Guest sleeplessinnewjersey Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 Because of repeated errors I decided to reinstall Windows XP Home SP2 through a set of recovery CD's provided by the PC manufacturer. (I do not have a regular installation CD.) I backed up my My Documents folder to my external hard drive in a cut and paste operation in Windows Explorer that I have performed successfully in the past. I selected a so-called destructive recovery and, as expected, was warned that a full format would be conducted with the loss of all data. (I doubt that any such format occurred, but that's another issue.) I proceeded as in the past umpteen times I have had to use system recovery. I set about reinstalling and updating my most important applications. Then I transferred the contents of my backup to the new My Documents folder. It went as expected. Next, I set about reinstalling my other applications. One of those was Google Picasa. I had it search "My Documents" for photos and other images. It found and indexed some images that I didn't want in Picasa. This was expected. However it didn't find any of the more than 3000 photos in "My Pictures." I opened Windows Explorer and found that the My Pictures subfolders I had set up were present. All were empty. I checked my other document folders and found the correct folders, which also were empty. I had backed up my "Bookmarks" folder. While the subfolders were there, none of my over 1000 bookmarks were present either. It looked like a complete disaster, or so I thought. A few days later I opened Picasa. To my surprise and delight, Picasa found and indexed all of my missing photos! I concluded that they had to be on the drive, just not accessable in Windows Explorer. I confirmed this by searching for individual photos by name in both Google Desktop Search and Windows Search. Both found the photos sought. Next I searched for music files by the name of the artist. They also were found. I repeated all of these searches on my external hard drive with the same results. I believe that all of my missing files are on both hard drives. I don't know whether to blame Windows for screwing up the back up and restore operations or the manufacturer's recovery software for screwing up the reinstallation of Windows. This is the worst PC screw-up I have ever encountered in 15 years of using most of the Windows versions available in that period. BTW, I could perform another system recovery, but in light of my latest experience I am somewhat reluctant to use it. I would appreciate some advice about this unacceptable situation and what I might do to correct it.
Guest C J. Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 Re: Serious Win XP Home SP2 recovery problem Your post is kind of confusing... To me - it sounds like a reboot might have cleared up the first problem you encountered with Google Picasa not being able to find all your images after you moved them back from ext drive into the new "My Documents" folder Rather than use NTBackup, you copied the contents of your old My Documents folder to your external drive correct? Are you still experiencing problems finding or viewing any files and folders you transferred to the external drive? Did you disconnect the ext drive before you re-installed Windows - or did you leave it connected? To your recollection - what were the repeated errors you were experiencing before you did your clean install a.k.a Destructive Recovery? sleeplessinnewjersey <sleeplessinnewjersey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > Because of repeated errors I decided to reinstall Windows XP Home SP2 > through a set of recovery CD's provided by the PC manufacturer. (I do not > have a regular installation CD.) I backed up my My Documents folder to my > external hard drive in a cut and paste operation in Windows Explorer that > I have performed successfully in the past. > > I selected a so-called destructive recovery and, as expected, was warned > that a full format would be conducted with the loss of all data. (I doubt > that any such format occurred, but that's another issue.) I proceeded as > in the past umpteen times I have had to use system recovery. > > I set about reinstalling and updating my most important applications. > Then I transferred the contents of my backup to the new My Documents > folder. It went as expected. Next, I set about reinstalling my other > applications. > > One of those was Google Picasa. I had it search "My Documents" for photos > and other images. It found and indexed some images that I didn't want in > Picasa. This was expected. However it didn't find any of the more than > 3000 photos in "My Pictures." > > I opened Windows Explorer and found that the My Pictures subfolders I had > set up were present. All were empty. I checked my other document folders > and found the correct folders, which also were empty. I had backed up my > "Bookmarks" folder. While the subfolders were there, none of my over 1000 > bookmarks were present either. > > It looked like a complete disaster, or so I thought. > > A few days later I opened Picasa. To my surprise and delight, Picasa > found and indexed all of my missing photos! I concluded that they had to > be on the drive, just not accessable in Windows Explorer. I confirmed > this by searching for individual photos by name in both Google Desktop > Search and Windows Search. Both found the photos sought. > > Next I searched for music files by the name of the artist. They also were > found. I repeated all of these searches on my external hard drive with > the same results. > > I believe that all of my missing files are on both hard drives. I don't > know whether to blame Windows for screwing up the back up and restore > operations or the manufacturer's recovery software for screwing up the > reinstallation of Windows. > > This is the worst PC screw-up I have ever encountered in 15 years of using > most of the Windows versions available in that period. > > BTW, I could perform another system recovery, but in light of my latest > experience I am somewhat reluctant to use it. > > I would appreciate some advice about this unacceptable situation and what > I might do to correct it.
Guest db ´¯`·.. > Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 Re: Serious Win XP Home SP2 recovery problem well, sounds like you current method for recovery is successful and will likely work for you again in the future. however, what you might want to do, is to maybe streamlining and or automating the method for protecting your personal files, like documents, pics, bookmarks and emails. are backup'd on a regular basis. that way if the time comes that you have to restore the computer to it's factory settings "again", you won't have to add the frustrations and the fear of loosing your personal files at the last minute. also, you may want to keep copies of downloads of programs, like your picasa and others as well so they will be handy for reinstallation after the o.s. is up and running again. a freeware called "free download manager" saves your downloads in a directory you specify. so you may want to make a new folder for them under MyDocuments as well. other than that, there is no real point in making suggestions when your options are limited to the use of "factory restore disks" however, you may want to begin figuring out why you must result to frequent recoveries and correct the problem. -- db ·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·..><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>¸. ><)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º> .. "sleeplessinnewjersey" <sleeplessinnewjersey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:4F35AC53-601B-4386-A324-D664FF4BA51E@microsoft.com... > Because of repeated errors I decided to reinstall Windows XP Home SP2 > through a set of recovery CD's provided by the PC manufacturer. (I do > not > have a regular installation CD.) I backed up my My Documents folder > to my > external hard drive in a cut and paste operation in Windows Explorer > that I > have performed successfully in the past. > > I selected a so-called destructive recovery and, as expected, was > warned > that a full format would be conducted with the loss of all data. (I > doubt > that any such format occurred, but that's another issue.) I proceeded > as in > the past umpteen times I have had to use system recovery. > > I set about reinstalling and updating my most important applications. > Then > I transferred the contents of my backup to the new My Documents > folder. It > went as expected. Next, I set about reinstalling my other > applications. > > One of those was Google Picasa. I had it search "My Documents" for > photos > and other images. It found and indexed some images that I didn't want > in > Picasa. This was expected. However it didn't find any of the more > than 3000 > photos in "My Pictures." > > I opened Windows Explorer and found that the My Pictures subfolders I > had > set up were present. All were empty. I checked my other document > folders > and found the correct folders, which also were empty. I had backed up > my > "Bookmarks" folder. While the subfolders were there, none of my over > 1000 > bookmarks were present either. > > It looked like a complete disaster, or so I thought. > > A few days later I opened Picasa. To my surprise and delight, Picasa > found > and indexed all of my missing photos! I concluded that they had to be > on the > drive, just not accessable in Windows Explorer. I confirmed this by > searching for individual photos by name in both Google Desktop Search > and > Windows Search. Both found the photos sought. > > Next I searched for music files by the name of the artist. They also > were > found. I repeated all of these searches on my external hard drive > with the > same results. > > I believe that all of my missing files are on both hard drives. I > don't > know whether to blame Windows for screwing up the back up and restore > operations or the manufacturer's recovery software for screwing up the > reinstallation of Windows. > > This is the worst PC screw-up I have ever encountered in 15 years of > using > most of the Windows versions available in that period. > > BTW, I could perform another system recovery, but in light of my > latest > experience I am somewhat reluctant to use it. > > I would appreciate some advice about this unacceptable situation and > what I > might do to correct it. > > > >
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