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

[luwike]

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

 

[Satchmo Bevins]

Here is an article on the subject from howtogeek.

I hope it helps. Welcome to the board.

 

[luwike]

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/...18-cbdb-47c0-b7c2-77c4cc37a450&displaylang=en onto my Windows 7 - but i got and error msg

 

[Thrax]

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.

 

[luwike]

What do you think the way round is? I have tried running this file http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...18-cbdb-47c0-b7c2-77c4cc37a450&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

 

[Satchmo Bevins]

What do you think the way round is? I have tried running this file http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...18-cbdb-47c0-b7c2-77c4cc37a450&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.

 

[gartenhacke]

Windows XP Files and Settings Transfer to Windows Vista or Windows 7

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.

 

[Pepper]

Same issue

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?

 

[Pepper]

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.

 

[Pepper]

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

 

[Veedaz]

Hi Pepper

I think you will find the files are incompatible with Windows 7.

 

[Ian]

You could always try to use Windows XP in Virtual PC and then restore your files into the virtual OS installation. Then, try using that to recover the files. It's slow, but it would work.

 

[JGByerly]

I feel I am very close to solving this issue, but need one more thing ...

I ran Gartenhacke's loadstate command as:

C:USMT/bin/loadstate C:\Data /v:5 /l:log.txt /user: "Secretary" /lac
running loadstate from the downloaded folder (C:/USMT/bin) with my USMT2.UNC folder located at C:\Data.
I had originally saved it here (where I'm already running W7) from another XP computer via our network. So I am just trying to transport the data onto my W7 computer for now.
Everything works great (100% complete) except it fails to recognized the user account--Error: The user account SECRETARY/Secretary does not exist.
After first failure, I created the user "Secretary" on my W7 computer, but nothing changed. I changed the name of the computer to SECRETARY, but that did not work either.
What am I doing wrong?

 

[sdmnysimon]

this may wrong and off topic... I know theres a .oldwindows folder in windows directory I have found lots of my old stuff there

 

[TrainableMan]

JGByerly, this is an extremely old thread. The easiest way I know of to transfer account settings and data from XP or Vista or W7 TO a W7 machine is with Microsoft WET. Windows Easy Transfer is standard in W7 and available for download for XP & Vista.

One exception, WET cannot handle going FROM 64-bit TO 32-bit. It does support 32->32, 32->64, & 64->64.

 

[cappsie]

My experiences with the infamous MigWiz.exe !

OK, so I have spent the past 4 nights at home researching this issue and I have discovered a few things. Firstly ALL is NOT lost and you CAN restore your files. But it will take time.

My scenario is I had an XP Home with SP 1 installed. I'd backed up the XP files using the MigWiz.exe (Files and Settings Transfer Wizard). I then wiped the disk and installed W7. I attempted to restore the files using MigWiz.exe (MigWiz.exe Ver. Ver. 6.4.760.16385) but W7 would not recognise the files (.dat). I'd backed them up to an external USB drive so the path was E:\LaptopBackup\USMT2.UNC

So, I got myself another XP machine (XP Professional this time XP SP1 [or 1a as it is known] ) and attempted to restore the files.

This is what I discovered: the version of XP in my case didn't matter; however the service pack did matter. I tried with earlier service packs to restore the .dat files but to no avail. I grabbed XP SP3, installed it and retried with the MigWiz.exe Ver. 5.1.2600.5512 - this worked, but is still taking ALL NIGHT to restore my 56Gbs worth of data.

I got the MizWiz.exe Ver. 5.1.2600.1106 from an XP Home SP1 CD.
I got the MizWiz.exe Ver. 5.1.2600.2180 from an XP Home SP2 CD.
I got the MizWiz.exe Ver. 5.1.2600.5512 from an XP Professional SP3 CD (installed SP3).

My W7 install has: MizWiz.exe Ver. 6.4.760.16385 so don't even think about using this to try to restore your XP files.

Forget alternative tools and I struggled with them and opted to get the MigWiz.exe GUI.

Note that I was using a USB share and could not restore the files from a local drive. Others may have had some sucess but I did not. Not only that but also, you cannot point the MigWiz.exe directly to the USMT2.UNC folder, if you do, it will fail. For example, you cannot point it to E:\LaptopBackup\USMT2.UNC

Instead, you have to point it to the directory above, the parent directory. In my case it was: E:\LaptopBackup\

As I'm always happy to chip in with support queries (maybe even send you the MigWiz.exe files) you can email me directly:

Moderator Note: email address removed. Use the forum's private messaging system.

All the best,
Adam.

I also posted this here:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...96-2115-4567-a011-a829c53c5a86/?prof=required