Would like to get back to XP from RC1

[Guest]

I installed a Vista Home Basic yesterday. Was on RC1. Have a total backup
on DVD disks of the RC1.

Find I cannot restore my programs, files or settings or anything from the
backup.
Vista Home Basic will not allow.

Disenchanted, I'm done with the Vista Experience.
So, I would like to do a clean reinstall of XP Home.
If I do this from an -upgrade- version of XP Home, will I be able to
reinstall my old programs, files and settings from the Vista RC1 backup disks
made several days ago?

Pardon if this question is a partial overlap. I need to be certain. MS
help pages are ambiguous and complicated. I'm not good at this stuff.

SUMMARY: can I get my life back if I return to XP?
Complaint: Microsoft itself, by official mouthpieces, led me down a
one-way path with their =explicit= promise that all I needed was to back up
RC1 and then buy and clean-install =any version= of Vista. That was a lie.
One cannot feed backup disks into Vista basic editions.

 

[Rock]

I installed a Vista Home Basic yesterday. Was on RC1. Have a total backup
on DVD disks of the RC1.

Find I cannot restore my programs, files or settings or anything from the
backup.
Vista Home Basic will not allow.

Disenchanted, I'm done with the Vista Experience.
So, I would like to do a clean reinstall of XP Home.
If I do this from an -upgrade- version of XP Home, will I be able to
reinstall my old programs, files and settings from the Vista RC1 backup
disks
made several days ago?

No, you cannot restore an image from Complete PC Backup in XP.

Pardon if this question is a partial overlap. I need to be certain. MS
help pages are ambiguous and complicated. I'm not good at this stuff.

SUMMARY: can I get my life back if I return to XP?

Sure, but not with Complete PC Backup images.

 

[Guest]

--
Hapless, nonproficient, long-time windows user.
Nothing ever seems to work out of the box as promised.
Vista continues the tradition of "expect another disappointment"

No, you cannot restore an image from Complete PC Backup in XP.


Sure, but not with Complete PC Backup images.

What can I do then? The RC1 also lied about the time-out period. Indeed,
it worked "normally" until the clock ticked over to June 1st.
I made my total backup on 5/29. As soon as that was done, I started copying
files. Tried to: the process would initiate, but nothing more could be
burned.
I tried copying files on the 29th to SD cards and CF cards. Nothing would
transfer.
No reason given by the machine.

I felt secure enough: I had a total backup, and I was buying Vista Home
Basic, and so, would simply install the known-good backup to the new,
paid-for OS.

Today I learn that this is impossible too.

Microsoft told me/us here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/preview.mspx

and elsewhere, that all that we need do was MAKE the backup while RC1 was
still viable (I did that) and then buy and install one's own preferred Vista.

That's a boondoggle lie of gargantuan proportions.
Microsoft has ruined me by locking me out of my own computer.

This deserves a new thread. It is such an literally incredible bit of
nonsense;
ANYONE going from any of the trialware Vista to paid-version Vista would
naturally expect to be able to move their data over to the new OS via disks.

I can't believe this.

 

[Guest]

PS to anyone at MS in case they were to email me about this matter:
I can't even get to my email account at Netscape.com. They're in some sort
of flux, this AOL subsidiary, and now, without my old link to the webmail
server, I can't get to my webmail without creating an AOL passport
account---to create which, I need to have access to an email account. Maybe
I can get a free email account from someplace to do that. I may have to.
Ah. What a sad sack I am today.
Nothing but fumes here. Sorry.

Thanks again to the community experts who have given straight answers to my
awful questions. Please excuse my sour mood. I don't know what to do now;
am resisting the apparently-required prospect to shell out even more money,
just in order to have access to my own intellectual properties---photographs,
writings, links, passwords and all that was mine before I met and married a
coy trollette named Vista.

 

[Rock]

What can I do then? The RC1 also lied about the time-out period. Indeed,
it worked "normally" until the clock ticked over to June 1st.
I made my total backup on 5/29. As soon as that was done, I started
copying
files. Tried to: the process would initiate, but nothing more could be
burned.
I tried copying files on the 29th to SD cards and CF cards. Nothing would
transfer.
No reason given by the machine.

Why wereyou just first backing up on 5/29? Why wasn't there all along
redundant backups prepared by different means and stored on on different
media? Backup is an essential element. Why wait to the last day before
working things out? Had you done it earlier, and discovered the issue you
could have used RC1 to restored the backup and regrouped.

I'm sorry you are having these problems, but you should have safeguarded
your data. Never make a move from one OS to another without having
certainly I could return if something went wrong.

As is often the case several things converged to create this dilemma.
Remove any one or two and it doesn't happen.

I'm not sure how a Complete PC Backup of a system based on a time bombed OS
that has expired would work no matter what version you bought. From
Complete PC backup you can't restore individual files, it has to be the
complete image, so what you would get back is the same as you started.

Why not try setting the date back in the system bios a week, don't connect
to the internet, restore the Complete PC Backup image of RC1, and see if you
can copy the data? I don't know if that will work or not.

 

[Rock]

Another thought, if you can restore the image, even though it might have
reduced functionality and are not able to copy the data from within the OS,
just take that drive and slave it to another XP computer or put it in an
external hard drive enclosure and connect that to another computer. From
there you should be able to read the data files and copy them.

 

[Guest]

This deserves a new thread.

No, it doesn't. Feel free to post as many times as necessary to make your
point and cleanse your soul, but try to do it in the thread of your original
post.

 

[Rock]

Another thought, if you can restore the image, even though it might have
reduced functionality and are not able to copy the data from within the
OS, just take that drive and slave it to another XP computer or put it in
an external hard drive enclosure and connect that to another computer.
From there you should be able to read the data files and copy them.

I just saw someone post about this program today. Maybe it would help you.
http://www.winimage.com/winimage.htm