Restoring data to a newly reinstalled computer.

SunFlower

Hi all,

My laptop was running stupidly slowly, so the repair man who came to fix another problem on it recommended that I save all my data to an external hard drive and then reinstall Windows, which I duly did. I am trying to restore the data to the laptop, but when I go to the 'restore files' bit, it won't let me select either of the restore option ('What do you want to restore?' Files from the latest backup/Files from an older backup), so I'm at a loss what to do.

Any ideas, please, folks?

Thanks in advance. :beer:

head2head83

It would depend on the process you used to backup the files to the external hard drive. Did you literally just copy any files you wanted to backup onto the drive or did you use one of the backup facilities in windows?

If you just copied files across, then it should just be a case of copying them back.

If you let us know exactly what you did to back the file up initially (and which version of windows you were using), we'll be able to help a bit more.

RussJK

What was the problem the repair man had to fix?

What method did you use to backup your data? What method did you use to reinstall Windows?

SunFlower

Thanks guys.

It's Window's Vista. I did it via the 'Back Up Files' option in 'Systems and Maintenance'.

SunFlower

*Bump*

Can anyone help me, please? I still have the same problem.

closed

1st post says you are not trying to restore data?

if you've done a backup, point the backup program to the backup files on the external drive

SunFlower

closed wrote: »

1st post says you are not trying to restore data?

if you've done a backup, point the backup program to the backup files on the external drive

Oops!

When I try to get the Windows program to do it, it says that there are no restore points on the computer, so I'm at a loss as to what to do as I can't see any way to tell it to look on the external HD.

What am I missing?

closed

confusing things with restore points which is system restore

What are the full filenames and sizes of the backup files?

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/restoring-files-with-vistas-restore-files-wizard/6180819

choose advanced restore

SunFlower

Thanks - I'll take a look at that link.

I'll be back once I've had the chance to have a play.