Cannot restore Old XP .DAT files on my Windows 7. I used 'files and settings wizard'

Before upgrading to windows 7 I backed up all of my data onto an external HDD by (in XP) going Start,all programmes, Accessories, System tools, Files and Settings transfer wizard. It made a load of .DAT files in folder called USM2T.UNC. Can anyone now tell me how I'm supposed to restore these files in my windows 7? Also would be good if I could select only certain folders to be restored.

If it is not possible to do it within Windows 7 - is there a way that I can do on a XP but so that I can decide where the files are being outputted to (as in keep them on my external HDD so that I don't affect the computer I'm running the wizard on)?

Thanks

Here is an article on the subject from howtogeek.

I hope it helps. Welcome to the board.

Thanks for the reply - but I think you missed my point. I cannot get 'files and setting transfer wizard' to run on windows 7 because it is not included - and therefore i cannot restore my data. I tried installing the wizard from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en onto my Windows 7 - but i got and error msg

As far as I am aware, this is not possible. Windows XP is not an eligible software upgrade target for 7 (just Vista), so it stands to reason that account transfer applications would also be incompatible.

What do you think the way round is? I have tried running this file http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en in compatibility mode (on win 7) but the error message says that I need to be running at least service pack 2. This happens even if I run at 2 or 3.

Any ideas?
thanks

I'm at a loss....

Start Menu--> Accessories--> System Tools-->Windows Easy Transfer is the latest incarnation of FAST.

And I read one of the comments farther down that link I gave you:

"If you have not found the solution to your problem I have a suggestion. I recently had the same problem on using the F.A.S.T. program for Windows XP and found that I could not reinstall the files and settings. The solution I found was that newer windows no longer requires a file extention in the file name. For example: the file IMG00001.DAT. in the USMT2.UNC folder should not have the .DAT on the end. Alot of the files do not have file extensions on them. So as a suggestion… do no move the file or folder but erase the .DAT on the end of the file ad begin the transfer from the beginning."

Windows Easy Transfer is asking for .MIG files, maybe change the extension from .DAT to .MIG and try it. But I don't hold a lot of hope. You may be hooped. Sorry I'm not more help.

I just installed Windows 7 and had previously used the Windows XP Files and Settings Transfer wizard which created a bunch of .dat files in a USMT2.UNC directory.

Easy Transfer of Windows 7 is useless for that end.

I tried loadstate.exe utility from the USMT 4.0 from the Microsoft Windows AIK and that failed too.

I proceeded to trace its failure with the Process Monitor tool of Sysinternals and discovered that the loadstate utility from the USMT 4.0 is looking for a USMT directory instead of USMT2.UNC directory for its datastore parameter. That somewhat hinted at a versioning incompatibility of USMTs.

I read the docs of USMT 3.0 and that one creates .MIG files when it scanstates. Still no good, but getting closer.

The solution to recover .DAT files in a USMT2.UNC directory from a previous windows XP installation is to use the loadstate of USMT 2.6.2.

I used this command to get my files back: loadstate f:\Data\ /v:5 /l:log.txt /user:"lex acker" /lac

Where f:\data contains USMT2.UNC\*.dat

This will restore your user files from XP in Windows 7 in a c:\Document and Settings\%user% directory. It will certainly not integrate your old XP user in Windows 7 because the user directory structure of XP is different than Vista and Windows 7. At the very you get your files back.

I have the same problem. My wife's computer had XP Home and I used the File Transfer program and saved 4 .dat files on an external hard drive. After reformatting and installing W7 I can't utilize these files. I downloaded the USMT 2.6.2 from Microsoft.com and installed. However, I tried typing the 'loadstate' command from the previous post and it says it is not a valid command. Could you please explain better how to implement this method?

Surely someone must know a way to extract the old files from the XP version of Files and Settings Transfer Wizard and implement them into W7.

Still haven't found a way to access old FAST files with W7, please help.