Backup - Restore Problem + More !!!! Help a.s.a.p !!!!

Ok, this is going to be quite long so here it goes,

*this is written on my brothers laptop*

Basically about a month ago I bought a new laptop ( DELL XPS M1530 ). It was a factory outlet version and so basically wasnt fully equiped with vista and so forth. I had the intension of upgrading its operating system of XP to Vista. I had installed all the stuf I wanted onto it, games and work programmes ect.

Thats just the beginning....

I then used my Microsft Vista Home Premium software to upgrade my operating system. I heard when installing Vista Home Premium or any version of vista you get the option of doing a clean install or an update install. With the update install, people were saying that there is a possibility of losing your data and so backing up all of your files was a must !

I then went of to PC World and bought a 500gb external hard drive and plugged it into my computer which was still running XP. I then did the normal procedure of tranfering all of my files to the new external hard drive. Before the transfer got underway it prompted me to be prepared with a floppy disk for no apparent reason.

*my laptop has no floppy drive*

About 2 hours later the transfer was over and it said "No floppy drive detected. ASR recovery diskette not created ". I then clicked 'ok' and went to 'my computer' in which within the external hard drive was my created backup file. The backup files total size was 64gb which is the exact amount that was currently on my hard drive so it had the correct total capacity on the backup file.

I then tested if the floppy disk was needed when the error message appeared and so clicked restore on the backup file i created. I set it so it would not copy files to the computer from the external hard drive backup file if they were already found on the computer. Within seconds the progress bar said complete. This gave me the relief that the backup was working and that my task of installing vista would be a smooth process.

Before the instalation of Vista I chose that I would d an upgrade instalation as if data was lost I would have it backed up on the external hard drive. I went through a couple of pages by clicking next, then it gave me the option of doing an 'update install' or a 'clean install'. For some reason it said I could do an upgrade install if I was intending on upgrading to anything but 'Vista Home Premium'. Therefore I was only allowed to do a clean install. This obviously annoyed me and made me think twice about how reliable my back up was.

I went through the whole process and after about 30minutes I had a clean Vista running computer. I then had the intention of plugging in my external hard drive and putting my backup file onto my newly operated vista computer.

But.......

No Such Luck !!!!!!!!!

AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!

Panic !!!!!!!!

I cant seem to find a way of tranfering my files to the computer.

Also I went to my networking area and tried to find my wireless connection point, no such luck !!!!

I clicked diagnose problem and it came back with the problem being, 'No network adapter found or driver haedware found' !!!!


Please help !!!! Is there a particular way of restoring my data.

When I go into the external hard drive on my computer and click on the backup file it says 'it cant find the appropriate programme to open the file with. Or when i go to the sytem restore centre, it doesnt give me the option of browsing for the backup or the computer itself doesnt find it.


Help !!!!! (sorry for all the info)

Many many kind regards !!!!

Jack

 

Wow ok a lot of problems . The first thing you need to do after installing an operating system is install drivers. A driver is a piece of software that will tell Windows how to use the hardware in your computer. They can be found on the support site of the manufacturer of your computer. That will fix you wireless issue.

Is there any way you could be more descriptive about what the issue with copying the files back is? All I saw was "aaarrrgghh" . Is the drive showing up as an installed device?

Also, copying & pasting the files would have been a lot easier . The ASR is for the automated system recovery which is for a different purpose than you wanted. The XP backup tool was designed to be used for XP to XP backups. So I guess what we'll need to figure out is if there is an ability for Vista to restore the file.

A google search showed that. Sounds promising? I haven't read it though, so no guarantees:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6182749.html

 

To fix the problem you mentioned in PM about being unable to access the files:

You need to take ownership of them: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67717-take-ownership-file.html (do it the automatic way, preferably not the manual way)

In regards to the hardware issues:

You need to install the drivers. Vista drivers. Download them from your computer manufacturers website. The drivers will either run automatically and install themselves when you download it, or you can install them via the device manager by clicking 'update driver' and pointing the location prompt to it.

 

greg you are an absolute GOD !! ive taken ownership of the files. Now as it taking ownership, just thought id ask, will i still have to download every single driver individually still ? thanks again

 

Well you will need drivers that are compatible with Vista. If your current drivers are XP only, then you will need to download new ones. Some drivers are XP & Vista compatible, so you can try them and see if it works. If not, then search for the Vista ones. But I recommend checking for new ones first regardless.