during the backup. Any case,
for
moment I'll just have to do it manually. That will take a bit of time. Got a
bunch
more puters to fix up for friends. Will try the 'imaging' method on those if
run
into similar problems w/ them.

Meantime, do appreciate your info - and will try apply.

Thanx again, Rock.

 

[Rock]

OK. Thanx Rock. I get your point. XP is re-installed and works real well
and
fast at
boot (tho' that won't last, after I reinstall all those little programs I
kept stored on here in their original packages).

Will follow up on the 'imaging' item in future. I'm not sure how well that
would work in this case. Remember that my drive's MBR was blown; it
wouldn't
work as a Master - but accessible as slave, both via DOS and XP. So I
slaved
it to another Master, big enough to copy over everything from the Slave.

So you mean it would be OK to use an imaging program stored on the new
Master HD to image the temporarily-defective HD hooked as a Slave?

Yes that might have worked. What would be a better solution, though, is to
be prepared _before_ any problems arise. That is where drive imaging comes
in. Regulary image the drives when they are working. Then if something
goes wrong restore the image. Maybe it needs to be restored to a new drive,
or maybe the old drive can be resurrected by one tool or another, and then
the image restored. The point is to have somthing in place that can deal
with these types of problems quickly to minimize down time and the loss of
data.

An alternate approach, is to use one or more drives in removable drive trays
(which can be fitted to an empty external drive bay if your system has one),
then image to those drives or even have one or two that are clones of the
working drive, then swap out with a clone if something damages the working
drive. Cloning takes longer, and you can't store multiple versions on one
drive as you can with imaging so each has it's use.

Acronis True Image Home version 10 does drive/partition imaging as well as
drive cloning.

 

[Guest]

OK. Thanks. I got all that, Rock. Unfortunately, resources are low. Don't
want go into all my problems. Just helping some friends who helping me. Not
much in way of spares around and nobody got any Internet account. So for
moment got to work w/ wat we got.

Don't know too much about cloning & imaging or the dif, except the basics.
I'm
wondering if the new XCOPY (or old DISKCOPY) could be used to copy the whole
HD to another drive or burn to CD; or maybe 'image' to several CD's. Bet not.
Probably need to 'clone' or 'image' to other HD to get all the goodies over.

BTW, did another one (portable). This time was able to use the "upgrade"
option and did the correct thing for the "Settings & Files". That went almost
perfect.
Only AVG free complained about "Invalid License". So ultimately had to
download and re-install (nobody knew where the free license key was).

I still got another problem w/ that Compaq Presario portable. I'll post that
in
the appropriate forum or another thread here. Just mention it here in case
anyone
here is familiar.

It's got 2 Admin type User Accounts (Set them up long time ago for friend).
This time he came, there must have been some corrupted files because most
USB peripherals wouldn't connect or allow driver installs. There were other
minor anomalies as well. That's why I did the upgrade, which solved those
problems.

The remaining problem is that at one of the Admin accts, any file opened on
DeskTop can't be 'minimized' to the Taskbar. It simply disappears. So now
need
to try fix that.

OK then. Thanks again for your input. We'll see how she goes.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Don't know too much about cloning & imaging or the dif, except the basics.
I'm wondering if the new XCOPY (or old DISKCOPY) could be used to copy
the whole HD to another drive or burn to CD; or maybe 'image' to several
CD's. Bet not.

You bet right. Neither are good options.

You need to cut back on your Starbuck's long enough to be able to
afford a good imaging program like Acronis True Image.

 

[Rock]

Replies are in line.

OK. Thanks. I got all that, Rock. Unfortunately, resources are low.

I can relate to that. For future reference, I caught Acronis True Image at
a great price on Newegg, $29.99 plus $4.99 shipping. Their price fluctuated
from this as a low to $39.99 as a high over a week period, still $10 less
than what Acronis charges. I hit it right.

You can get a 320 GB EIDE WD Caviar drive, 7200 rpm, in a white box kit for
less than $90 at Newegg.com as well. External hard drive enclosures are in
the $20 range. All in all a great bang for the buck.

Don't want go into all my problems. Just helping some friends who helping
me. Not
much in way of spares around and nobody got any Internet account. So for
moment got to work w/ wat we got.

Don't know too much about cloning & imaging or the dif, except the
basics.

Nothing complicated about it, actually. A clone is an exact duplicate of
the original drive, hence it can be swapped for the original . An image is
a file that contains the partition or drive contents, normally in a
compressed state. To work the image has to be "restored" by the program
that created it. Depending on the imaging program, individual files can be
restored from the image. Images can be stored on DVD or a network drive or
an external drive. Some imaging programs allow for differential and/or
incremental images as well. That coupled with compression means multiple
images or snapshots in time of the drive or partition can be saved on, for
example, and external drive.

I'm
wondering if the new XCOPY (or old DISKCOPY) could be used to copy the
whole
HD to another drive or burn to CD; or maybe 'image' to several CD's. Bet
not.
Probably need to 'clone' or 'image' to other HD to get all the goodies
over.

I believe you can accomplish something similar to an uncompressed image
using XCOPY with certain switches, but I've not done it and can't say that
my recollection is even accurate.

BTW, did another one (portable). This time was able to use the "upgrade"
option and did the correct thing for the "Settings & Files". That went
almost
perfect.
Great.

Only AVG free complained about "Invalid License". So ultimately had to
download and re-install (nobody knew where the free license key was).

I still got another problem w/ that Compaq Presario portable. I'll post
that
in
the appropriate forum or another thread here. Just mention it here in case
anyone
here is familiar.

It's got 2 Admin type User Accounts (Set them up long time ago for
friend).
This time he came, there must have been some corrupted files because most
USB peripherals wouldn't connect or allow driver installs. There were
other
minor anomalies as well. That's why I did the upgrade, which solved those
problems.

The remaining problem is that at one of the Admin accts, any file opened
on
DeskTop can't be 'minimized' to the Taskbar. It simply disappears. So now
need
to try fix that.

OK then. Thanks again for your input. We'll see how she goes.

You're welcome. Good luck.

 

[Guest]

OK. Roger all that. Thanx guys. Will pass the Acronics suggest on to the
powers that be.

By the way, Rock, saw your post on correcting that other problem where file
doesn't minimize to desktop but just disappears. Did just download that reg
correction from Kellys-Korner (looking better these days) and try implement
that
shortly.

Downloaded her recommended Superantispyware trial in the bargain and running
it now. Actually, I'm wondering about that thing. Bit off on the grammar in
there and confused my instruct on the home page reset thing. Did "pause" when
told it to
but then resumed shortly thereafter while I was trying to get to this forum
to answer and slowed down the system perf pretty bad - unlike as it promised.
Anyhow, see how she goes.

Appreciate.

Must get on with the show now; otherwise, won't get fed..

 

[Rock]

You're welcome.

OK. Roger all that. Thanx guys. Will pass the Acronics suggest on to the
powers that be.

By the way, Rock, saw your post on correcting that other problem where
file
doesn't minimize to desktop but just disappears. Did just download that
reg
correction from Kellys-Korner (looking better these days) and try
implement
that
shortly.

Downloaded her recommended Superantispyware trial in the bargain and
running
it now. Actually, I'm wondering about that thing. Bit off on the grammar
in
there and confused my instruct on the home page reset thing. Did "pause"
when
told it to
but then resumed shortly thereafter while I was trying to get to this
forum
to answer and slowed down the system perf pretty bad - unlike as it
promised.
Anyhow, see how she goes.

Appreciate.

Must get on with the show now; otherwise, won't get fed..