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Question

Windows 7 restore of XP backup

Applies To: Windows | Windows 7 | System Repair and Recovery

I made a xp backup of all my data before I formatted and installed windows 7 RC and now I can't see the backup. Is the XP backup compatable with Windows 7?

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slimeman

slimeman

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Answer
NTBackup was removed since Vista. It is possible to install and use NTBACKUP on Vista, but to make it work on Windows 7 takes a bit more work. If you just need to restore files made from NTBACKUP, try using this NTBACKUP restore program that Microsoft made. I haven't personally tested this but it's the closest thing that could get your backup files.

In a worst case scenario, you would need to use The VirtualPC function to get access to XP's NTBACKUP (hope you have a supprted CPU!).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7da725e2-8b69-4c65-afa3-2a53107d54a7

Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility 
Utility for restoring backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to computers running Windows Vista and Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008.
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secured2k

secured2k

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I went back to windows after using a mac for a couple of years.  I found the imac to be a "disposable" computer with no upgrades available after installing three MB of memory.  OSx was very stable and "just worked" but was slower than Windows, given the limited hardware on the two year old imac.  Windows 7 is quicker but unstable on my new machine.  I probably should have installed an earlier OS.  It took me several days to get sleep to work and lost my entire backup when I tried to restore.
Theresa
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Theresa_n

Theresa_n

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This program refuses to install in Windows 7. You're supposed to enable Removable Storage, but that option doesn't exist in Windows 7.

The Windows 7 RC page tells you to backup your system, and has a link to tell you how to backup your system, using the tools available to the system. With XP, it tells you to use Windows XP Backup (NTBACKUP).

If we want to migrate our DATA files and such from an old installation, you obviously want to run the Windows Easy Transfer wizard from the Windows 7 RC install disc, but that's not what the instructions say.

(1) Please fix the instructions.

(2) Please give us a way to restore from NTBACKUP files into Windows 7 which works.

Thanks,

Brad
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Brad K.

Brad K.

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I verified your claim. Unfortunately, it seems like Microsoft has officially ended backwards compatibility support for ntbackup. As an alternative, you can use of Virtual PC for Windows which should allow you to run ntbackup a Virtual machine.

While I think I could come up with a hack to make Removable Storage work on Windows 7, it would not be supported and probably much easier to run NTBackup in a VM.

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secured2k

secured2k

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I verified your claim. Unfortunately, it seems like Microsoft has officially ended backwards compatibility support for ntbackup. As an alternative, you can use of Virtual PC for Windows which should allow you to run ntbackup a Virtual machine.

While I think I could come up with a hack to make Removable Storage work on Windows 7, it would not be supported and probably much easier to run NTBackup in a VM.


Fair enough. However, I've tried "XP Mode" (Virtual PC with the Windows XP image) but it doesn't seem to be able to fully access my host hard drives. That is, when I go to choose a restore location, none of my host drives (with the storage capacity to restore from the NTBACKUP file on my USB hard drive) show up as "drive letter" options.

Is there a way to make these drives show up as letters such that NTBACKUP can see them?

Or am I going to have to use file sharing to share out a directory on the host, then on the XP Mode client, map that share to a local drive letter, so that NTBACKUP will be able to use it? (or will that even work? Can NTBACKUP restore to a mapped, but shared drive letter?)

Thanks,

Brad
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Brad K.

Brad K.

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NT backup can restore to a UNC path or mapped drive. I would suggest this as a work around in your case.
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secured2k

secured2k

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Hacky but doable. Thanks for your help.
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Brad K.

Brad K.

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Seems this is a popular problem with users. this issue is addressed in many other titles.
The only quick solution is to purchase a .bkf extractor program though they are not cheap. they seem to cost around $100. and NOBODY offers a fully working trial version. Tried all the software out there for this as trials -they seem to work but in order to save the files you have to PAY. If you have $100 dollars for software your gonna use only once then go ahead and buy it. for the rest of us we have to rely on microsoft coming up with a patch for this !
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chrism702

chrism702

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Hi. We just bought a new computer with official Windows Seven Home Premium and could not install NT Backup Utility Restore tool because Removable Storage Management is apparently not available. Also "XP Mode" doesn't seem to be available. Virtual PC seems a difficult solution for such a basic problem of restoring files so the old copy solution seems ideal. To add some fun I will do it in a console.
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gmelard

gmelard

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I wonder how many people are going to upgrade from Windows XP to the new version? It appear to me that 'Windows Simplified' needs to have a good answer for restoring files made through the XP backup. That means Microsoft needs to come up with a good utility program. 
My answer was to borrow a friend's Vista laptop, install the XP backup-restore utility, throw the switch on the Removable Storage Management feature, connect it to my network, and run the utility. Unfortunately, I didn't recover everything so now I have to do the whole process again to get the rest of it unpacked.
Microsoft... can't you make a system that simplifies my life?
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ljmott

ljmott
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