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General discussion

Cant find old files after reinstalling windows on Vista

Dec 4, 2010 7:37AM PST

I had to reinstall windows on my vista 64-bit unexpectedly. I didn't have a virus or anything else operating differently. I need help in locating my windows old.

Discussion is locked

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We have a saying.
Dec 4, 2010 7:42AM PST

"We only lose what we didn't backup."

To find our old files we would look where we backed them up. Reinstalling windows can wipe out user files. This is not new except for those that didn't backup or ask if reinstalling could wipe out files.

Let's hear about your backup copies.
Bob

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Admittedly computer illiterate
Dec 4, 2010 7:55AM PST

I admit i'm not computer savvy but it seems to me that information was supposed to be stored in a "windows old" file after reinstalling windows. Thats the info i received in the step by step instructions. I may have to face the fact i lost all files then, but i had performed numerous file back ups prior to this happening so where did that go? Should be on hard drive? Thanks for any info you might have!

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That's not how Microsoft coded it.
Dec 4, 2010 8:14AM PST

Windows.old was in the past a leftover of the Windows OS files and never our files.

If some one told you that this was so, they sadly mislead you. Or this is not a Microsoft issued Vista DVD!

I read you performed numerous backups but can't tell where you backed up your files to. If you don't know then I can't either. Tell where you sent the backups to.

Bob

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Reinstall
Dec 4, 2010 8:38PM PST

If you reformatted the hard disk prior to the reinstall then everything from the old install is lost. There is nothing you can do about that. If those backups were on the same partition as the previous installation of Windows, then they have been deleted as well.

If you carried out a 'Repair' installation, then that would normally just replace System files, and your Documents folders and other folders should have remained intact, but nothing is certain in such repair installs, so that is why we backup before carrying out a repair install. Backup means copying those documents, photos, music, videos and other personal files off the hard drive to some other storage media.

I suspect that a 'Reinstall' over the top of an existing install may replace everything as does a reformat and install, although in XP a reinstall from original the setup CD would often fail because the existing XP installation has been upgraded to SP2 or SP3 through Windows Updates, and the reinstall will baulk at over-writing that.

So, we really need to know what you did. You said you received step-by-step instructions. From where?

Mark