Files and settings transfer

[Guest]

I am upgrading a computer, and I have used the wizard to transfer files and
settings to an external USB drive.

After reformatting the drive and a fresh windows install, when i go to
restore the files and settings from the USB drive backup, it simply does not
recognize the folder where the file was created. I can browse to it, and view
the file, but the transfer wizard gives me an error message. Any tip on that?

 

[Ted Zieglar]

From Jim Eshelman's very fine Windows Support Center:

"You Can Even Use USB Devices to Make a Wizard Disk!

I recently discovered, through experimentation, that the F.A.S.T. wizard
will use any USB removable drive in place of a floppy disk for the
wizard disk to be used on the old computer. This means you can use the
new USB Jump or Flash Drives. It also means something as simple as a
Compact Flash memory card or other flash memory card along with a card
reader can be used in place of a floppy disk if you do not have a floppy
disk drive on your old computer. If you have USB on the old computer and
a little over a megabyte of space available, you are good to go! In the
screen that says, “Do you have a Windows XP CD,†you can select “I want
to create a Wizard Disk.â€

There is a pull-down menu that defaults to the floppy drive. Any
removable USB drive will show up in the pull-down menu — just select to
make the wizard disk on that USB drive. You do have to have the USB Jump
drive or memory card reader connected to your USB drive prior to
starting the F.A.S.T. wizard. When you go to the old computer, just
connect the removable USB drive and double-click on or open the
WIZARD.EXE file and it will load and run the wizard on that computer to
gather the information to transfer with the F.A.S.T. Wizard."

 

[Guest]

I have already backed up the files, on an external USB drive. I have used
this method several times before with no problem at all. In fact, there are
other backup files on that hard drive from other systems, and one only (
which is not the one that I'm trying to restore" appears to be working with
the wizard. It's real puzzling to me. And of course, my customor's important
files are all in there. I can see two files and one status file in the
folder, but the wizard won't read them. I get an error message stating that
the location that you specified does not contain stored information. I'm
puzzled. Any tips?

 

[subaltra]

1. Run the wizard on the old machine
2. Copy %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\usmt (%SYSTEMROOT% should be replaced by
your Windows folder, generally C:\Windows) to the same media as the
wizard-generated files
3. On the new machine, run migwiz.exe from the copied usmt folder
4. Follow the typical steps for the New Machine.

 

[subaltra]

1. Run the wizard on the old machine
2. Copy %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\usmt (%SYSTEMROOT% should be replaced by
your Windows folder, generally C:\Windows) to the same media as the
wizard-generated files
3. On the new machine, run migwiz.exe from the copied usmt folder
4. Follow the typical steps for the New Machine.

 

[subaltra]

1. Run the wizard on the old machine
2. Copy %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\usmt (%SYSTEMROOT% should be replaced by
your Windows folder, generally C:\Windows) to the same media as the
wizard-generated files
3. On the new machine, run migwiz.exe from the copied usmt folder
4. Follow the typical steps for the New Machine.

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately, that option is not available, as the old computer has already
been formatted with the new operating system, as I had mentionned in my
submission. I do have the USMT folder on an external drive which can be
accessed but the file will not restore.