Re: Can't restore 'Settings'...
- From: "Rock" <Rock@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:24:40 -0700
"tedoniman" <tedoniman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
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.
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.
--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
.
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