Windows 7 Easy Transfer Failed Help
I have 4 computers and I decided to make the jump to Windows 7 from XP. I replaced one of the old computers with a kick ass HP computer which I bough from Staples.
I installed Windows easy transfer on the existing computer and made a backup onto a Western Digital MyBook.
Transferring the files onto the Windows 7 machine went without a hitch.
On the next XP computer I was going to upgrade to Win 7 from XP. I ran easy transfer again. This time it took forever to transfer the old files. Much to my chagrin after I upgraded to Win7 I was unable to transfer back my files and settings. I was getting an error message though I don’t remember what it was. It was strange because Easy Transfer would start to go through the recovery wizard and even was able to display the accounts from the old PC. However it failed when actually starting the restore process.
I did a little research and learned the east transfer file is a USMT4 file and a tool exists to recover the mig file.
http://www.visser.com.au/blog/migrecover-for-microsofts-windows-easy-transfer/
I downloaded the MIG recover tool but it was unable to read from the WD MyBook again.
When you install Windows 7 over XP it saves files in a directory called windows.old. Unfortunately I deleted this dorectory to make room on my hard drive in anticipation of using easy transfer. I was really screwed at this point. Luckily this wasn’t my main PC but I would would have missed many of the files I had on this computer.
It was back to the web to see if there was any way to undelete the windows.old directory. I know that when you delete a file it doesn’t really delete the file. The PC removes the pointer to the file and let’s the OS know it can use that space if needed on the hard drive. That’s why when discarding old PC’s you need to either destroy the hard drive with a hammer or use some sort of a wipe program.
After searching for a bit I discovered NTFS Undelete. It totally saved my ass!. I was able to recover over 60 gigs of deleted files. It did not recover everything 100% but I was able to deal with that.
I hope this helps anyone that has a problem using easy transfer.
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