Can't restore Windows 7 file backup in Windows 8.1
please have a look at this url and you will be able to create and retrieve images ok http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-system-image-in-windows-8-1/ hope this is of some use to you ....also look here aswellhttp://pureinfotech.com/2013/07/10/windows-8-1-system-image-backup/
October 19th, 2013 10:00pm

please have a look at this url and you will be able to create and retrieve images ok http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-system-image-in-windows-8-1/ hope this is of some use to you ....also look here aswellhttp://pureinfotech.com/2013/07/10/windows-8-1-system-image-backup/
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October 19th, 2013 10:00pm

please have a look at this url and you will be able to create and retrieve images ok http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-system-image-in-windows-8-1/ hope this is of some use to you ....also look here aswellhttp://pureinfotech.com/2013/07/10/windows-8-1-system-image-backup/
October 19th, 2013 10:00pm

Hi There,

This seems to be quite a stupid issue to have but here we go...  before installing Windows 8.1 onto my laptop I took a backup of my user files using the Windows 7 backup tool which created me an array of zip files, with a catlog file and a MediaID.bin... all normal.

I then performed a fresh install of Windows 8.1, deleting the existing Windows 7 partitions.

Having completed the install I'm finding it impossible to restore my Windows 7 backup...  I can't even find a function which allows me to browse to a backup location to try and restore!?

The Windows 7 File Recovery tool isn't there any more, and for all intents and purposes "Recovery" doesn't seem to do anything useful... I don't want to restore a system image, just some files.

Can anyone help with my probable stupidity??  I'm sure I'm missing something obvious.

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October 20th, 2013 12:40am

please have a look at this url and you will be able to create and retrieve images ok http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-system-image-in-windows-8-1/ hope this is of some use to you ....also look here aswellhttp://pureinfotech.com/2013/07/10/windows-8-1-system-image-backup/
October 20th, 2013 1:00am

Thanks for the reply, but this doesn't mention restoring files... only creating a system image which isn't what I want to do... I want to restore a few specific files from a Windows 7 backup.
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October 20th, 2013 1:06am

I'm having the very same problem and so far can't find how to recover my windows 7 created backup files with windows 8.1.
October 20th, 2013 5:10pm

You can mount the VHD backup file by Disk Management, then restore files manually.
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October 21st, 2013 6:44pm

You can mount the VHD backup file by Disk Management, then restore files manually.

Hi Juke, unfortunately I don't have a vhd, the backup is a series of zip files and a catalogue file.

The only solution I came up with was to use another Windows 7 PC to restore the backed up data to an external hard disk.


October 22nd, 2013 10:50am

I've been running the Windows 7 Recovery app in Windows 8 from the start as this is the best free tool I've found for creating full system backups.  I can't even think of upgrading to 8.1 if this is no longer supported.
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October 22nd, 2013 11:34am

Same problem here! I was using Window 7 recovery tools which were also included in Windows 8 for my backups. After upgrading to Windows 8.1 I can not use this backup any more. Very disappointing!

I really need a solution here!



  • Edited by tle.ax Thursday, October 24, 2013 9:07 AM
October 24th, 2013 9:02am

Same problem here! I was using Window 7 recovery tools which were also included in Windows 8 for my backups. After upgrading to Windows 8.1 I can not use this backup any more. Very disappointing!

I really need a solution here!



  • Edited by tle.ax Thursday, October 24, 2013 9:07 AM
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October 24th, 2013 9:02am

Same problem here! I was using Window 7 recovery tools which were also included in Windows 8 for my backups. After upgrading to Windows 8.1 I can not use this backup any more. Very disappointing!

I really need a solution here!



  • Edited by tle.ax Thursday, October 24, 2013 9:07 AM
October 24th, 2013 12:02pm

I'm having a similar problem:

Before upgrading from Windows 8 Pro to Windows 8.1 Pro, I had it set to do regular backups using Windows 7 Backup, and now that I've upgraded, it still runs the backup! I see the "backup in progress" icon in the taskbar, but when I click on it, i get "the backup application could not start due to an internal error: Access is denied. (0x80070005)

What gives and how can I at least stop the automatic backups???

Thanks in advance!

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October 30th, 2013 7:41am

Hey guys,

I'm experiencing the same problems and urgently need advice. Did anyone come up with a solution?

Thanks in advance!

October 30th, 2013 11:24am

Yep, this has happened to me too. Exactly the same. I don't want to back files up or restore a full system image.

I simply want to restore some files from my Windows 7 backup like I used to be able to do.

I backed up my files with Windows 7 and installed Windows 8 (then 8.1), thinking it would be an easy matter to restore my files onto the new system.

It seems that it was foolish of me to assume that Microsoft would provide a way to restore files in a Windows 7 backup to my new system.

Can someone please provide an answer?

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October 30th, 2013 1:53pm

I also have the same problem. I need to get some files I created with Windows 7 and then I installed Windows 8 (then 8.1) and now I have lost access to restore. Along with all the new features they advertised the should have been warnings about this or they should provide a tool. 
October 31st, 2013 5:59am

I am also having the same problem.
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November 3rd, 2013 12:48am

I need to restore individual files from an old Windows 7 backup. The files only exist there. How do I get them off of that backup. I've spent hours trying to get some files that were backed up over a year ago from a long gone system. Do I have to go buy a Windows 7 system to get them? This is very frustrating. This exact question has been asked several times in this thread. To be clear, I don't need to or want to restore a complete system. I just want a few files from an old backup. 
November 3rd, 2013 1:43am

On Sat, 2 Nov 2013 22:43:06 +0000, Bjones1024 wrote:   >I need to restore individual files from an old Windows 7 backup. The files only exist there. How do I get them off of that backup. I've spent hours trying to get some files that were backed up over a year ago from a long gone system. Do I have to go buy a Windows 7 system to get them? This is very frustrating. This exact question has been asked several times in this thread. To be clear, I don't need to or want to restore a complete system. I just want a few files from an old backup.  > >----- >http://social.Technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w8itprogeneral/thread/1c7e14d9-2fd3-46bd-a6eb-a7d8ce2f1b4f#4c5ee5b8-6baa-47a6-bd4c-01907482092e >-----   http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/how-do-i-manually-extract-files-from-file-backup/97e2ecde-fe58-44e1-a70b-5927461271a4 might help.  
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November 3rd, 2013 5:20pm

The user is trying to restore files onto a Windows 8.1 installation that were backed up using the Windows Backup utility on Windows 7.

Windows 8.1 no longer has Windows Backup, because it has been replaced by the File History feature. In Windows 8, you could still access the Windows 7 backup/restore utilities, but these have been removed in Windows 8.1.

As such, for myself and any others that have backups made in Windows 7 and Vista, there is no known way to restore these backups, aside from getting ahold of another Windows 7/8.0/Vista PC. Anyone have a better idea?

If anyone has a real answer, please provide it, because the response currently marked as answer is totally incorrect.


  • Edited by planetarian Wednesday, November 06, 2013 10:55 PM
  • Proposed as answer by Martin Ba. _ Friday, January 16, 2015 2:24 PM
November 6th, 2013 10:55pm

The user is trying to restore files onto a Windows 8.1 installation that were backed up using the Windows Backup utility on Windows 7.

Windows 8.1 no longer has Windows Backup, because it has been replaced by the File History feature. In Windows 8, you could still access the Windows 7 backup/restore utilities, but these have been removed in Windows 8.1.

As such, for myself and any others that have backups made in Windows 7 and Vista, there is no known way to restore these backups, aside from getting ahold of another Windows 7/8.0/Vista PC. Anyone have a better idea?

If anyone has a real answer, please provide it, because the response currently marked as answer is totally incorrect.


  • Edited by planetarian Wednesday, November 06, 2013 10:55 PM
  • Proposed as answer by Martin Ba. _ Friday, January 16, 2015 2:24 PM
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November 6th, 2013 10:55pm

Hi Barb

Step to retrieve files from a system image or backupset

.5- Create or run sdclt.exe Goto>1

1-locate the folder of the image backup there will be a file there called xxxxxxxxxxx.vhdx

2- Fire up your good old windows 8.1 awesome disk management

3- attach your trustful windows 8.1 vhdx from the backup image, if already attached goto 4

4-assign a drive letter from the greatness of windows 8.1 disk manger

5- lets go to>THIS PC< and restore some files from the drive letter assigned .

If needed to do a complete registry(regedit) restore, export the registry to your backup set then import after you complete your admin xcopy

I have a more cooler answer with a world of more intelligence, I can see it will soon be in a book of how-to copycats with no credits to the more intelligent. BTW I'M an affiliate of BLACK-VIPER








  • Proposed as answer by colakid Thursday, November 07, 2013 12:50 AM
  • Edited by colakid Thursday, November 07, 2013 3:34 AM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 4:04 PM
November 7th, 2013 12:47am

Hi Barb

Step to retrieve files from a system image or backupset

.5- Create or run sdclt.exe Goto>1

1-locate the folder of the image backup there will be a file there called xxxxxxxxxxx.vhdx

2- Fire up your good old windows 8.1 awesome disk management

3- attach your trustful windows 8.1 vhdx from the backup image, if already attached goto 4

4-assign a drive letter from the greatness of windows 8.1 disk manger

5- lets go to>THIS PC< and restore some files from the drive letter assigned .

If needed to do a complete registry(regedit) restore, export the registry to your backup set then import after you complete your admin xcopy

I have a more cooler answer with a world of more intelligence, I can see it will soon be in a book of how-to copycats with no credits to the more intelligent. BTW I'M an affiliate of BLACK-VIPER








  • Proposed as answer by colakid Thursday, November 07, 2013 12:50 AM
  • Edited by colakid Thursday, November 07, 2013 3:34 AM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 4:04 PM
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November 7th, 2013 12:47am

The user is trying to restore files onto a Windows 8.1 installation that were backed up using the Windows Backup utility on Windows 7.

Windows 8.1 no longer has Windows Backup, because it has been replaced by the File History feature. In Windows 8, you could still access the Windows 7 backup/restore utilities, but these have been removed in Windows 8.1.

As such, for myself and any others that have backups made in Windows 7 and Vista, there is no known way to restore these backups, aside from getting ahold of another Windows 7/8.0/Vista PC. Anyone have a better idea?

If anyone has a real answer, please provide it, because the response currently marked as answer is totally incorrect.


  • Edited by planetarian Wednesday, November 06, 2013 10:55 PM
  • Proposed as answer by Martin Ba. _ Friday, January 16, 2015 2:24 PM
November 7th, 2013 1:55am

I have a totally cool answer:

Download and run this free tool:  ShadowExplorer

It is the answer to the dreams of those who miss the functionality of Previous Versions.

 

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November 7th, 2013 3:19am

Hi Barb

Step to retrieve files from a system image or backupset

.5- Create or run sdclt.exe Goto>1

1-locate the folder of the image backup there will be a file there called xxxxxxxxxxx.vhdx

2- Fire up your good old windows 8.1 awesome disk management

3- attach your trustful windows 8.1 vhdx from the backup image, if already attached goto 4

4-assign a drive letter from the greatness of windows 8.1 disk manger

5- lets go to>THIS PC< and restore some files from the drive letter assigned .

If needed to do a complete registry(regedit) restore, export the registry to your backup set then import after you complete your admin xcopy

I have a more cooler answer with a world of more intelligence, I can see it will soon be in a book of how-to copycats with no credits to the more intelligent. BTW I'M an affiliate of BLACK-VIPER








  • Proposed as answer by colakid Thursday, November 07, 2013 12:50 AM
  • Edited by colakid Thursday, November 07, 2013 3:34 AM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 4:04 PM
November 7th, 2013 3:47am

Added once done the process above you can create an ISO, if you want to get smart about it, make a windows 8.1 boot disk with command prompt and admin rights. You can now extract files without even booting into windows 8.1, this will also allow you to restore a systemstate backup if you created a systemstate backup to your iso using wbadmin start systemstatebackup
  • Edited by colakid Friday, November 08, 2013 11:32 AM
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November 8th, 2013 11:20am

Added once done the process above you can create an ISO, if you want to get smart about it, make a windows 8.1 boot disk with command prompt and admin rights. You can now extract files without even booting into windows 8.1, this will also allow you to restore a systemstate backup if you created a systemstate backup to your iso using wbadmin start systemstatebackup
  • Edited by colakid Friday, November 08, 2013 11:32 AM
November 8th, 2013 11:20am

Added once done the process above you can create an ISO, if you want to get smart about it, make a windows 8.1 boot disk with command prompt and admin rights. You can now extract files without even booting into windows 8.1, this will also allow you to restore a systemstate backup if you created a systemstate backup to your iso using wbadmin start systemstatebackup
  • Edited by colakid Friday, November 08, 2013 11:32 AM
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November 8th, 2013 2:20pm

Looking for an answer to this also. Windows 8 had a way to do it, but it looks like Windows 8.1 doesn't... I simply want to do the same, restore some files I had from Windows 7 backup. Unfortunately(?) you could still use the Windows Backup from 7 on Windows 8... So maybe that's where we got caught with our pants down...

Besides using random utilities, does any have an idea how one would do this?

Thanks,

Kris

November 12th, 2013 7:34am

+! for another person who didn't know the Win7 backup utility I was still using in Win 8 would go with Win 8.1.

Anyway, it has so what to do.  I've found all the old files are still "openable" 

If I select one of the old Win 7  <Backup Files CCYY-MM-DD HHMMSS> backup sets in File Explorer I can just double click on it to the *.zip file, double click and it it un zips.  In it are the files backed up.  Nothing special seems to be needed.  

OK, I'd then need to manually copy each one, but as I have a fresh set of Backups from immediately after the upgrade to 8.1 that's not an issue, really, as those old Backup sets are now redundant, because as soon as the 8.1 upgrade was done then a fresh set of on-line and off-line backups using the new 8.1 File History tool were made.

You should be OK, unless you've been using the old Windows 7 backup utility as a tool to archive old files & directory structures, in which case IMHO "Tsk, tsk, you should have known better".  The data's still there, you'll just need to do a bit more work to dig it out.


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November 14th, 2013 2:40pm

Thanks for posting this, but it is very very very disappointing.

I don't understand how Microsoft manages to leave this many people hanging without helping to migrate from Windows 7 Backup or at least warn them during the upgrade process that the backups will be inaccessible?

People don't generally back up enough, and now those people who actually took the time to set it up have been totally screwed.  We're wasting hours of precious time trying to figure this out.  There isn't even an acknowledgement that a gap exists with some advice on what to do.

The only answer now is to rummage around in a bunch of zipped files?

There is no way to allow users to install the old "Windows 7 File Recovery" tool for a short time just to restore their files one time, and then use File History? 

December 5th, 2013 3:35pm

Nope, there's no way (I tried resurrecting some of the tools from Windows 8(.0).  And even though with Windows 8.1 there's a way to schedule System Image backups that are integrated with Shadow Copies, the Previous Versions software to retrieve files has been removed as well.  Ridiculous.

I had a backup running a bit long in Windows 8.1 the other day, and was hoping to see how much progress it had made so I could get an idea when it would finish.  Even the ability to see a progress bar has been removed!

Somewhere inside Microsoft some manager has decided "less is better", and programmers are being paid to delete perfectly good functionality.

Perhaps the U.S. Government should intervene, as these people have done no less than ensure the demise of the technical superiority of this country with all this function removal and dumbing down.

  

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December 5th, 2013 6:37pm

Barb,

Can you please get your reply removed as the answer for this thread?

Seb's question was very specific about restoring files from a Windows 7 backup on a Windows 8.1 system.

Neither of your replies answer this.

There are other responses on this thread that also seem to completely miss the point of Seb's question, however, none of these have been incorrectly marked as the resolution, as yours has.

I am also facing this issue, trying to restore files from an old backup created in Windows Vista, on a new Windows 8.1 system and I cannot find a way of doing this.

It seems that Microsoft have removed all backward compatibility with any Windows backups done using Windows backup up, even ones done as recently as with Windows 7 backup!

Thanks,

David.

December 11th, 2013 2:21pm

Perhaps I misunderstood the question originally.  I read it as asking about a SYSTEM IMAGE backup made with WIndows 7.

A Windows 7 FILE Backup will have created .zip files on the backup device.  Just go open those on the backup device with File Explorer and look inside.

The .zip files are saved in a folder structure rooted in the computer name, then a backup set date range subfolder, then finally a backup files subfolder identifying the specific date of the backup.

Now, they're not organized neatly so that you can easily and directly find just the file you're looking for amongst them - the directories backed up are spread across multiple .zips, but you CAN poke around and find the folders and files that were backed up - you'll see what look like parts of the directory structure from the original backup source.  When you DO find the file(s) you want, just drag 'em out of the .zip and back to your hard drive wherever you like.

Tip:  Since Windows Search can locate files inside .zip folders, you can search the multiple zips for a particular filename or folder name if you know what it is.  Example, enter filename:Documents in the Explorer search box.

 

 

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December 11th, 2013 4:51pm

Juke,

As a moderator on this forum, I would expect you to pay a little more attention to the question the original poster asked.

As you can see from the rest of this thread, a lot of people are having problems with the way Microsoft have botched the transition in Windows backup.

Kindly talk to the necessary product team members, internally, and only then provide this thread with some useful input.

Thanks,

David.


  • Edited by deejerydoo Thursday, December 12, 2013 1:00 AM
December 12th, 2013 12:56am

Juke,

As a moderator on this forum, I would expect you to pay a little more attention to the question the original poster asked.

As you can see from the rest of this thread, a lot of people are having problems with the way Microsoft have botched the transition in Windows backup.

Kindly talk to the necessary product team members, internally, and only then provide this thread with some useful input.

Thanks,

David.


  • Edited by deejerydoo Thursday, December 12, 2013 1:00 AM
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December 12th, 2013 12:56am

Juke,

As a moderator on this forum, I would expect you to pay a little more attention to the question the original poster asked.

As you can see from the rest of this thread, a lot of people are having problems with the way Microsoft have botched the transition in Windows backup.

Kindly talk to the necessary product team members, internally, and only then provide this thread with some useful input.

Thanks,

David.


  • Edited by deejerydoo Thursday, December 12, 2013 1:00 AM
December 12th, 2013 3:56am

No it doesn't Noel. This does not anser Seb's original question at all.
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December 12th, 2013 4:02am

Dear ColaKid and Barb,

Please discuss the merits of Windows image backups on a different thread. It is not relevant to this thread.

Thank you,

David.

December 12th, 2013 4:03am

Alternatively, Microsoft could just give Windows 8.1 the ability to read the associated Windows backup catalogue file, which I'm sure wouldn't be difficult.
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December 12th, 2013 4:23am

Same problem. I need to restore some documents.

December 12th, 2013 6:54am

I too have been having this problem, and I just figured out how to do it. While Barb's solution did not work exactly as advertised for me, it did however put me on a path...

So, the hard disk that contains my backup, when I was using Windows 7 is connected to the system.  Meaning, I can "see" the actual hard disk as a lettered drive in the "This PC" window...

Next, I opened that drive by dbl-clicking on the tile...

In the next window that opens, I have 2 folders, and 1 file;  OFFICE_DESKTOP (this is my computer name) folder, WindowsImageBackup folder, and MediaID.bin file...

I dbl-click on the WindowsImageBackup folder, and I have a folder named Office_Desktop.  Again, this is the name I gave my computer, so yours is likely different...

I dbl-click on Office_Desktop, and I now have 3 folders, and 1 file.  In my case, I had folders named "Backup 2013-12-02 010013", "Catalog", and "SPPMetadataCache".  I also have a file named "MediaId"...

I now dbl-click on the "Backup..." folder.  When it opens, there are several XML documents, and two "VHD" files...

I rt-clicked on the largest VHD file, and selected "mount"...

Once the VHD mounted, I was presented with a window showing the "file structure" of my Windows 7 computer.  I have so far been copying/moving data from the Windows 7 backup/image INTO Windows 8.1

:-) :-)

Barb, thanks for getting me on the right track!  Folks, I hope this helps you...

Merry Christmas,

Jason

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December 13th, 2013 12:08am

Hi, 

I think I may have found a solution totally by accident :). Go to My Computer via the Desktop platform and open the device that contains the backup from Win 7. Double-clicking it should pull up the Restore Files dialog box which lets you choose exactly what you want to restore. Currently running on my laptop and all seems to be going well..

December 14th, 2013 11:32pm

Hi, 

I think I may have found a solution totally by accident :). Go to My Computer via the Desktop platform and open the device that contains the backup from Win 7. Double-clicking it should pull up the Restore Files dialog box which lets you choose exactly what you want to restore. Currently running on my laptop and all seems to be going well..

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December 14th, 2013 11:32pm

Hi, 

I think I may have found a solution totally by accident :). Go to My Computer via the Desktop platform and open the device that contains the backup from Win 7. Double-clicking it should pull up the Restore Files dialog box which lets you choose exactly what you want to restore. Currently running on my laptop and all seems to be going well..

December 15th, 2013 2:32am

Jadeju, please post some screen grabs showing exactly how to get to that, please, because all double clicking my backup drive in File Explorer appears to do is expand or collapse the subfolders.

  

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December 15th, 2013 2:55am

Don't want to create an image. Want to RESTORE from a Win7 backup.

Msoft - can you give us a tool please?

December 20th, 2013 6:31pm

Oh dear, I've lost several hours of my life trying to figure this out... There are large AVI files that are spread over several .zip. When i recombine them they are corrupted. It's tedious at BEST, and hardly makes any sense that Msoft wouldn't give win7 folks who upgrade a path of recovery?? What's the logic?
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December 20th, 2013 6:36pm

Bummer - I see no VHD or XML files - just 1038 individual .ZIP files.. ughhh
December 20th, 2013 6:39pm

nope. not for me anyway.
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December 20th, 2013 6:55pm

- I see no VHD or XML files - just 1038 individual .ZIP files.. ughhh

I assume you have valuable data backed up that you need to retrieve or you wouldn't be here complaining.

Are you incapable of exerting a little elbow grease and finding your data in those zip files?  You've been told how to do it.

Yes, I'm as incensed as anyone about the fact that Microsoft has suddenly taken away valuable features, but the only thing we can do is to try to use what we've got.

 

December 20th, 2013 8:38pm

I have a solution. To all the "helpful" suggestions that say you're dealing with a VHDI have a solution. To all the "helpful" suggestions that say you're dealing with a VHD file--that is NOT the question the original poster asked. And all the Microsoft MVPs have been wrong so I wonder what it takes to become an MVP :(. Presumably the OP used backup and restore to make a backup of FILES, not a disk image. Now they want to access those files in a convenient manner. 1. Search for 7-zip and download the installer for your computer (32 or 64 bit). It's open source and free and highly stable (the opposite of bloat ware). Install. 2. Navigate to your backup directory. It's protected so you must be an admin on your current computer. 3. Find the list of zip files. 4. Select them all or a subset thereof if you know where to find the files you're looking for. 5. Right click and choose the 7-Zip submenu. From the submenu choose Extract All (or something like that). 6. Save the files to a destination. Make sure you have enough space for the extraction. Ps I suspect Microsoft eliminated the functionality because they wanted to encourage people to use sky drive to backup. Not a bad idea but its left people who did dutifully back up in the lurch when migrating to windows 8.1 :(.

Post 19 is the answer. Windows 7 backup that 8 used, It also created a VHDx image of the pic you see.  I still have that  image. That image can be extracted or used in startup recovery mode. Tested and works.

1-locate the folder of the image backup there will be a file there called xxxxxxxxxxx.vhdx

2- Fire up your good old windows 8.1 awesome disk management

3- attach your trustful windows 8.1 vhdx from the backup image, if already attached goto 4

4-assign a drive letter from the greatness of windows 8.1 disk manger

5- lets go to>THIS PC< and restore some files from the drive letter assigned








  • Edited by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 1:21 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 3:27 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by David WoltersModerator Friday, March 14, 2014 5:21 PM
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December 24th, 2013 12:57pm

I have a solution. To all the "helpful" suggestions that say you're dealing with a VHDI have a solution. To all the "helpful" suggestions that say you're dealing with a VHD file--that is NOT the question the original poster asked. And all the Microsoft MVPs have been wrong so I wonder what it takes to become an MVP :(. Presumably the OP used backup and restore to make a backup of FILES, not a disk image. Now they want to access those files in a convenient manner. 1. Search for 7-zip and download the installer for your computer (32 or 64 bit). It's open source and free and highly stable (the opposite of bloat ware). Install. 2. Navigate to your backup directory. It's protected so you must be an admin on your current computer. 3. Find the list of zip files. 4. Select them all or a subset thereof if you know where to find the files you're looking for. 5. Right click and choose the 7-Zip submenu. From the submenu choose Extract All (or something like that). 6. Save the files to a destination. Make sure you have enough space for the extraction. Ps I suspect Microsoft eliminated the functionality because they wanted to encourage people to use sky drive to backup. Not a bad idea but its left people who did dutifully back up in the lurch when migrating to windows 8.1 :(.

Post 19 is the answer. Windows 7 backup that 8 used, It also created a VHDx image of the pic you see.  I still have that  image. That image can be extracted or used in startup recovery mode. Tested and works.

1-locate the folder of the image backup there will be a file there called xxxxxxxxxxx.vhdx

2- Fire up your good old windows 8.1 awesome disk management

3- attach your trustful windows 8.1 vhdx from the backup image, if already attached goto 4

4-assign a drive letter from the greatness of windows 8.1 disk manger

5- lets go to>THIS PC< and restore some files from the drive letter assigned








  • Edited by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 1:21 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 3:27 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by David WoltersModerator Friday, March 14, 2014 5:21 PM
December 24th, 2013 12:57pm

I have a solution. To all the "helpful" suggestions that say you're dealing with a VHD file--that is NOT the question the original poster asked. And all the Microsoft MVPs have been wrong so I wonder what it takes to become an MVP :(. Presumably the OP used backup and restore to make a backup of FILES, not a disk image. Now they want to access those files in a convenient manner. 1. Search for 7-zip and download the installer for your computer (32 or 64 bit). It's open source and free and highly stable (the opposite of bloat ware). Install. 2. Navigate to your backup directory. It's protected so you must be an admin on your current computer. 3. Find the list of zip files. 4. Select them all or a subset thereof if you know where to find the files you're looking for. 5. Right click and choose the 7-Zip submenu. From the submenu choose Extract All (or something like that). 6. Save the files to a destination. Make sure you have enough space for the extraction. Ps I suspect Microsoft eliminated the functionality because they wanted to encourage people to use sky drive to backup. Not a bad idea but its left people who did dutifully back up in the lurch when migrating to windows 8.1 :(.
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December 24th, 2013 3:06pm

Reply to my post showing you the vhdx exits

Windows 8.1 system image        

               Question                      Electricroo        asked on     November 4, 2013

When making a system image backup in windows 7 onto my portable drive, I was able to open the backup  with explorer and view the files. The backup had a VHD extension.  I can't do that with windows 8.1.  I get an error of "could not mount file" and it has a VHDX extention. Is there a way of mounting the image file with the VHDX extension? What is the difference between mounting the files VHD and VHDX

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-system/windows-81-system-image/8e01d8b8-8531-45f0-b267-f36a43399a45

The person could view the vhdx if she/he assigned a drive letter in disk manager.

Have a happy holiday season, You owe some of the members an apology for your rude comment. To know something is the ability to learn and listen, to those that learned is what we know and share.




  • Edited by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 3:36 PM
December 24th, 2013 3:24pm

Reply to my post showing you the vhdx exits

Windows 8.1 system image        

               Question                      Electricroo        asked on     November 4, 2013

When making a system image backup in windows 7 onto my portable drive, I was able to open the backup  with explorer and view the files. The backup had a VHD extension.  I can't do that with windows 8.1.  I get an error of "could not mount file" and it has a VHDX extention. Is there a way of mounting the image file with the VHDX extension? What is the difference between mounting the files VHD and VHDX

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-system/windows-81-system-image/8e01d8b8-8531-45f0-b267-f36a43399a45

The person could view the vhdx if she/he assigned a drive letter in disk manager.

Have a happy holiday season, You owe some of the members an apology for your rude comment. To know something is the ability to learn and listen, to those that learned is what we know and share.




  • Edited by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 3:36 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 24th, 2013 3:24pm

I have a solution. To all the "helpful" suggestions that say you're dealing with a VHDI have a solution. To all the "helpful" suggestions that say you're dealing with a VHD file--that is NOT the question the original poster asked. And all the Microsoft MVPs have been wrong so I wonder what it takes to become an MVP :(. Presumably the OP used backup and restore to make a backup of FILES, not a disk image. Now they want to access those files in a convenient manner. 1. Search for 7-zip and download the installer for your computer (32 or 64 bit). It's open source and free and highly stable (the opposite of bloat ware). Install. 2. Navigate to your backup directory. It's protected so you must be an admin on your current computer. 3. Find the list of zip files. 4. Select them all or a subset thereof if you know where to find the files you're looking for. 5. Right click and choose the 7-Zip submenu. From the submenu choose Extract All (or something like that). 6. Save the files to a destination. Make sure you have enough space for the extraction. Ps I suspect Microsoft eliminated the functionality because they wanted to encourage people to use sky drive to backup. Not a bad idea but its left people who did dutifully back up in the lurch when migrating to windows 8.1 :(.

Post 19 is the answer. Windows 7 backup that 8 used, It also created a VHDx image of the pic you see.  I still have that  image. That image can be extracted or used in startup recovery mode. Tested and works.

1-locate the folder of the image backup there will be a file there called xxxxxxxxxxx.vhdx

2- Fire up your good old windows 8.1 awesome disk management

3- attach your trustful windows 8.1 vhdx from the backup image, if already attached goto 4

4-assign a drive letter from the greatness of windows 8.1 disk manger

5- lets go to>THIS PC< and restore some files from the drive letter assigned








  • Edited by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 1:21 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 3:27 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by David WoltersModerator Friday, March 14, 2014 5:21 PM
December 24th, 2013 3:57pm

Reply to my post showing you the vhdx exits

Windows 8.1 system image        

               Question                      Electricroo        asked on     November 4, 2013

When making a system image backup in windows 7 onto my portable drive, I was able to open the backup  with explorer and view the files. The backup had a VHD extension.  I can't do that with windows 8.1.  I get an error of "could not mount file" and it has a VHDX extention. Is there a way of mounting the image file with the VHDX extension? What is the difference between mounting the files VHD and VHDX

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-system/windows-81-system-image/8e01d8b8-8531-45f0-b267-f36a43399a45

The person could view the vhdx if she/he assigned a drive letter in disk manager.

Have a happy holiday season, You owe some of the members an apology for your rude comment. To know something is the ability to learn and listen, to those that learned is what we know and share.




  • Edited by colakid Tuesday, December 24, 2013 3:36 PM
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December 24th, 2013 6:24pm

This is a long thread but it seems that most on here want to restore a backup set type created on windows 7 backup and restore.

This was somewhat of a pain for me but I was able to correctly do this.

I had my backups saved onto a network hard drive and in Windows 8 if you open the windows 7 file recovery application it'll open up backup and restore.

Select 'select another backup to restore files from' under the restore section.

Once there you will be able to select the backup but do not attempt to open a backup set from within the backup set.

You must select only the root of the drive that the backup set is on. Once you do that you will have the option to either select files to restore or folders to restore. From there you the restoration will be on it's way.

Like I said, not sure if this will fix anyone's problem here but it's been able to help out others in different threads.

December 25th, 2013 10:02pm

I had my backups saved onto a network hard drive and in Windows 8 if you open the windows 7 file recovery application it'll open up backup and restore.

The unfortunate reality is that with Windows 8.1 the "Windows 7 File Recovery" feature has been completely removed.

It's an overly aggressive move by Microsoft management apparently to try to save their strategy of eliminating all of what Windows was in order to start a whole new growth cycle around Metro/Modern.

Trouble is, people have already experienced better.  What was amazing new tech back in the 1980s is now not acceptable.  But apparently no one with any sense is at the helm at Microsoft.

All this "doubling down" on this strategy reminds me of someone about to get thrown out of a casino for reaching their credit limit.

  

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December 25th, 2013 10:54pm

I had my backups saved onto a network hard drive and in Windows 8 if you open the windows 7 file recovery application it'll open up backup and restore.

The unfortunate reality is that with Windows 8.1 the "Windows 7 File Recovery" feature has been completely removed.

It's an overly aggressive move by Microsoft management apparently to try to save their strategy of eliminating all of what Windows was in order to start a whole new growth cycle around Metro/Modern.

Trouble is, people have already experienced better.  What was amazing new tech back in the 1980s is now not acceptable.  But apparently no one with any sense is at the helm at Microsoft.

All this "doubling down" on this strategy reminds me of someone about to get thrown out of a casino for reaching their credit limit.

  

December 25th, 2013 11:19pm

"Nice to see windows 7 file recovery gone" While that may be true it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people used the Windows 7 Backup and Restore software and are now unable to access files archived in a backup. And, it's not like you're talking multiple versions of an OS--this is a single OS jump. What is disappointing about this thread is not that Microsoft eliminated the feature but that the MVPs here are anything but helpful in their response and are either obtuse (the OP did not ask about VHD) or downright rude. It makes you question mMicrosoft's business acumen when this is their public persona (especially when their new OS is in serious trouble compared to how their main competitors iOS, Mac OS X and Android are doing and have been received by their user base--granted windows 8 is not as much of a debacle as Windows ME or as unfairly maligned as Vista but its definitely "too little, too late" compared to the competition.
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December 26th, 2013 10:10am

"Nice to see windows 7 file recovery gone" While that may be true it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people used the Windows 7 Backup and Restore software and are now unable to access files archived in a backup. And, it's not like you're talking multiple versions of an OS--this is a single OS jump. What is disappointing about this thread is not that Microsoft eliminated the feature but that the MVPs here are anything but helpful in their response and are either obtuse (the OP did not ask about VHD) or downright rude. It makes you question mMicrosoft's business acumen when this is their public persona (especially when their new OS is in serious trouble compared to how their main competitors iOS, Mac OS X and Android are doing and have been received by their user base

I have to disagree with you in trouble. Microsoft windows owns the windows/operating system  markets.  The pie shows that windows 8.1 is slow but steadily climbing.

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0



I have sold plenty of windows 8.1 system and setup plenty. I can tell you. I have had many negative voices. I explained to my customers how the operating system functions and customized the Desktop for them, with lesson howto. I've gotten, " thanks for the help"!. My customers like the operating system. How would anybody know if they like/dislike something if it was never used. I have more positive voices now and that is because they finally got to actually use the operating system rather then reading BS.

About the title of the topic, just try to restore a backup made in windows xp using windows 7 backup. Good luck. Try to use windows 98 backup and restore using windows xp. Good luck. Try using windows 8.1 image vhdx using windows 7. Humm seems I can do that!

To restore an existing system image backup, restore the OS to a previous point. use the drive that contains the backup. Then, go to PC Settings, Update and Recovery, Recovery and click the Restart. choose Advanced Startup. The PC will restart.

1 choose Troubleshoot.

 2 Advanced Options.

3 system Image Recovery. Restart

4 System Image Recovery, select your user name and password

Or if you only need some files in the image mount the vhdx file and restore some files.

Humm seems I can do that.




POINT TO REMEMBER, FULLY RESTORE A COMPUTER SYSTEM USING THE IMAGE CREATED WITH A MACHINE HAS TO BE DONE WITH THAT MACHINE. I HAVE NOT TESTED RESTORE WITH A DIFFERENT MACHINE OTHER THEN THE ONE RESTORE WAS CREATED WITH.  I am assuming restore could be done with a different system of the original backup, probably reactivation will be needed.






  • Edited by colakid Friday, December 27, 2013 10:45 PM
December 27th, 2013 12:39pm

"Nice to see windows 7 file recovery gone" While that may be true it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people used the Windows 7 Backup and Restore software and are now unable to access files archived in a backup. And, it's not like you're talking multiple versions of an OS--this is a single OS jump. What is disappointing about this thread is not that Microsoft eliminated the feature but that the MVPs here are anything but helpful in their response and are either obtuse (the OP did not ask about VHD) or downright rude. It makes you question mMicrosoft's business acumen when this is their public persona (especially when their new OS is in serious trouble compared to how their main competitors iOS, Mac OS X and Android are doing and have been received by their user base

I have to disagree with you in trouble. Microsoft windows owns the windows/operating system  markets.  The pie shows that windows 8.1 is slow but steadily climbing.

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0



I have sold plenty of windows 8.1 system and setup plenty. I can tell you. I have had many negative voices. I explained to my customers how the operating system functions and customized the Desktop for them, with lesson howto. I've gotten, " thanks for the help"!. My customers like the operating system. How would anybody know if they like/dislike something if it was never used. I have more positive voices now and that is because they finally got to actually use the operating system rather then reading BS.

About the title of the topic, just try to restore a backup made in windows xp using windows 7 backup. Good luck. Try to use windows 98 backup and restore using windows xp. Good luck. Try using windows 8.1 image vhdx using windows 7. Humm seems I can do that!

To restore an existing system image backup, restore the OS to a previous point. use the drive that contains the backup. Then, go to PC Settings, Update and Recovery, Recovery and click the Restart. choose Advanced Startup. The PC will restart.

1 choose Troubleshoot.

 2 Advanced Options.

3 system Image Recovery. Restart

4 System Image Recovery, select your user name and password

Or if you only need some files in the image mount the vhdx file and restore some files.

Humm seems I can do that.




POINT TO REMEMBER, FULLY RESTORE A COMPUTER SYSTEM USING THE IMAGE CREATED WITH A MACHINE HAS TO BE DONE WITH THAT MACHINE. I HAVE NOT TESTED RESTORE WITH A DIFFERENT MACHINE OTHER THEN THE ONE RESTORE WAS CREATED WITH.  I am assuming restore could be done with a different system of the original backup, probably reactivation will be needed.






  • Edited by colakid Friday, December 27, 2013 10:45 PM
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December 27th, 2013 12:39pm

This is unbelievable.  Just upgraded from Windows 7 straight to Windows 8.1.  Was putting off doing this for some time given that I have a non-touch desktop and after hearing all of the bad press about Windows 8.  Therefore, I did an  two-step upgrade, first to Windows 8 and then immediately  to Windows 8.1.  Before starting the upgrade followed Microsoft's own advice to BACKUP! and used THEIR BACKUP TOOL to do it.  Now I can't restore!  OK, I can understand that they have a new 'File History' tool which replace the old Backup/Restore utility and they want users to migrate there.  But to abandon the old tool in one upgrade!  I mean, at least make the previous Restore utility available.  That way users could at least restore their previous files and migrate to the new tool.  And it wouldn't have helped even if I had restored immediately after installing Windows 8.  Since 8.1 is a major install, I would have done a clean install anyway, wiping my disk clean (and relying on my still Windows 7 backed-up data).  I have always discounted the Microsoft haters and always tried to look at any complaints against them objectively and fairly but this is an absolutely awful way to treat their customers.
December 27th, 2013 2:39pm

"Nice to see windows 7 file recovery gone" While that may be true it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people used the Windows 7 Backup and Restore software and are now unable to access files archived in a backup. And, it's not like you're talking multiple versions of an OS--this is a single OS jump. What is disappointing about this thread is not that Microsoft eliminated the feature but that the MVPs here are anything but helpful in their response and are either obtuse (the OP did not ask about VHD) or downright rude. It makes you question mMicrosoft's business acumen when this is their public persona (especially when their new OS is in serious trouble compared to how their main competitors iOS, Mac OS X and Android are doing and have been received by their user base

I have to disagree with you in trouble. Microsoft windows owns the windows/operating system  markets.  The pie shows that windows 8.1 is slow but steadily climbing.

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0



I have sold plenty of windows 8.1 system and setup plenty. I can tell you. I have had many negative voices. I explained to my customers how the operating system functions and customized the Desktop for them, with lesson howto. I've gotten, " thanks for the help"!. My customers like the operating system. How would anybody know if they like/dislike something if it was never used. I have more positive voices now and that is because they finally got to actually use the operating system rather then reading BS.

About the title of the topic, just try to restore a backup made in windows xp using windows 7 backup. Good luck. Try to use windows 98 backup and restore using windows xp. Good luck. Try using windows 8.1 image vhdx using windows 7. Humm seems I can do that!

To restore an existing system image backup, restore the OS to a previous point. use the drive that contains the backup. Then, go to PC Settings, Update and Recovery, Recovery and click the Restart. choose Advanced Startup. The PC will restart.

1 choose Troubleshoot.

 2 Advanced Options.

3 system Image Recovery. Restart

4 System Image Recovery, select your user name and password

Or if you only need some files in the image mount the vhdx file and restore some files.

Humm seems I can do that.




POINT TO REMEMBER, FULLY RESTORE A COMPUTER SYSTEM USING THE IMAGE CREATED WITH A MACHINE HAS TO BE DONE WITH THAT MACHINE. I HAVE NOT TESTED RESTORE WITH A DIFFERENT MACHINE OTHER THEN THE ONE RESTORE WAS CREATED WITH.  I am assuming restore could be done with a different system of the original backup, probably reactivation will be needed.






  • Edited by colakid Friday, December 27, 2013 10:45 PM
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December 27th, 2013 3:39pm

Thanks ColaKid and James jv5,

This worked for me. I did a selected data file backup on my windows 7 system using "Backup and Restore" before doing clean install of Windows 8.1. By clean I mean allowing 8.1 to format of the C: drive.

Stupid of me to think I could backup my data on windows 7 and restore it on windows 8.1 wasn't it!  I had taken an Acronis image backup as well so all was not lost, but you have saved me hours of work imaging my win8.1 system,;restoring windows 7 ;copying everything off I might need before starting all over again.

I have now restored several Gb of Documents and photos. Easy once you know how :)

  

December 28th, 2013 8:40pm

Barb,

Can you please get your reply removed as the answer for this thread?

Seb's question was very specific about restoring files from a Windows 7 backup on a Windows 8.1 system.

Neither of your replies answer this.

There are other responses on this thread that also seem to completely miss the point of Seb's question, however, none of these have been incorrectly marked as the resolution, as yours has.

I am also facing this issue, trying to restore files from an old backup created in Windows Vista, on a new Windows 8.1 system and I cannot find a way of doing this.

It seems that Microsoft have removed all backward compatibility with any Windows backups done using Windows backup up, even ones done as recently as with Windows 7 backup!

Thanks,

David.

Your wrong David. Barb answer an mine suits the question







  • Edited by colakid Saturday, December 28, 2013 11:39 PM
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December 28th, 2013 9:02pm

Barb,

Can you please get your reply removed as the answer for this thread?

Seb's question was very specific about restoring files from a Windows 7 backup on a Windows 8.1 system.

Neither of your replies answer this.

There are other responses on this thread that also seem to completely miss the point of Seb's question, however, none of these have been incorrectly marked as the resolution, as yours has.

I am also facing this issue, trying to restore files from an old backup created in Windows Vista, on a new Windows 8.1 system and I cannot find a way of doing this.

It seems that Microsoft have removed all backward compatibility with any Windows backups done using Windows backup up, even ones done as recently as with Windows 7 backup!

Thanks,

David.

Your wrong David. Barb answer an mine suits the question







  • Edited by colakid Saturday, December 28, 2013 11:39 PM
December 28th, 2013 9:02pm

I wouldn't call you stupid for thinking Microsoft would continue a way to get at the various kinds of backups they made in Windows 7 - and in fact they have, as written in various posts above.

But another way to have done it, after thinking ahead a bit, was just to drag everything from your C: drive to an external USB drive (and make sure permissions are such that you'll be able to access it from a new system).  That's what I did.  Then when I needed certain data I just dragged it back.  Trivial.

 

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December 28th, 2013 10:23pm

Barb,

Can you please get your reply removed as the answer for this thread?

Seb's question was very specific about restoring files from a Windows 7 backup on a Windows 8.1 system.

Neither of your replies answer this.

There are other responses on this thread that also seem to completely miss the point of Seb's question, however, none of these have been incorrectly marked as the resolution, as yours has.

I am also facing this issue, trying to restore files from an old backup created in Windows Vista, on a new Windows 8.1 system and I cannot find a way of doing this.

It seems that Microsoft have removed all backward compatibility with any Windows backups done using Windows backup up, even ones done as recently as with Windows 7 backup!

Thanks,

David.

Your wrong David. Barb answer an mine suits the question







  • Edited by colakid Saturday, December 28, 2013 11:39 PM
December 29th, 2013 12:02am

@David my method works fine for a windows 7 backup set. I created a backup of my windows 7 and created a system image as well. WinRAR achiever works fine to use the zip files or the Image vhd can be mounted in windows 8.1. Once mounted you can restore whatever is stored in your computer. YOUR WRONG

Forgot to mention it almost killed me to fire up win7 to do this. I did not have to do this. I have done it before but to prove it to you with pics was well worth it.

Here we see the mounted vhd



So Microsoft did what they did because the conventional backup we used for years in not needed. Windows image and filehistory is all we need and it is far more dominate then the old fashion backup

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, December 29, 2013 1:35 AM
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December 29th, 2013 1:17am

@David my method works fine for a windows 7 backup set. I created a backup of my windows 7 and created a system image as well. WinRAR achiever works fine to use the zip files or the Image vhd can be mounted in windows 8.1. Once mounted you can restore whatever is stored in your computer. YOUR WRONG

Forgot to mention it almost killed me to fire up win7 to do this. I did not have to do this. I have done it before but to prove it to you with pics was well worth it.

Here we see the mounted vhd



So Microsoft did what they did because the conventional backup we used for years in not needed. Windows image and filehistory is all we need and it is far more dominate then the old fashion backup

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, December 29, 2013 1:35 AM
December 29th, 2013 1:17am

@David my method works fine for a windows 7 backup set. I created a backup of my windows 7 and created a system image as well. WinRAR achiever works fine to use the zip files or the Image vhd can be mounted in windows 8.1. Once mounted you can restore whatever is stored in your computer. YOUR WRONG

Forgot to mention it almost killed me to fire up win7 to do this. I did not have to do this. I have done it before but to prove it to you with pics was well worth it.

Here we see the mounted vhd



So Microsoft did what they did because the conventional backup we used for years in not needed. Windows image and filehistory is all we need and it is far more dominate then the old fashion backup

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, December 29, 2013 1:35 AM
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December 29th, 2013 4:17am

what i ended up doing

I got winrar from rarsoft.com

I install wuala

http://www.wuala.com/referral/7NK46BNCC4A5JANKNK7G

this gave me a 5gb hard drive for free

it called it drive W on my pc

I then use Winrar to unzip all the files to the W drive.

Then I ended up doing nothing

everything was there for me to access.

I also shared my picture folder with friends and relative

December 29th, 2013 5:58am

So Microsoft did what they did because the conventional backup we used for years in not needed. Windows image and filehistory is all we need and it is far more dominate then the old fashion backup

LOL, all YOU need maybe.  You probably can't imagine that there are people who take computing more seriously than you do.  I think it's funny that you propose to understand why Microsoft is deleting perfectly good functionality from Windows.

Cute dog, though.

  

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December 29th, 2013 7:01am

For a clear understanding of how this works for the serious backup users please read

WHAT HAPPENED TO BACKUP

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/what-happened-to-backup-restore

If your very serious you can do a Search for and Create recovery drive. Once done you have the most serious backup one can ever make. This method beats all pervious backup ever developed and is intended for the more serious data storage,  But I forgot Noels backups are so extensive that only windows 7 backup works, even when it is staring in his face there is something better for him.

There is nothing in windows 7 backup that windows 8.1 file history cannot do.

December 29th, 2013 3:07pm

Forgive me for demanding that my backup tools actually work in practice, not just because some marketing blurb says they do.

I have been running recurring system image backups in Windows 8.1.  I suspect not a lot of folks know that can even be accomplished with Windows 8.1. 

Given the way Microsoft is going, even that probably won't work in the next release.

Along with 3rd party tools now needed to provide Shadow Copy access, a recurring system image backup does all I need - providing capability for bare metal disaster recovery AND individual file restoral.  It covers every file on the disk and it doesn't fill up my backup media with copy after copy of the same unchanged files.

Forgive me for wishing that Microsoft wouldn't have deleted the UI for setting up the schedule for system image backups.  Having done so says the decision makers are out of touch with how things really work.

Fortunately I get along with the Task Scheduler, so I can do it another way - but I'm willing to bet you a LOT fewer people will schedule their own wbadmin commands than used to run the Backup UI, such as it was in Windows 7.

And so here we are, left with deleted UI functionality and a File History feature that sounds cool but in practice doesn't actually work right.  That's progress for you.

  

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December 30th, 2013 4:57am

For what its worth, if you know what you are doing or have  few days to learn, you can install a virtual Windows7 machine (Hyper-V) inside your Win8 Machine and have your way with your data.

What where they thinking? Same mistake they made in XP -> Vista "upgrade".  At least they quickly provided a NTBackup restore program to install in Vista to get your stuff back.  I usually do a "belt and suspenders" backup to switch computers.  One with windows and another with Easeus To-Do backup (best free backup on the planet).  But I didn't this time.  I am an idiot.  Foo me once Foo on you, Foo me twice, Foo on me. 

  These mistakes are simply asinine oversights of a company that has a bunch of 20'someting graduates at the helm.  Hire the best kids just out of programming school, give them $180,000 a year and turn them loose.  What this company needs is a software engineer with some experience.  A focus group with real computer business users who have been using MS for 20 years would have told you all this negative stuff you have to learn the hard way about Win8/Server2012/Exchange 2013/Office 2013 by releasing a shoddy product (again) on an unsuspecting public. 

Microsoft - get your game together.  Put the pipe down and get serious about serving up software that works.  Get the guy who came up with this asinine idea to take Win7 backup/restore out of 8.1, to go pea in a cup and you might have the answer to this egregious oversight when the test results come back!  He's probably tokin' buddies with the guy who decided that "Fetch Files" wouldn't be needed in 8.1 Skydrive either.

"your files will automatically be saved to skydrive"  He's at all the same parties too.  It's time to clean house in Redmond and hire some sober programmers.


  • Edited by Rickkee Friday, January 10, 2014 12:01 AM edit
January 9th, 2014 11:59pm

For what its worth, if you know what you are doing or have  few days to learn, you can install a virtual Windows7 machine (Hyper-V) inside your Win8 Machine and have your way with your data.

What where they thinking? Same mistake they made in XP -> Vista "upgrade".  At least they quickly provided a NTBackup restore program to install in Vista to get your stuff back.  I usually do a "belt and suspenders" backup to switch computers.  One with windows and another with Easeus To-Do backup (best free backup on the planet).  But I didn't this time.  I am an idiot.  Foo me once Foo on you, Foo me twice, Foo on me. 

  These mistakes are simply asinine oversights of a company that has a bunch of 20'someting graduates at the helm.  Hire the best kids just out of programming school, give them $180,000 a year and turn them loose.  What this company needs is a software engineer with some experience.  A focus group with real computer business users who have been using MS for 20 years would have told you all this negative stuff you have to learn the hard way about Win8/Server2012/Exchange 2013/Office 2013 by releasing a shoddy product (again) on an unsuspecting public. 

Microsoft - get your game together.  Put the pipe down and get serious about serving up software that works.  Get the guy who came up with this asinine idea to take Win7 backup/restore out of 8.1, to go pea in a cup and you might have the answer to this egregious oversight when the test results come back!  He's probably tokin' buddies with the guy who decided that "Fetch Files" wouldn't be needed in 8.1 Skydrive either.

"your files will automatically be saved to skydrive"  He's at all the same parties too.  It's time to clean house in Redmond and hire some sober programmers.


  • Edited by Rickkee Friday, January 10, 2014 12:01 AM edit
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January 9th, 2014 11:59pm

For what its worth, if you know what you are doing or have  few days to learn, you can install a virtual Windows7 machine (Hyper-V) inside your Win8 Machine and have your way with your data.

What where they thinking? Same mistake they made in XP -> Vista "upgrade".  At least they quickly provided a NTBackup restore program to install in Vista to get your stuff back.  I usually do a "belt and suspenders" backup to switch computers.  One with windows and another with Easeus To-Do backup (best free backup on the planet).  But I didn't this time.  I am an idiot.  Foo me once Foo on you, Foo me twice, Foo on me. 

  These mistakes are simply asinine oversights of a company that has a bunch of 20'someting graduates at the helm.  Hire the best kids just out of programming school, give them $180,000 a year and turn them loose.  What this company needs is a software engineer with some experience.  A focus group with real computer business users who have been using MS for 20 years would have told you all this negative stuff you have to learn the hard way about Win8/Server2012/Exchange 2013/Office 2013 by releasing a shoddy product (again) on an unsuspecting public. 

Microsoft - get your game together.  Put the pipe down and get serious about serving up software that works.  Get the guy who came up with this asinine idea to take Win7 backup/restore out of 8.1, to go pea in a cup and you might have the answer to this egregious oversight when the test results come back!  He's probably tokin' buddies with the guy who decided that "Fetch Files" wouldn't be needed in 8.1 Skydrive either.

"your files will automatically be saved to skydrive"  He's at all the same parties too.  It's time to clean house in Redmond and hire some sober programmers.


  • Edited by Rickkee Friday, January 10, 2014 12:01 AM edit
January 10th, 2014 2:59am

I realise this is an old thread, but I have just hit the same situation - end user did a backup under 7, got an 8.1 laptop and was presented with a pile of zip files.

To help anyone in the future, I installed 7zip, selected all the zip files in the backup directory and right clicked, then extract to "/". This then extracted all the zip files in their relevent folders into the folder of the backups (I'm sure you can save them else where). Saved a huge amount of time as there was close to 300 zip files and I wasn't going into each one to extract the contents.

Then it was just a case of moving the users files over to the laptop.

Cheers

Terry

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 1st, 2014 8:45pm

Has anyone found an ACTUAL solution to this problem yet?

Since 100% of the "solutions" here are in fact WRONG, let me recap the problem as simply as possible for the slow folk trying to be "helpful" but failing to bother reading.

We're wanting a utility that allows restoring files from Windows 7 backup sets using the ZIP format, NOT using the VHD format.

7-Zip and other standard archiving utilities are NOT the solution, because Windows 7 splits files across the ZIPs, but not in the standard split-ZIP method. Therefor a simple extraction of the files CORRUPTS any such file that was spread across archives.

We understand that Windows 8.1 no longer has this method of backup, but Microsoft should have at very least given us a tool for RESTORING these files, even if it's just by recognizing the MediaID.db file and hidden Catalog folders (with associated index files) and treating the folder as a special container.

Since Microsoft is clearly inept in this situation, a 3rd party utility capable of recognizing these specialized backups and sewing the chopped up files back together would be helpful.

March 14th, 2014 3:14am

The answer is the windows 7 backup creates a vhd, you can attach that In windows 8.1 to restore files. I have done this so I know for a fact this works.

Disk Management>Action>Attach Virtual Hard Disk>Browse to where your windows 7 image is.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/how-to-restore-vhd-file-backup/f3ed3ca5-3079-40cd-a959-835caeba80a7

Or like mentioned winrar


Thank you for repeating an already WRONG answer.

Please bother yourself to actually read the comments people are making before spamming the thread with the same useless information.

There is NO VHD file created for the ZIP based backups. There are only MediaID.db and a bunch of hidden Catalog files.

WinRAR is useless for sewing back together the large files that Windows 7 splits across multiple ZIP files.

I already said that in my first post and you failed to read it.



@David Wolters: colakid has contributed nothing to this thread, repeatedly parroting incorrect information without actually reading people's posts and being demeaning in his own every time. The limits of politeness only go so far.
 And by the way, neither the Terms of Use, nor the FAQ, nor any other link on this page makes ANY mentions of a "Code of Conduct" page. I'm sorry if you disagree with my sentiment, but I have the right to express it.

  • Edited by David WoltersModerator Friday, March 14, 2014 5:08 PM Edited for Politeness. Please read the Code Of Conduct.
  • Edited by ShadowDrakken Friday, March 14, 2014 5:26 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 14th, 2014 4:50pm

The answer is the windows 7 backup creates a vhd, you can attach that In windows 8.1 to restore files. I have done this so I know for a fact this works.

Disk Management>Action>Attach Virtual Hard Disk>Browse to where your windows 7 image is.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/how-to-restore-vhd-file-backup/f3ed3ca5-3079-40cd-a959-835caeba80a7

Or like mentioned winrar


Thank you for repeating an already WRONG answer.

Please bother yourself to actually read the comments people are making before spamming the thread with the same useless information.

There is NO VHD file created for the ZIP based backups. There are only MediaID.db and a bunch of hidden Catalog files.

WinRAR is useless for sewing back together the large files that Windows 7 splits across multiple ZIP files.

I already said that in my first post and you failed to read it.



@David Wolters: colakid has contributed nothing to this thread, repeatedly parroting incorrect information without actually reading people's posts and being demeaning in his own every time. The limits of politeness only go so far.
 And by the way, neither the Terms of Use, nor the FAQ, nor any other link on this page makes ANY mentions of a "Code of Conduct" page. I'm sorry if you disagree with my sentiment, but I have the right to express it.

  • Edited by David WoltersModerator Friday, March 14, 2014 5:08 PM Edited for Politeness. Please read the Code Of Conduct.
  • Edited by ShadowDrakken Friday, March 14, 2014 5:26 PM
March 14th, 2014 4:50pm

The answer is the windows 7 backup creates a vhd, you can attach that In windows 8.1 to restore files. I have done this so I know for a fact this works.

Disk Management>Action>Attach Virtual Hard Disk>Browse to where your windows 7 image is.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/how-to-restore-vhd-file-backup/f3ed3ca5-3079-40cd-a959-835caeba80a7

Or like mentioned winrar


Thank you for repeating an already WRONG answer.

Please bother yourself to actually read the comments people are making before spamming the thread with the same useless information.

There is NO VHD file created for the ZIP based backups. There are only MediaID.db and a bunch of hidden Catalog files.

WinRAR is useless for sewing back together the large files that Windows 7 splits across multiple ZIP files.

I already said that in my first post and you failed to read it.



@David Wolters: colakid has contributed nothing to this thread, repeatedly parroting incorrect information without actually reading people's posts and being demeaning in his own every time. The limits of politeness only go so far.
 And by the way, neither the Terms of Use, nor the FAQ, nor any other link on this page makes ANY mentions of a "Code of Conduct" page. I'm sorry if you disagree with my sentiment, but I have the right to express it.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-system/windows-81-system-image/8e01d8b8-8531-45f0-b267-f36a43399a45?auth=1

When making a system image backup in windows 7 onto my portable drive, I was able to open the backup  with explorer and view the files. The backup had a VHD extension. I can't do that with windows 8.1.  I get an error of "could not mount file" and it has a VHDX extention. Is there a way of mounting the image file with the VHDX extension? What is the difference between mounting the files VHD and VHDX?

I have the backup with the vhd and restored windows 7 files using that vhd in windows 8.1.

I said pardon 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-GXjZpjIJU

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/why-can-i-not-mount-a-vhd-file-made-with-windows/d3918d75-a7e8-4b77-bf61-cabc449208f0




  • Edited by colakid Friday, March 14, 2014 5:52 PM
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March 14th, 2014 5:49pm

The answer is the windows 7 backup creates a vhd, you can attach that In windows 8.1 to restore files. I have done this so I know for a fact this works.

Disk Management>Action>Attach Virtual Hard Disk>Browse to where your windows 7 image is.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/how-to-restore-vhd-file-backup/f3ed3ca5-3079-40cd-a959-835caeba80a7

Or like mentioned winrar


Thank you for repeating an already WRONG answer.

Please bother yourself to actually read the comments people are making before spamming the thread with the same useless information.

There is NO VHD file created for the ZIP based backups. There are only MediaID.db and a bunch of hidden Catalog files.

WinRAR is useless for sewing back together the large files that Windows 7 splits across multiple ZIP files.

I already said that in my first post and you failed to read it.



@David Wolters: colakid has contributed nothing to this thread, repeatedly parroting incorrect information without actually reading people's posts and being demeaning in his own every time. The limits of politeness only go so far.
 And by the way, neither the Terms of Use, nor the FAQ, nor any other link on this page makes ANY mentions of a "Code of Conduct" page. I'm sorry if you disagree with my sentiment, but I have the right to express it.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-system/windows-81-system-image/8e01d8b8-8531-45f0-b267-f36a43399a45?auth=1

When making a system image backup in windows 7 onto my portable drive, I was able to open the backup  with explorer and view the files. The backup had a VHD extension. I can't do that with windows 8.1.  I get an error of "could not mount file" and it has a VHDX extention. Is there a way of mounting the image file with the VHDX extension? What is the difference between mounting the files VHD and VHDX?

I have the backup with the vhd and restored windows 7 files using that vhd in windows 8.1.

I said pardon 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-GXjZpjIJU

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/why-can-i-not-mount-a-vhd-file-made-with-windows/d3918d75-a7e8-4b77-bf61-cabc449208f0




  • Edited by colakid Friday, March 14, 2014 5:52 PM
March 14th, 2014 5:49pm

colakid...

there

is

no

VHD

and

never

was

The VHD is only created for complete backups, it's the System drive. Custom backups that don't include the System drive don't make VHDs.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 14th, 2014 5:53pm

colakid...

there

is

no

VHD

and

never

was

The VHD is only created for complete backups, it's the System drive. Custom backups that don't include the System drive don't make VHDs.

March 14th, 2014 5:53pm

colakid...

there

is

no

VHD

and

never

was

The VHD is only created for complete backups, it's the System drive. Custom backups that don't include the System drive don't make VHDs.


this is true, there are plenty that have done so, what I am saying applies to those who have choose to create the image
  • Edited by colakid Friday, March 14, 2014 6:00 PM
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March 14th, 2014 5:58pm

colakid...

there

is

no

VHD

and

never

was

The VHD is only created for complete backups, it's the System drive. Custom backups that don't include the System drive don't make VHDs.


this is true, there are plenty that have done so, what I am saying applies to those who have choose to create the image
  • Edited by colakid Friday, March 14, 2014 6:00 PM
March 14th, 2014 5:58pm

The answer is the windows 7 backup creates a vhd, you can attach that In windows 8.1 to restore files. I have done this so I know for a fact this works.

Disk Management>Action>Attach Virtual Hard Disk>Browse to where your windows 7 image is.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/how-to-restore-vhd-file-backup/f3ed3ca5-3079-40cd-a959-835caeba80a7

Or like mentioned winrar


Thank you for repeating an already WRONG answer.

Please bother yourself to actually read the comments people are making before spamming the thread with the same useless information.

There is NO VHD file created for the ZIP based backups. There are only MediaID.db and a bunch of hidden Catalog files.

WinRAR is useless for sewing back together the large files that Windows 7 splits across multiple ZIP files.

I already said that in my first post and you failed to read it.



@David Wolters: colakid has contributed nothing to this thread, repeatedly parroting incorrect information without actually reading people's posts and being demeaning in his own every time. The limits of politeness only go so far.
 And by the way, neither the Terms of Use, nor the FAQ, nor any other link on this page makes ANY mentions of a "Code of Conduct" page. I'm sorry if you disagree with my sentiment, but I have the right to express it.

  • Edited by David WoltersModerator Friday, March 14, 2014 5:08 PM Edited for Politeness. Please read the Code Of Conduct.
  • Edited by ShadowDrakken Friday, March 14, 2014 5:26 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 14th, 2014 7:50pm

I liked the solution proposed above by Rickkee involving creation of a Windows 7 virtual machine, though that takes some learning/spending/doing.  That would net you the ability to run the Windows 7 tools.

Personally I haven't tried the Hyper-V stuff; I use VMware Workstation myself.  If you're not familiar with virtualization, such a package allows you to boot up an entire separate system (e.g., Windows 7) in a window.

 

March 14th, 2014 8:30pm

Noel, yeah that's a pseudo-solution. But that would involve buying a new license of Win7 for some people, since OEM licenses are non-transferable :\

If MS had at least uses standard ZIP-spanning instead of custom spanning, the files could be stitched back together per normal ZIP methods. But I already attempted that and the archivers all fail to read the ZIP when treated as a spanned set.

The Catalog files are too convoluted for me to make heads or tails of, otherwise I might could write my own utility (I'm not a hex guru like many developers unfortunately).

Sad to say, but I think MS bit it on this one by removing both backup and restore. With it being deprecated they should have only removed the backup portion to start with.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 14th, 2014 8:38pm

The answer is the windows 7 backup creates a vhd, you can attach that In windows 8.1 to restore files. I have done this so I know for a fact this works.

Disk Management>Action>Attach Virtual Hard Disk>Browse to where your windows 7 image is.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/how-to-restore-vhd-file-backup/f3ed3ca5-3079-40cd-a959-835caeba80a7

Or like mentioned winrar


Thank you for repeating an already WRONG answer.

Please bother yourself to actually read the comments people are making before spamming the thread with the same useless information.

There is NO VHD file created for the ZIP based backups. There are only MediaID.db and a bunch of hidden Catalog files.

WinRAR is useless for sewing back together the large files that Windows 7 splits across multiple ZIP files.

I already said that in my first post and you failed to read it.



@David Wolters: colakid has contributed nothing to this thread, repeatedly parroting incorrect information without actually reading people's posts and being demeaning in his own every time. The limits of politeness only go so far.
 And by the way, neither the Terms of Use, nor the FAQ, nor any other link on this page makes ANY mentions of a "Code of Conduct" page. I'm sorry if you disagree with my sentiment, but I have the right to express it.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-system/windows-81-system-image/8e01d8b8-8531-45f0-b267-f36a43399a45?auth=1

When making a system image backup in windows 7 onto my portable drive, I was able to open the backup  with explorer and view the files. The backup had a VHD extension. I can't do that with windows 8.1.  I get an error of "could not mount file" and it has a VHDX extention. Is there a way of mounting the image file with the VHDX extension? What is the difference between mounting the files VHD and VHDX?

I have the backup with the vhd and restored windows 7 files using that vhd in windows 8.1.

I said pardon 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-GXjZpjIJU

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/why-can-i-not-mount-a-vhd-file-made-with-windows/d3918d75-a7e8-4b77-bf61-cabc449208f0




  • Edited by colakid Friday, March 14, 2014 5:52 PM
March 14th, 2014 8:49pm

colakid...

there

is

no

VHD

and

never

was

The VHD is only created for complete backups, it's the System drive. Custom backups that don't include the System drive don't make VHDs.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 14th, 2014 8:53pm

I don't have a file backup set handy to test with (I do, but it's packed away where it's not easy to get to)...  I wonder if you can use any of the switches on the wbadmin command - which still does exist in Windows 8+ - to access the catalogs.  Have you looked into that?

C:\TEMP>wbadmin
wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

ERROR - Command incomplete. See the list below.
For Help for this command, type WBADMIN <command> /?.

---- Commands Supported ----

START BACKUP              -- Runs a one-time backup.
STOP JOB                  -- Stops the currently running backup or recovery
                              operation.
GET VERSIONS              -- Lists details of backups that can be recovered
                              from a specified location.
GET ITEMS                 -- Lists items contained in a backup.
GET STATUS                -- Reports the status of the currently running
                              operation.

 

March 14th, 2014 8:56pm

colakid...

there

is

no

VHD

and

never

was

The VHD is only created for complete backups, it's the System drive. Custom backups that don't include the System drive don't make VHDs.


this is true, there are plenty that have done so, what I am saying applies to those who have choose to create the image
  • Edited by colakid Friday, March 14, 2014 6:00 PM
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March 14th, 2014 8:58pm

Colakid, the topic of discussion in this thread is clearly the file based backup created by the Windows 7 Backup and Restore feature and which results in ZIP files and not the image based backup which creates VHD files. Users with image based backups can indeed restore using the methods you have cited but the users in this thread have indicated that their backups are not stored in VHD files.

Brandon
Windows Outreach Team- IT Pro
The Springboard Series on TechNet

March 14th, 2014 9:46pm

Colakid, the topic of discussion in this thread is clearly the file based backup created by the Windows 7 Backup and Restore feature and which results in ZIP files and not the image based backup which creates VHD files. Users with image based backups can indeed restore using the methods you have cited but the users in this thread have indicated that their backups are not stored in VHD files.

Brandon
Windows Outreach Team- IT Pro
The Springboard Series on TechNet


as the poster mentioned they only backup userfiles winzip7 works good for that too. I have a video of this shortly.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 14th, 2014 10:34pm

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174270-backup-manually-extract-files-vista-windows-7-a.html

Your wrong, here is the howto, also I am able to do this as well, you need to select all zip and extract. I know this works I have done it. I am making a video now

March 15th, 2014 7:04pm

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174270-backup-manually-extract-files-vista-windows-7-a.html

Your wrong, here is the howto, also I am able to do this as well, you need to select all zip and extract. I know this works I have done it. I am making a video now

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 15th, 2014 7:04pm

as the poster mentioned they only backup userfiles winzip7 works good for that too. I have a video of this shortly.

Again, will you PLEASE read what people are saying before posting your incorrect answers?!

WinZIP won't work. 7-Zip won't work. WinRAR won't work. NO standard archiving utility will work.

Windows 7 splits large files across the backup set, and it's not using standard ZIP spanning to do it so you can't just sew them back together like you could with a normal spanned set. I tried, the files aren't recognized as a spanned set, which means Windows 7 sliced the large files itself before packing them.

Someone needs to write a utility that can read the catalogs and correctly reassemble the chopped up files. Microsoft SHOULD be that someone, however it's unlikely that they actually will.

March 15th, 2014 8:54pm

First video of windows 7 backupsets unzipping to folder., The second video will show the final results.

http://youtu.be/gg8BH6gg_9I

I still propose my two answers to be the answer.


You can mount the vhd files or extract the zip files as shown in the videos
  • Edited by colakid Saturday, March 15, 2014 10:00 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Saturday, March 15, 2014 10:00 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Wednesday, March 19, 2014 9:14 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 15th, 2014 9:59pm

First video of windows 7 backupsets unzipping to folder., The second video will show the final results.

http://youtu.be/gg8BH6gg_9I

I still propose my two answers to be the answer.


You can mount the vhd files or extract the zip files as shown in the videos
  • Edited by colakid Saturday, March 15, 2014 10:00 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Saturday, March 15, 2014 10:00 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Wednesday, March 19, 2014 9:14 PM
March 15th, 2014 9:59pm

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174270-backup-manually-extract-files-vista-windows-7-a.html

Your wrong, here is the howto, also I am able to do this as well, you need to select all zip and extract. I know this works I have done it. I am making a video now

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 15th, 2014 10:04pm

First video of windows 7 backupsets unzipping to folder., The second video will show the final results.

http://youtu.be/gg8BH6gg_9I

I still propose my two answers to be the answer.


You can mount the vhd files or extract the zip files as shown in the videos
  • Edited by colakid Saturday, March 15, 2014 10:00 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Saturday, March 15, 2014 10:00 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Wednesday, March 19, 2014 9:14 PM
March 16th, 2014 12:59am

Second part of video.

http://youtu.be/EO7gsyrNtBs

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 16th, 2014 1:38am

I started a new backup removing the longfiles. Also installed a new version of WinRAR that allows me to extract long files. WinRAR version I'm using is 2.90bata. and we at WinRAR 5 now.

Remember the topic is "I save some personal files and how can I restore those, MY answer is the only answer, WinRAR or zip or mount the vhd. The video clearly shows that.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:54 AM
March 16th, 2014 6:42am

I started a new backup removing the longfiles. Also installed a new version of WinRAR that allows me to extract long files. WinRAR version I'm using is 2.90bata. and we at WinRAR 5 now.

Remember the topic is "I save some personal files and how can I restore those, MY answer is the only answer, WinRAR or zip or mount the vhd. The video clearly shows that.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:54 AM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 16th, 2014 6:42am

 The smaller files are fine, the larger files that Windows 7 backup slices up are not.

If you look at the files in the video I have a few big programs in there. NFSMW cd1, 2,3,4 each are 4gig and bigger.
I suppose superuser is wrong too,

1. Use WinRAR. Select all, right-click, "Extract all"     
                                                         
the link isn't found.  & @Ian Boyd My problem with right-clicking and extrating these is that there are well over a thousand. Is there a simple way to extract each one in sequence?   datatoo Jun 30 '11 at 12:43
                                                         
Winrar can extract all of them at once. just select all. And link fixed, there was an extra bracket, sorry.

http://superuser.com/questions/304235/windows-7-wont-recognize-backup-set-can-i-script-extracting-the-files-in-some-o

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 7:06 AM
March 16th, 2014 6:58am

 The smaller files are fine, the larger files that Windows 7 backup slices up are not.

If you look at the files in the video I have a few big programs in there. NFSMW cd1, 2,3,4 each are 4gig and bigger.
I suppose superuser is wrong too,

1. Use WinRAR. Select all, right-click, "Extract all"     
                                                         
the link isn't found.  & @Ian Boyd My problem with right-clicking and extrating these is that there are well over a thousand. Is there a simple way to extract each one in sequence?   datatoo Jun 30 '11 at 12:43
                                                         
Winrar can extract all of them at once. just select all. And link fixed, there was an extra bracket, sorry.

http://superuser.com/questions/304235/windows-7-wont-recognize-backup-set-can-i-script-extracting-the-files-in-some-o

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 7:06 AM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 16th, 2014 6:58am

Well I'm extracting the new backup set and guess what WinRAR 5.01 took care of the long filename problem, with a full video shortly. The long filenames was windowsold. The metro apps have very long names.

To all admins/MS employees after watching the next video, I'm asking for shadow

Darkken to stop repeatedly telling us this does not work when in fact this does.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 7:59 AM
March 16th, 2014 7:55am

Well I'm extracting the new backup set and guess what WinRAR 5.01 took care of the long filename problem, with a full video shortly. The long filenames was windowsold. The metro apps have very long names.

To all admins/MS employees after watching the next video, I'm asking for shadow

Darkken to stop repeatedly telling us this does not work when in fact this does.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 7:59 AM
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March 16th, 2014 7:55am

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174270-backup-manually-extract-files-vista-windows-7-a.html

Your wrong, here is the howto, also I am able to do this as well, you need to select all zip and extract. I know this works I have done it. I am making a video now

And you're still wrong.

Those files it prompts you to override, those are PARTIAL files that have been split across the zip. Overriding them gives you incomplete, corrupted pieces of the original file because those pieces need to be stitched back together.

Seriously, you don't have the first clue what you're talking about, you're nothing but spam to this thread. GO AWAY.

March 16th, 2014 8:57am

Your so full of crap, even when the video shows all the files,  I had a few files with long file names, winzip will not extract them. Even with the videos showing all the files your still in denial. I'll fire up win 7 one more time and shorten those names an remake the video.
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March 16th, 2014 9:04am

Your so full of crap, even when the video shows all the files,  I had a few files with long file names, winzip will not extract them. Even with the videos showing all the files your still in denial. I'll fire up win 7 one more time and shorten those names an remake the video.

Hello, do you not know how to read?

The problem isn't long filenames

The problem isn't the files don't extract

The problem is that there are large files spanning the zips that are chopped up by the Windows 7 backup and restore program. This only happens when a file size exceeds the size threshold determined by the backup utility.

The link you posted flat out says that if 7-zip prompts to override, just go ahead and override, which is wrong, because those files, and ONLY those files, become useless.

Your videos are laughable at best, you spend the first half of the video not even understanding what a SHORTCUT is! Your videos are proof that you don't know what you're doing, they're not proof that your method works. And your answers are proof that you only read a few words of anyone's post before spewing your garbage here.

March 16th, 2014 9:11am

It is ok that your in denial, I suppose sub7 is wrong, and a few poster here are wrong, I'm wrong. You have  exhausted your point to be incorrect. I suggest you stop your negative attitude towards me. I have shown all the files in my backup were extracted.

I was not using winzip, I used WinRAR.

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March 16th, 2014 9:33am

But you have NOT shown that large files are intact, because they're not. Yes, they extract, I've said that multiple times, but they extract multiple times because they're multiple slices of the same file. Overwriting them means you only end up with the final slice of the file and lose all the rest of the slices.

So yes, Sub7 is wrong. I'm not sure how many ways I have to say this. The smaller files are fine, the larger files that Windows 7 backup slices up are not.

March 16th, 2014 9:40am

I started a new backup removing the longfiles. Also installed a new version of WinRAR that allows me to extract long files. WinRAR version I'm using is 2.90bata. and we at WinRAR 5 now.

Remember the topic is "I save some personal files and how can I restore those, MY answer is the only answer, WinRAR or zip or mount the vhd. The video clearly shows that.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:54 AM
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March 16th, 2014 9:42am

I started a new backup removing the longfiles. Also installed a new version of WinRAR that allows me to extract long files. WinRAR version I'm using is 2.90bata. and we at WinRAR 5 now. 
What does that have to do with stitching the file slices stored inside the ZIPs back together? NOTHING.
March 16th, 2014 9:53am

 The smaller files are fine, the larger files that Windows 7 backup slices up are not.

If you look at the files in the video I have a few big programs in there. NFSMW cd1, 2,3,4 each are 4gig and bigger.
I suppose superuser is wrong too,

1. Use WinRAR. Select all, right-click, "Extract all"     
                                                         
the link isn't found.  & @Ian Boyd My problem with right-clicking and extrating these is that there are well over a thousand. Is there a simple way to extract each one in sequence?   datatoo Jun 30 '11 at 12:43
                                                         
Winrar can extract all of them at once. just select all. And link fixed, there was an extra bracket, sorry.

http://superuser.com/questions/304235/windows-7-wont-recognize-backup-set-can-i-script-extracting-the-files-in-some-o

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 7:06 AM
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March 16th, 2014 9:58am

Do you honestly think there'd be multiple of us continuing to ask for help if we hadn't already tried a simple unpack? I have 3 backups sets right now that when unpacked, most of the files are fine, but all three sets have sliced files as well that end up useless. I can open them up in a hex editor and see that they contain different sections of information from the original file before Win7 sliced them up to pack them, but I don't know which order they stitch back together in because I can't read the Catalog files.

If you repeating the same junk over and over again was ANY use at all, do you really think you'd need to not do any revision of your statement what-so-ever?

Repeating your same flawed post every time someone says it doesn't work, doesn't fix the problem.

March 16th, 2014 10:37am

Well I'm extracting the new backup set and guess what WinRAR 5.01 took care of the long filename problem, with a full video shortly. The long filenames was windowsold. The metro apps have very long names.

To all admins/MS employees after watching the next video, I'm asking for shadow

Darkken to stop repeatedly telling us this does not work when in fact this does.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 7:59 AM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 16th, 2014 10:55am

Well I'm extracting the new backup set and guess what WinRAR 5.01 took care of the long filename problem, with a full video shortly. The long filenames was windowsold. The metro apps have very long names.

To all admins/MS employees after watching the next video, I'm asking for shadow

Darkken to stop repeatedly telling us this does not work when in fact this does.



...

...

You really can't read.

...

Long filenames aren't the issue here. They never were, and I pointed that out several times.

Large files that get split across the set are the problem. As in some files are being split into multiple smaller files pieces that simply extracting and overwriting each other doesn't work.

Seriously, I give up. You simply do not hear people, you're too concerned with phantom issues that no one but you has brought up, and you don't take the time to actually pay any attention to what people are saying.

The article YOU posted even mentions these files, and advises people to ruin them and make them useless.

My problem was long filenames, anyways I have fully extracted and completed the backup set using winzip. For larger files I use this method.

http://www.pcandtablet.com/windows-8-1-system-backup-and-restore/1552/how-to-use-windows-7-file-recovery-in-windows-8-1-a.html

Re: How to use Windows 7 file recovery in windows 8.1?
Windows 8.1 no longer has Windows Backup, because it has been replaced by the File History feature. In Windows 8, you could still access the Windows 7 backup/restore utilities, but these have been removed in Windows 8.1.


When you create a backup using Windows Backup, you should use the Restore Files wizard to restore the files. If you can't use the Restore Files wizard (for example, when you're using a computer thats not running Windows Vista or Windows 7), you can manually extract files from a backup by following these steps:
1.       Open the location where your backup is saved.
The files in your backup are saved as zip files.
Right-click the backup file (a file with the Windows Backup icon and the name of your computer), and then click Open.

To manually extract files that are larger than 200 MBs

If a file is larger than 200 MBs, it will be split into multiple zip files. You will need to extract and then combine these files following these steps:
1.       Open the location where your backup is saved.
Find the zip files that contain the file you want to extract. For example, if you're trying to extract a video file named BirthdayParty, you would find the zip files that contain files with that name.
Create a folder on your desktop to extract the files to.
Since the files all have the same name, you'll need to rename them as you extract them.
Extract the first file into the folder you created on your desktop and then rename the file.
Repeat this step until you have extracted all of the files, making sure that you name them similarly. For example, if you have four files for the BirthdayParty video, name them BirthdayParty1, BirthdayParty2, BirthdayParty3, and BirthdayParty4.
Open the Command Prompt window by clicking the Start button. In the search box, type Command Prompt, and then, in the list of results, click Command Prompt.
Type the following command: copy /b filename*.file_extension new_filename.file_extension
For example, copy /b BirthdayParty*.avi BirthdayPartyAll.avi

WINZIP OR WINRAR WILL WORK FOR YOU, IF NEEDED TO BE. VHD FILE WILL WORK FOR YOU IF YOU CREATED THE IMAGE. I HAVE NO PROBLEM RESTOREING 10 GIG ISO SPLIT INTO 5 FILES. I HAVE EVERY IMPORTANT FILE I HAD IN WINDOWS 7 NOW TO USE WITH WIN8.1

Stop telling people this does not work. IT does. I do suggest anyone getting ready to install windows 8.1 to make a VHD file. You'll have less work to do. This method is for emergencys only.As  the person asking the question asked. I supplied the answer for him/her to get the files back

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:37 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:38 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 8:09 PM
March 16th, 2014 2:34pm

Well I'm extracting the new backup set and guess what WinRAR 5.01 took care of the long filename problem, with a full video shortly. The long filenames was windowsold. The metro apps have very long names.

To all admins/MS employees after watching the next video, I'm asking for shadow

Darkken to stop repeatedly telling us this does not work when in fact this does.



...

...

You really can't read.

...

Long filenames aren't the issue here. They never were, and I pointed that out several times.

Large files that get split across the set are the problem. As in some files are being split into multiple smaller files pieces that simply extracting and overwriting each other doesn't work.

Seriously, I give up. You simply do not hear people, you're too concerned with phantom issues that no one but you has brought up, and you don't take the time to actually pay any attention to what people are saying.

The article YOU posted even mentions these files, and advises people to ruin them and make them useless.

My problem was long filenames, anyways I have fully extracted and completed the backup set using winzip. For larger files I use this method.

http://www.pcandtablet.com/windows-8-1-system-backup-and-restore/1552/how-to-use-windows-7-file-recovery-in-windows-8-1-a.html

Re: How to use Windows 7 file recovery in windows 8.1?
Windows 8.1 no longer has Windows Backup, because it has been replaced by the File History feature. In Windows 8, you could still access the Windows 7 backup/restore utilities, but these have been removed in Windows 8.1.


When you create a backup using Windows Backup, you should use the Restore Files wizard to restore the files. If you can't use the Restore Files wizard (for example, when you're using a computer thats not running Windows Vista or Windows 7), you can manually extract files from a backup by following these steps:
1.       Open the location where your backup is saved.
The files in your backup are saved as zip files.
Right-click the backup file (a file with the Windows Backup icon and the name of your computer), and then click Open.

To manually extract files that are larger than 200 MBs

If a file is larger than 200 MBs, it will be split into multiple zip files. You will need to extract and then combine these files following these steps:
1.       Open the location where your backup is saved.
Find the zip files that contain the file you want to extract. For example, if you're trying to extract a video file named BirthdayParty, you would find the zip files that contain files with that name.
Create a folder on your desktop to extract the files to.
Since the files all have the same name, you'll need to rename them as you extract them.
Extract the first file into the folder you created on your desktop and then rename the file.
Repeat this step until you have extracted all of the files, making sure that you name them similarly. For example, if you have four files for the BirthdayParty video, name them BirthdayParty1, BirthdayParty2, BirthdayParty3, and BirthdayParty4.
Open the Command Prompt window by clicking the Start button. In the search box, type Command Prompt, and then, in the list of results, click Command Prompt.
Type the following command: copy /b filename*.file_extension new_filename.file_extension
For example, copy /b BirthdayParty*.avi BirthdayPartyAll.avi

WINZIP OR WINRAR WILL WORK FOR YOU, IF NEEDED TO BE. VHD FILE WILL WORK FOR YOU IF YOU CREATED THE IMAGE. I HAVE NO PROBLEM RESTOREING 10 GIG ISO SPLIT INTO 5 FILES. I HAVE EVERY IMPORTANT FILE I HAD IN WINDOWS 7 NOW TO USE WITH WIN8.1

Stop telling people this does not work. IT does. I do suggest anyone getting ready to install windows 8.1 to make a VHD file. You'll have less work to do. This method is for emergencys only.As  the person asking the question asked. I supplied the answer for him/her to get the files back

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:37 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:38 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 8:09 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 16th, 2014 2:34pm

Well I'm extracting the new backup set and guess what WinRAR 5.01 took care of the long filename problem, with a full video shortly. The long filenames was windowsold. The metro apps have very long names.

To all admins/MS employees after watching the next video, I'm asking for shadow

Darkken to stop repeatedly telling us this does not work when in fact this does.



...

...

You really can't read.

...

Long filenames aren't the issue here. They never were, and I pointed that out several times.

Large files that get split across the set are the problem. As in some files are being split into multiple smaller files pieces that simply extracting and overwriting each other doesn't work.

Seriously, I give up. You simply do not hear people, you're too concerned with phantom issues that no one but you has brought up, and you don't take the time to actually pay any attention to what people are saying.

The article YOU posted even mentions these files, and advises people to ruin them and make them useless.

March 16th, 2014 5:10pm

Well I'm extracting the new backup set and guess what WinRAR 5.01 took care of the long filename problem, with a full video shortly. The long filenames was windowsold. The metro apps have very long names.

To all admins/MS employees after watching the next video, I'm asking for shadow

Darkken to stop repeatedly telling us this does not work when in fact this does.



...

...

You really can't read.

...

Long filenames aren't the issue here. They never were, and I pointed that out several times.

Large files that get split across the set are the problem. As in some files are being split into multiple smaller files pieces that simply extracting and overwriting each other doesn't work.

Seriously, I give up. You simply do not hear people, you're too concerned with phantom issues that no one but you has brought up, and you don't take the time to actually pay any attention to what people are saying.

The article YOU posted even mentions these files, and advises people to ruin them and make them useless.

My problem was long filenames, anyways I have fully extracted and completed the backup set using winzip. For larger files I use this method.

http://www.pcandtablet.com/windows-8-1-system-backup-and-restore/1552/how-to-use-windows-7-file-recovery-in-windows-8-1-a.html

Re: How to use Windows 7 file recovery in windows 8.1?
Windows 8.1 no longer has Windows Backup, because it has been replaced by the File History feature. In Windows 8, you could still access the Windows 7 backup/restore utilities, but these have been removed in Windows 8.1.


When you create a backup using Windows Backup, you should use the Restore Files wizard to restore the files. If you can't use the Restore Files wizard (for example, when you're using a computer thats not running Windows Vista or Windows 7), you can manually extract files from a backup by following these steps:
1.       Open the location where your backup is saved.
The files in your backup are saved as zip files.
Right-click the backup file (a file with the Windows Backup icon and the name of your computer), and then click Open.

To manually extract files that are larger than 200 MBs

If a file is larger than 200 MBs, it will be split into multiple zip files. You will need to extract and then combine these files following these steps:
1.       Open the location where your backup is saved.
Find the zip files that contain the file you want to extract. For example, if you're trying to extract a video file named BirthdayParty, you would find the zip files that contain files with that name.
Create a folder on your desktop to extract the files to.
Since the files all have the same name, you'll need to rename them as you extract them.
Extract the first file into the folder you created on your desktop and then rename the file.
Repeat this step until you have extracted all of the files, making sure that you name them similarly. For example, if you have four files for the BirthdayParty video, name them BirthdayParty1, BirthdayParty2, BirthdayParty3, and BirthdayParty4.
Open the Command Prompt window by clicking the Start button. In the search box, type Command Prompt, and then, in the list of results, click Command Prompt.
Type the following command: copy /b filename*.file_extension new_filename.file_extension
For example, copy /b BirthdayParty*.avi BirthdayPartyAll.avi

WINZIP OR WINRAR WILL WORK FOR YOU, IF NEEDED TO BE. VHD FILE WILL WORK FOR YOU IF YOU CREATED THE IMAGE. I HAVE NO PROBLEM RESTOREING 10 GIG ISO SPLIT INTO 5 FILES. I HAVE EVERY IMPORTANT FILE I HAD IN WINDOWS 7 NOW TO USE WITH WIN8.1

Stop telling people this does not work. IT does. I do suggest anyone getting ready to install windows 8.1 to make a VHD file. You'll have less work to do. This method is for emergencys only.As  the person asking the question asked. I supplied the answer for him/her to get the files back

  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:37 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:38 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 8:09 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 16th, 2014 5:34pm

Final results displaying how to join files from a split windows 7 backup.

Tools: WinRAR or WinZip 

Free file splitter/joiner or Command prompt 

http://youtu.be/ZV7hZOq1ajA

Win 7 backup file ready to use in less then 2 minutes after the archive process. 400mb file.

I also did NFSMW 3.9 gig in 5 mins.

So this is 3 methods, the fastest is vhd, second, for smaller files to do my first video, slowest for longer files in this video.

I sure have answered this post, no buts, ifs about it. Could MS do a better job, NO they could not, they warned people to make an image for their old system. I provide an answer for the one asking or anyone else needing the howto.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:56 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:56 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 8:09 PM
March 16th, 2014 6:49pm

Final results displaying how to join files from a split windows 7 backup.

Tools: WinRAR or WinZip 

Free file splitter/joiner or Command prompt 

http://youtu.be/ZV7hZOq1ajA

Win 7 backup file ready to use in less then 2 minutes after the archive process. 400mb file.

I also did NFSMW 3.9 gig in 5 mins.

So this is 3 methods, the fastest is vhd, second, for smaller files to do my first video, slowest for longer files in this video.

I sure have answered this post, no buts, ifs about it. Could MS do a better job, NO they could not, they warned people to make an image for their old system. I provide an answer for the one asking or anyone else needing the howto.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:56 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:56 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 8:09 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 16th, 2014 6:49pm

Final results displaying how to join files from a split windows 7 backup.

Tools: WinRAR or WinZip 

Free file splitter/joiner or Command prompt 

http://youtu.be/ZV7hZOq1ajA

Win 7 backup file ready to use in less then 2 minutes after the archive process. 400mb file.

I also did NFSMW 3.9 gig in 5 mins.

So this is 3 methods, the fastest is vhd, second, for smaller files to do my first video, slowest for longer files in this video.

I sure have answered this post, no buts, ifs about it. Could MS do a better job, NO they could not, they warned people to make an image for their old system. I provide an answer for the one asking or anyone else needing the howto.



  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:56 PM
  • Proposed as answer by colakid Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:56 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Monday, March 17, 2014 8:09 PM
March 16th, 2014 9:49pm

Since the responses here where quite unsatisfying and involved quite a lot repetitive manual work I managed to get something working with having java JDK (not JRE) installed.

Run this in the root of your backup folder which contains the "Backup Set YYYY..." folders, it recursively loops over all the files in all subfolders matching the pattern for zip files and extracts them to the current folder.

for /R %i in (*.zip) do "%ProgramFiles%"\java\jdk1.8.0\bin\jar -xfv "%i"

Path to ProgramFiles could be different due tue 32/64bit version or different Java version but has to point to jar.exe

The v (verbose) option can be omitted.

If running as batch file % escapes to %%

for /R %%i in (*.zip) do "%ProgramFiles%"\java\jdk1.8.0\bin\jar -xfv "%%i"

The content of backup should appear as a folder with the drive letter (most likely C)

Note: haven't had any issues with long file names but it might help moving everything to root level before extraction. Also if there are multiple version of the file it's being progressively overwritten, so it might be an option to save the verbose output to a log file and search that for different versions and extract those manually from the zip file.






  • Edited by mxfh Saturday, March 22, 2014 11:28 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 22nd, 2014 11:08pm

Since the responses here where quite unsatisfying and involved quite a lot repetitive manual work I managed to get something working with having java JDK (not JRE) installed.

Run this in the root of your backup folder which contains the "Backup Set YYYY..." folders, it recursively loops over all the files in all subfolders matching the pattern for zip files and extracts them to the current folder.

for /R %i in (*.zip) do "%ProgramFiles%"\java\jdk1.8.0\bin\jar -xfv "%i"

Path to ProgramFiles could be different due tue 32/64bit version or different Java version but has to point to jar.exe

The v (verbose) option can be omitted.

If running as batch file % escapes to %%

for /R %%i in (*.zip) do "%ProgramFiles%"\java\jdk1.8.0\bin\jar -xfv "%%i"

The content of backup should appear as a folder with the drive letter (most likely C)

Note: haven't had any issues with long file names but it might help moving everything to root level before extraction. Also if there are multiple version of the file it's being progressively overwritten, so it might be an option to save the verbose output to a log file and search that for different versions and extract those manually from the zip file.






  • Edited by mxfh Saturday, March 22, 2014 11:28 PM
March 22nd, 2014 11:08pm

Since the responses here where quite unsatisfying and involved quite a lot repetitive manual work I managed to get something working with having java JDK (not JRE) installed.

Run this in the root of your backup folder which contains the "Backup Set YYYY..." folders, it recursively loops over all the files in all subfolders matching the pattern for zip files and extracts them to the current folder.

for /R %i in (*.zip) do "%ProgramFiles%"\java\jdk1.8.0\bin\jar -xfv "%i"

Path to ProgramFiles could be different due tue 32/64bit version or different Java version but has to point to jar.exe

The v (verbose) option can be omitted.

If running as batch file % escapes to %%

for /R %%i in (*.zip) do "%ProgramFiles%"\java\jdk1.8.0\bin\jar -xfv "%%i"

The content of backup should appear as a folder with the drive letter (most likely C)

Note: haven't had any issues with long file names but it might help moving everything to root level before extraction. Also if there are multiple version of the file it's being progressively overwritten, so it might be an option to save the verbose output to a log file and search that for different versions and extract those manually from the zip file.






  • Edited by mxfh Saturday, March 22, 2014 11:28 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 23rd, 2014 2:08am

Load windows 7 in windows 8.1 V Manager. Problem solved. That is for the ones that fail to use the methods suggest in this post. I treid MSFH idea did not work.
  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 23, 2014 2:49 PM
March 23rd, 2014 2:48pm

Load windows 7 in windows 8.1 V Manager. Problem solved. That is for the ones that fail to use the methods suggest in this post. I treid MSFH idea did not work.
  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 23, 2014 2:49 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 23rd, 2014 2:48pm

Load windows 7 in windows 8.1 V Manager. Problem solved. That is for the ones that fail to use the methods suggest in this post. I treid MSFH idea did not work.
  • Edited by colakid Sunday, March 23, 2014 2:49 PM
March 23rd, 2014 5:48pm

None of the proposed answers, including the one marked as the official answer to this question, works perfectly in the case of large files (i.e. those that get split into chunks <= ~200MB).

Taking inspiration from a Microsoft KB article I accidentally stumbled across while researching another issue (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970914/en-gb) I finally devised a solution.

Choose a backup set, and the files within that set (in a folder named 'Backup Files yyyy-MM-dd HHmmss') and copy the contained .zip files to your working directory.

Most other answers suggest extracting all of these files at the same time and simply answering yes to any "overwrite existing file" prompt.  This will not work correctly as you'll end up with just one of the potentially dozens of chunks of each large file in the backup.

The correct approach is to extract each .zip file individually, and in order of their numbering.  This guarantees the correct ordering of the chunks when they're extracted.  You must use an archive extraction tool that allows duplicate files to be numbered (7-zip is one such tool that does this) or manually extract the files and rename them as you go.  Manual extraction may not be practical, but if you choose this route the order in which the chunks should be extracted from each .zip file appears to be descending order of size (i.e. largest first).

In my case, I had a 2GB Outlook file named Archive.pst that was split into 63 chunks across five of the 25 .zip files in the backup.  Knowing which files have been split is not straightforward, and relies on your knowledge of the contents of the backup.  It is possible to search the resulting folder structure for files that match the numbering of your archive extraction tool.  For example, 7-zip uses 'filename_1.ext', so a search for '*_1.*' would find all the files that have been split into at least one chunk.

The next step is to reassemble the chunks for each file that was split.  Do this by opening a command prompt, changing directory to the location of the first file, and issuing the command copy /b filename*.ext filename.concat.ext.  For example, to reassemble Archive.pst from its 63 chunks I used the command copy /b Archive*.pst Archive.concat.pst.  I recommend using a destination filename that is different to the source filename in order to preserve the first file chunk and therefore keep this process repeatable.

One caveat is that I found it necessary to rename each of the first 9 chunks of Archive.pst to keep the ordering correct.  Due to the numbering used by 7-zip, I had to rename Archive_4.pst to Archive_04.pst to ensure it was concatenated in the correct position rather than between Archive_39.pst and Archive_40.pst!


  • Edited by Nik Rivers Wednesday, May 07, 2014 11:18 AM Closing parenthesis was included in URL
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 7th, 2014 11:16am

None of the proposed answers, including the one marked as the official answer to this question, works perfectly in the case of large files (i.e. those that get split into chunks <= ~200MB).

Taking inspiration from a Microsoft KB article I accidentally stumbled across while researching another issue (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970914/en-gb) I finally devised a solution.

Choose a backup set, and the files within that set (in a folder named 'Backup Files yyyy-MM-dd HHmmss') and copy the contained .zip files to your working directory.

Most other answers suggest extracting all of these files at the same time and simply answering yes to any "overwrite existing file" prompt.  This will not work correctly as you'll end up with just one of the potentially dozens of chunks of each large file in the backup.

The correct approach is to extract each .zip file individually, and in order of their numbering.  This guarantees the correct ordering of the chunks when they're extracted.  You must use an archive extraction tool that allows duplicate files to be numbered (7-zip is one such tool that does this) or manually extract the files and rename them as you go.  Manual extraction may not be practical, but if you choose this route the order in which the chunks should be extracted from each .zip file appears to be descending order of size (i.e. largest first).

In my case, I had a 2GB Outlook file named Archive.pst that was split into 63 chunks across five of the 25 .zip files in the backup.  Knowing which files have been split is not straightforward, and relies on your knowledge of the contents of the backup.  It is possible to search the resulting folder structure for files that match the numbering of your archive extraction tool.  For example, 7-zip uses 'filename_1.ext', so a search for '*_1.*' would find all the files that have been split into at least one chunk.

The next step is to reassemble the chunks for each file that was split.  Do this by opening a command prompt, changing directory to the location of the first file, and issuing the command copy /b filename*.ext filename.concat.ext.  For example, to reassemble Archive.pst from its 63 chunks I used the command copy /b Archive*.pst Archive.concat.pst.  I recommend using a destination filename that is different to the source filename in order to preserve the first file chunk and therefore keep this process repeatable.

One caveat is that I found it necessary to rename each of the first 9 chunks of Archive.pst to keep the ordering correct.  Due to the numbering used by 7-zip, I had to rename Archive_4.pst to Archive_04.pst to ensure it was concatenated in the correct position rather than between Archive_39.pst and Archive_40.pst!


  • Edited by Nik Rivers Wednesday, May 07, 2014 11:18 AM Closing parenthesis was included in URL
May 7th, 2014 11:16am

None of the proposed answers, including the one marked as the official answer to this question, works perfectly in the case of large files (i.e. those that get split into chunks <= ~200MB).

Taking inspiration from a Microsoft KB article I accidentally stumbled across while researching another issue (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970914/en-gb) I finally devised a solution.

Choose a backup set, and the files within that set (in a folder named 'Backup Files yyyy-MM-dd HHmmss') and copy the contained .zip files to your working directory.

Most other answers suggest extracting all of these files at the same time and simply answering yes to any "overwrite existing file" prompt.  This will not work correctly as you'll end up with just one of the potentially dozens of chunks of each large file in the backup.

The correct approach is to extract each .zip file individually, and in order of their numbering.  This guarantees the correct ordering of the chunks when they're extracted.  You must use an archive extraction tool that allows duplicate files to be numbered (7-zip is one such tool that does this) or manually extract the files and rename them as you go.  Manual extraction may not be practical, but if you choose this route the order in which the chunks should be extracted from each .zip file appears to be descending order of size (i.e. largest first).

In my case, I had a 2GB Outlook file named Archive.pst that was split into 63 chunks across five of the 25 .zip files in the backup.  Knowing which files have been split is not straightforward, and relies on your knowledge of the contents of the backup.  It is possible to search the resulting folder structure for files that match the numbering of your archive extraction tool.  For example, 7-zip uses 'filename_1.ext', so a search for '*_1.*' would find all the files that have been split into at least one chunk.

The next step is to reassemble the chunks for each file that was split.  Do this by opening a command prompt, changing directory to the location of the first file, and issuing the command copy /b filename*.ext filename.concat.ext.  For example, to reassemble Archive.pst from its 63 chunks I used the command copy /b Archive*.pst Archive.concat.pst.  I recommend using a destination filename that is different to the source filename in order to preserve the first file chunk and therefore keep this process repeatable.

One caveat is that I found it necessary to rename each of the first 9 chunks of Archive.pst to keep the ordering correct.  Due to the numbering used by 7-zip, I had to rename Archive_4.pst to Archive_04.pst to ensure it was concatenated in the correct position rather than between Archive_39.pst and Archive_40.pst!


  • Edited by Nik Rivers Wednesday, May 07, 2014 11:18 AM Closing parenthesis was included in URL
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May 7th, 2014 2:16pm

All I can say after reading through this long, ridiculous thread is that 1) there is a reason why Microsoft has lost so much mindshare in the last few years. It's reasons like this. 2) Some of you guys don't know how to read. The original post is very clear in what the author is trying to do. It's a very basic thing and I think probably very common:

1. I backed up My Documents in Win7 using Windows Backup and Restore.
2. How can I restore My Documents in Win8? I can't find it anywhere.
3. By the way, the backup was a normal incremental backup, not a System Image.
4. Also, although restoring a file or two using the WinZip WinRAR method might work, it does not work when trying to recover the whole thing as Windows Backup uses some intelligence to split files across sets as well as track deleted files from a set.

The answer, it seems, is you cannot. Period. I am what many would call an MS fanboy. But there are times like this, when the things they do are so out of left-field, that I completely despise them as a company in a way that I hate no other company.

May 27th, 2014 11:13pm

If you're lucky, you skipped to the end and read CMOYA's summary (I had the misfortune of reading it all in hope only to land in disappointment).

I can tell you what I'm going to do with all of the above:

I'm going to go to my public library with my Windows 7 (NON SYSTEM IMAGE) backups from years ago on a portable drive, borrow one of their older Windows 7 boxes for 30 minutes, and restore what I need to a second portable drive...then go home and use it.

The public library is not really a legitimate solution to the problem posed within the implied constraints (as are well enumerated by CMOYA just above), but it's the fastest work-around I can come up with after reading the entirety of this thread.

To Microsoft: When you did this to Windows XP backups, you gave us a stand-alone tool to restore them...please provide us with that for Windows 7 backups.

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July 7th, 2014 9:46am

There is one thing that windows 7 backup can do that windows 8.1 file history cannot do. That is :-

RECOVER FILES BACKED UP USING WINDOWS 7.

Have you really not understood that that is the crux of this thread. Telling us how to do it in the future is of no use in this context.

July 23rd, 2014 2:33am

I had the same difficulty.. A windows 7 backup set, that I could not restore on Win 8.1. Here is how I handled it. I downloaded and installed VMware Player and created a new Virtual Machine on my 8.1 computer. Installed Win 7 sp1 on it. Even if you don't have a key, you should get a 30 day trial.

Now, here is where things got interesting..  I copied my backup set to the VM and when I right clicked it, it gave the "Restore Options" in the context menu.  But when I clicked it, it came back empty.  To resolve this, I shared the folder containing the backup set on my HOST computer and used the option to restore from a network location.  I just put in the \\maching-name for my computer, logged in, browsed to the folder and let it search from there,   which worked perfectly.  It's still restoring the files to my VM.  When it's done, I'll just share the VM's C: drive and retrieve my files..

Done..  But broken hearted...  Process worked perfectly except, everything I needed was missing from what I thought was a good backup set.

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August 5th, 2014 6:17am

I simply cannot believe that anybody would think it's acceptable to completely disable the ability to restore a backup.  It's utterly stunning in it's sheer stupidity.

Whoever made this product decision ought to be fired.  Full stop.


  • Edited by tgrady29 Monday, August 11, 2014 11:14 PM typo
August 11th, 2014 11:14pm

I simply cannot believe that anybody would think it's acceptable to completely disable the ability to restore a backup.  It's utterly stunning in it's sheer stupidity.

Whoever made this product decision ought to be fired.  Full stop.


  • Edited by tgrady29 Monday, August 11, 2014 11:14 PM typo
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August 11th, 2014 11:14pm

Thanks for sharing

With forty years in the computer industry, the last thing I'm interested in is a snarky comment from an amateur. 

Grow up.


  • Edited by tgrady29 Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:35 AM
August 12th, 2014 12:50am

Thanks for sharing

With forty years in the computer industry, the last thing I'm interested in is a snarky comment from an amateur. 

Grow up.


  • Edited by tgrady29 Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:35 AM
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August 12th, 2014 12:50am

I simply cannot believe that anybody would think it's acceptable to completely disable the ability to restore a backup.  It's utterly stunning in it's sheer stupidity.

Whoever made this product decision ought to be fired.  Full stop.


  • Edited by tgrady29 Monday, August 11, 2014 11:14 PM typo
August 12th, 2014 2:14am

I simply cannot believe that anybody would think it's acceptable to completely disable the ability to restore a backup.  It's utterly stunning in it's sheer stupidity.

Whoever made this product decision ought to be fired.  Full stop.


Thanks for sharing
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 12th, 2014 2:47am

Thanks for sharing

With forty years in the computer industry, the last thing I'm interested in is a snarky comment from an amateur. 

Grow up.


  • Edited by tgrady29 Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:35 AM
August 12th, 2014 3:50am

Hello all, I have this same problem, I just took the time to read all the responses. So I realize now there is no simple "click and restore" option from backup restore.

Luckily for me I am working on two different laptops, so I still have the windows 7 laptop with all of the files saved on it. I also have an External hard drive with more than enough memory.

My question is: at this point, what is my best option to get the most files possible to my new 8.1 laptop? Should I start over on the old and create a system image instead? Or use Windows Easy Transfer? Or should I just go ahead and download 7-Zip and lose a few files? As disappointed I am that Microsoft has taken away what should have been an easy process, I still do need to at least make an attempt to recover my files.

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August 12th, 2014 8:45pm

It is amazing that this issue seems impossible to easily solve.  I had a Windows 7 PC and was using Windows Backup and Restore to back it up.  Then that PC died.  I bought a new PC, with Windows 8.1 on it, and I can't recover the files from my old PC.  What is Microsoft doing.  This is ridiculous.  I wasn't even trying to do anything clever!

August 16th, 2014 11:47pm

What is Microsoft doing.  This is ridiculous

The President of Windows and CEO of Microsoft have been canned.  Is it any wonder why?  The real question is this:  Why were they allowed to get rich off their complete mismanagement of the future of computing?

There's a real and obvious difference between "bold new" and "stupid".

The ridiculousness doesn't stop at top management, though...  What managers below them accepted their direction to just DELETE functionality like Backup?  The justification I was given here on the forum around the time Windows 8 came out was that "telemetry shows only 6% of people use Windows Backup, so we're not going to continue development".  What's that, "only" 60 million users?  And did anyone stop to consider that maybe Microsoft wasn't educating people well enough, and that the smartest and most conscientious 6% of their users were the ones doing backups?

What I want to know is that in this day and age of smart people having such trouble finding jobs, how do idiots like those making decisions at Microsoft continue taking computing in such an irrational direction?

 

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August 17th, 2014 12:55am

Thought I'd add my two cents:

How stupid can Microsoft get?

Thanks,

Bob.

Actually, if Microsoft wants to keep dumbing down their stuff this much, why not just buy an iPad?

  • Edited by BobH2 Saturday, November 08, 2014 8:25 PM
November 8th, 2014 8:05pm

Thought I'd add my two cents:

How stupid can Microsoft get?

Thanks,

Bob.

Actually, if Microsoft wants to keep dumbing down their stuff this much, why not just buy an iPad?

  • Edited by BobH2 Saturday, November 08, 2014 8:25 PM
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November 8th, 2014 8:05pm

Thought I'd add my two cents:

How stupid can Microsoft get?

Thanks,

Bob.

Actually, if Microsoft wants to keep dumbing down their stuff this much, why not just buy an iPad?

  • Edited by BobH2 Saturday, November 08, 2014 8:25 PM
November 8th, 2014 11:05pm

My hero is WinRAR.

Ive installed WinRAR  5.2 64bit. Open it and go to the folder where the .zip files of your Win7 Backup are stored, for example:

X:\VICKY\Backup Set 2014-04-12 110703\Backup Files 2014-04-12 110703

The press F3 or go to the Tools/Find Files menu option (hope that's ok, i'm using the spanish version: Herramientas /Buscar ficheros)

Then just search for a file name or folder you remember. You can also use wildcards. It will search inside all .zip files in the backup folder. When you find it, just extract it.

Hope this helps! It worked for me!

POLPET

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December 20th, 2014 4:44am

I definitely agree with CMOYA that this was a "long and rediculous thread". 

The OP stated the problem very clearly in his original posts and follow-up posts. It was then reiterated by several people, including ShadowDrakken, CMOYA and others, but the discussion was repeatedly interrupted by one or a few members who clearly didn't take any time to read the original posts or subsequent discussion.  It really seemed as though one person in particular was responding to an entirely different thread of communication because his statements were always so out of context and irrelevant to the main discussion.  It's disappointing that some of his posts have been accepted as the answer. I'm surprised that the moderators and the community can't do more to downvote or demote the posts that are completely missing the point.

OK, enough of that. I simply felt the need to rant a bit since I did what Christopher McGowan did and read though the entire discussion instead of skipping to the (disappointing) result at the end.

But I have a few questions for those still interested in finding some kind of solution to this problem. I'm currently writing some code that basically extracts each zip file in a way that ensures that large files that are split across two or more zips do not overwrite each other, but instead are concatenated in sequence according to the numeric ordering of the zip files. Furthermore, it overlays newer backups on top of older ones with the option to either overwrite the old files or to simply rename the older files by appending the file's modification date to the file name.

(1)   To those who have tried it, have you been successful at concatenating the files that are split across zips (e.g. using copy /b) in the same order as the zips are numbered, or is this unreliable?  

(2)   CMOYA brought up the fact that there is a mechanism for tracking file deletions. This is most likely stored in the catalog, which is some obscure proprietary format, but i was wondering if anyone else has any hint of an idea about some way we could determine file deletions?

(3) Is there anyone out there who would be interested in using my software to either view or extract files from these backups? If so, I'll most likely post the source code if I can make it into a useful tool.  

(4) Are people more interested in (A) A program to view the contents (e.g. as a directory tree or an explorer-style listview  or (B) a program that simply extracts all files from the backup into their desired destination folder?

Thanks!
  • Edited by RichCode Thursday, January 15, 2015 6:52 PM
January 15th, 2015 6:51pm

I definitely agree with CMOYA that this was a "long and rediculous thread". 

The OP stated the problem very clearly in his original posts and follow-up posts. It was then reiterated by several people, including ShadowDrakken, CMOYA and others, but the discussion was repeatedly interrupted by one or a few members who clearly didn't take any time to read the original posts or subsequent discussion.  It really seemed as though one person in particular was responding to an entirely different thread of communication because his statements were always so out of context and irrelevant to the main discussion.  It's disappointing that some of his posts have been accepted as the answer. I'm surprised that the moderators and the community can't do more to downvote or demote the posts that are completely missing the point.

OK, enough of that. I simply felt the need to rant a bit since I did what Christopher McGowan did and read though the entire discussion instead of skipping to the (disappointing) result at the end.

But I have a few questions for those still interested in finding some kind of solution to this problem. I'm currently writing some code that basically extracts each zip file in a way that ensures that large files that are split across two or more zips do not overwrite each other, but instead are concatenated in sequence according to the numeric ordering of the zip files. Furthermore, it overlays newer backups on top of older ones with the option to either overwrite the old files or to simply rename the older files by appending the file's modification date to the file name.

(1)   To those who have tried it, have you been successful at concatenating the files that are split across zips (e.g. using copy /b) in the same order as the zips are numbered, or is this unreliable?  

(2)   CMOYA brought up the fact that there is a mechanism for tracking file deletions. This is most likely stored in the catalog, which is some obscure proprietary format, but i was wondering if anyone else has any hint of an idea about some way we could determine file deletions?

(3) Is there anyone out there who would be interested in using my software to either view or extract files from these backups? If so, I'll most likely post the source code if I can make it into a useful tool.  

(4) Are people more interested in (A) A program to view the contents (e.g. as a directory tree or an explorer-style listview  or (B) a program that simply extracts all files from the backup into their desired destination folder?

Thanks!
  • Edited by RichCode Thursday, January 15, 2015 6:52 PM
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January 15th, 2015 6:51pm

I definitely agree with CMOYA that this was a "long and rediculous thread". 

The OP stated the problem very clearly in his original posts and follow-up posts. It was then reiterated by several people, including ShadowDrakken, CMOYA and others, but the discussion was repeatedly interrupted by one or a few members who clearly didn't take any time to read the original posts or subsequent discussion.  It really seemed as though one person in particular was responding to an entirely different thread of communication because his statements were always so out of context and irrelevant to the main discussion.  It's disappointing that some of his posts have been accepted as the answer. I'm surprised that the moderators and the community can't do more to downvote or demote the posts that are completely missing the point.

OK, enough of that. I simply felt the need to rant a bit since I did what Christopher McGowan did and read though the entire discussion instead of skipping to the (disappointing) result at the end.

But I have a few questions for those still interested in finding some kind of solution to this problem. I'm currently writing some code that basically extracts each zip file in a way that ensures that large files that are split across two or more zips do not overwrite each other, but instead are concatenated in sequence according to the numeric ordering of the zip files. Furthermore, it overlays newer backups on top of older ones with the option to either overwrite the old files or to simply rename the older files by appending the file's modification date to the file name.

(1)   To those who have tried it, have you been successful at concatenating the files that are split across zips (e.g. using copy /b) in the same order as the zips are numbered, or is this unreliable?  

(2)   CMOYA brought up the fact that there is a mechanism for tracking file deletions. This is most likely stored in the catalog, which is some obscure proprietary format, but i was wondering if anyone else has any hint of an idea about some way we could determine file deletions?

(3) Is there anyone out there who would be interested in using my software to either view or extract files from these backups? If so, I'll most likely post the source code if I can make it into a useful tool.  

(4) Are people more interested in (A) A program to view the contents (e.g. as a directory tree or an explorer-style listview  or (B) a program that simply extracts all files from the backup into their desired destination folder?

Thanks!
  • Edited by RichCode Thursday, January 15, 2015 6:52 PM
January 15th, 2015 9:51pm

This method works for me
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February 11th, 2015 7:59am

Thought I'd say what I did to transfer files from Windows 7 laptop to Window 8.1 laptop.

I got frustrated reading this entire thread and trying to unzip files to Windows 8.1 laptop from external hard drive containing Windows 7 backup.

*Instead I booted my old Windows 7 laptop up (if booting isn't possible, my method won't work :\\\) then I navigated to my OS C: drive, copied files manually onto a thumb drive (CD/DVD works too I guess? and external hard drive definitely works instead of thumb drive), then ejected thumb drive from Windows 7 laptop, plugged thumb drive into Windows 8.1 laptop, and cut folders/files onto Windows 8.1 laptop.*

I had everything put in 6-8 folders about, took a good hour or so.

This was a hellah lot harder because Microsoft is stupid. Freaking. Ridiculous to rid of Backup/Restore option.

Thanks Microsoft :\!

March 11th, 2015 12:38am

Late reply, I hope RichCode is still reading...   My sad story is of the form "My win7 laptop died; I bought a win8.1 one and could not restore my backups... found this thread three months ago, so I just got disappointed and postponed recovering my music and photos".  Back for another try.

Anyway, removing the restore is an unbelievably bad idea, but it would have been just a human mistake were it not for the circle-the-wagons mindset that it produced.

(3) Do you still need beta testers?  I can build from source and give it a spin.

(4) My use case would be OK with (B), as I would like to look at the files before overwriting any new ones, and I would just inflate everything to a new directory.

Thanks for even thinking of providing the tool Microsoft should have provided, or at least not remove without a replacement.

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March 18th, 2015 3:21am

Late reply, I hope RichCode is still reading...   My sad story is of the form "My win7 laptop died; I bought a win8.1 one and could not restore my backups... found this thread three months ago, so I just got disappointed and postponed recovering my music and photos".  Back for another try.

Anyway, removing the restore is an unbelievably bad idea, but it would have been just a human mistake were it not for the circle-the-wagons mindset that it produced.

(3) Do you still need beta testers?  I can build from source and give it a spin.

(4) My use case would be OK with (B), as I would like to look at the files before overwriting any new ones, and I would just inflate everything to a new directory.

Thanks for even thinking of providing the tool Microsoft should have provided, or at least not remove without a replacement.

  • Proposed as answer by Mr. Manuel 5 hours 24 minutes ago
March 18th, 2015 7:21am

Late reply, I hope RichCode is still reading...   My sad story is of the form "My win7 laptop died; I bought a win8.1 one and could not restore my backups... found this thread three months ago, so I just got disappointed and postponed recovering my music and photos".  Back for another try.

Anyway, removing the restore is an unbelievably bad idea, but it would have been just a human mistake were it not for the circle-the-wagons mindset that it produced.

(3) Do you still need beta testers?  I can build from source and give it a spin.

(4) My use case would be OK with (B), as I would like to look at the files before overwriting any new ones, and I would just inflate everything to a new directory.

Thanks for even thinking of providing the tool Microsoft should have provided, or at least not remove without a replacement.

  • Proposed as answer by Mr. Manuel Friday, April 17, 2015 1:56 AM
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March 18th, 2015 7:21am

Late reply, I hope RichCode is still reading...   My sad story is of the form "My win7 laptop died; I bought a win8.1 one and could not restore my backups... found this thread three months ago, so I just got disappointed and postponed recovering my music and photos".  Back for another try.

Anyway, removing the restore is an unbelievably bad idea, but it would have been just a human mistake were it not for the circle-the-wagons mindset that it produced.

(3) Do you still need beta testers?  I can build from source and give it a spin.

(4) My use case would be OK with (B), as I would like to look at the files before overwriting any new ones, and I would just inflate everything to a new directory.

Thanks for even thinking of providing the tool Microsoft should have provided, or at least not remove without a replacement.

  • Proposed as answer by Mr. Manuel Friday, April 17, 2015 1:56 AM
March 18th, 2015 7:21am

Accessing Backup and Restore in Windows 8.1

Use System Image Backup

You can use System Image Backup like you did in previous versions of Windows.

To open System Image Backup

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
    (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Search.)
                

  2. Enter File History in the search box, tap or click File History, and then click System Image Backup.

  • Proposed as answer by Mr. Manuel 5 hours 21 minutes ago
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April 16th, 2015 10:04pm

Accessing Backup and Restore in Windows 8.1

Use System Image Backup

You can use System Image Backup like you did in previous versions of Windows.

To open System Image Backup

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
    (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Search.)
                

  2. Enter File History in the search box, tap or click File History, and then click System Image Backup.

  • Proposed as answer by Mr. Manuel Friday, April 17, 2015 2:00 AM
April 17th, 2015 2:00am

Accessing Backup and Restore in Windows 8.1

Use System Image Backup

You can use System Image Backup like you did in previous versions of Windows.

To open System Image Backup

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
    (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Search.)
                

  2. Enter File History in the search box, tap or click File History, and then click System Image Backup.

  • Proposed as answer by Mr. Manuel Friday, April 17, 2015 2:00 AM
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April 17th, 2015 2:00am

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