Non-Destructive restore, where are my personal files!?

G

Guest

Hi, I am running a Packard Bell with Windows XP Home and after having a few
problems was told that a non-destructive restore was my only option if I
wanted to keep all my music, pictures etc.. I have done the restore but
everything seems to have gone! Was I told a load of rubbish or is there
somewhere I can find all my stuff?? Also, I did have SP2 but now it seems to
be different, how do I update everything again??

Thanks

HammerMan
 
R

Ron Martell

HammerMan said:
Hi, I am running a Packard Bell with Windows XP Home and after having a few
problems was told that a non-destructive restore was my only option if I
wanted to keep all my music, pictures etc.. I have done the restore but
everything seems to have gone! Was I told a load of rubbish or is there
somewhere I can find all my stuff?? Also, I did have SP2 but now it seems to
be different, how do I update everything again??

Thanks

HammerMan

The "non-destructive restore" should have created a backup folder or
something similar to save your existing data.

Have you searched the entire hard drive for specific file names, such
as one of the pictures or songs that you know were there prior to the
restore? If you use Outlook Express for your emails try searching for
files named inbox.dbx

Your computer has apparently been restored to the "as it left the
factory" state and if SP2 was not installed when you purchased it then
you will have to install it again, plus all of the other Windows
Updates issued since SP2 was released.

The best way to install SP2 is to get one of the CDs that Microsoft
made available with the complete service pack on it, or you can
download the complete pack from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

It is also possible to get the Service Pack via Windows Update, but it
may take several updates to get it all and therefore it may take
longer. The end result would be the same, however.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 
G

Guest

The "non-destructive restore" should have created a backup folder or
something similar to save your existing data.

Have you searched the entire hard drive for specific file names, such
as one of the pictures or songs that you know were there prior to the
restore? If you use Outlook Express for your emails try searching for
files named inbox.dbx

Your computer has apparently been restored to the "as it left the
factory" state and if SP2 was not installed when you purchased it then
you will have to install it again, plus all of the other Windows
Updates issued since SP2 was released.

The best way to install SP2 is to get one of the CDs that Microsoft
made available with the complete service pack on it, or you can
download the complete pack from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

It is also possible to get the Service Pack via Windows Update, but it
may take several updates to get it all and therefore it may take
longer. The end result would be the same, however.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--



I have searched my Hard Drive and cannot find any of my old files, I am
soooooooo frustrated!! I am also having problems installing all my old
software onto the computer, in particular my logitech webcam... Trojans are
being found all over the place and MSN Messenger will not work either! What
is a destructive restore? Is it worth me doing that and then starting again?
I have been trying to get everything reinstalled all day and my patience is
wearing thin!!!

Thank you far your advice so far...
 
G

Guest

I have finally found all of my pictures!! Thank god!! Only thing is that
they are no longer JPEG they are tiny little BITMAP... Any ideas how to
change them back..... Please help as the wife is going mental! (baby
pics..!)

Thanks all for looking.

James.
 
K

Kevin

You should have been given two options to choose from when you started the
restore process. One is a full format of the hard drive, wiping it totally
clean, and then an installation of the Packard Bell version of Windows and
all the Packard Bell bundled applications. The other choice would have been
to ONLY reinstall Windows, leaving your data untouched (theoretically) and
all other files left alone as well.

As the poster below indicates, a backup folder would have been created in
the second option for your data and files. It sounds to me like you
performed a full format and installation. Does the computer desktop look
like it did the first day you took the computer out of the box? If so, you
have a full format and installation of the operating system and all the
Packard Bell stuff the machine came with.

You then, apparently, connected your unprotected machine to the internet and
promptly got infected by who-knows-what. If you do a search on several of
the files you know you had saved on the system and you can't find them
(using the EXACT file name such as: Letter.doc or Taxreturn.xls) your data
is gone.

At that point, I would do a clean installation of Windows and start over.
Do not connect an unprotected computer to the internet! Activate the
Microsoft Internet Firewall, at the least, before doing so.
 
G

Guest

Hi Kevin, Like I said in my last post, I have managed to find all of my
pictures only they have changed from JPEG to BITMAP....... The option I
chose when I done the restore was the one that said all personal data is
safe...

Once I done the restore I reinstalled AVG antivirus and Zonealarm Firewall
BEFORE connecting to the internet (I may not be clever but I ain't stupid
either!) The trojans I spoke of have been fixed, not sure how I got them..
possibly in the time it took to update my antivirus software and firewall???
Who knows.....

Anyway, If anyone knows why my JPEGs are now BITMAPs and more to the point,
if its possible to change them back, I would love to hear from you!!

Thank you again everyone,

James
 
R

Ron Martell

Anyway, If anyone knows why my JPEGs are now BITMAPs and more to the point,
if its possible to change them back, I would love to hear from you!!

Download & install Irfanview (free) from http://irfanview.com and use
it to look at your files. You can then use the "save as" function to
convert them back to JPG files.

Try this on a couple of files and see what the results are, especially
to ensure that there has been no loss in resolution. Then you can use
the batch conversion/rename function to convert the rest of the files.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 
G

Guest

Download & install Irfanview (free) from http://irfanview.com and use
it to look at your files. You can then use the "save as" function to
convert them back to JPG files.

Try this on a couple of files and see what the results are, especially
to ensure that there has been no loss in resolution. Then you can use
the batch conversion/rename function to convert the rest of the files.


Hi Ron,

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately that did not work, they are still tiny
and cannot be zoomed in as the quality is now very poor. I guess I will just
have to accept that I have lost them. One more question though, would it be
possible to recover my address book that I had in outlook express? What
would I need to search for?

Thanks again,

James.
 
R

Ron Martell

HammerMan said:
Hi Ron,

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately that did not work, they are still tiny
and cannot be zoomed in as the quality is now very poor. I guess I will just
have to accept that I have lost them. One more question though, would it be
possible to recover my address book that I had in outlook express? What
would I need to search for?

Thanks again,

James.

Search for address book files (*.wab) and make sure you change the
search options to include hidden files and folders

There are some unformat utilities that might be able to recover some
of the old files from those portions of the hard drive that have not
been overwritten, but they can be expensive to purchase and success is
not guaranteed.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 

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