Here's my problem: I upgraded to Windows Vista a few days after it came out, but I didn't register it right away. To make a long story short, my product key didn't work when I wanted to register it. I had to re-format the partitions on my HD, re-install Windows XP, and re-install Vista.
Before I did all that, I backed up my files on a Western Digital external HD formatted in FAT. Now that everything else is kosher, I'm trying to copy those files back to the PC. For some reason, the external HD put all my files into numbered folders instead of how they were named. Plus, I can't figure out how to get them back to the PC's HD. Any thoughts? I'm not even sure I'm explaining this well, but maybe someone knows enough to help me out. Thanks!

 

That's what you get for "upgrading" to Vista. lol.

But joking aside, how did you backup your files? Did you use a program, or did you just drag and drop the files onto the external harddrive?

 

try the same way u got them on the HDD.

y is your external HDD in FAT?

 

His external is formated with FAT32 because it's a storage only drive, no need for an operating system, only a file system for... well... storing files, lol.

So lemme get this straight...

You have at least 2 partitions on your primary hard drive, one for Vista and one for XP - and you presumably have a third partition formatted to the FAT32? Or just two? Just so you know - if you're running an external HD for mass storage, there's no real reason to partition your primary - honestly, with this being the first edition of Vista, I wouldn't run it on a partition. I'd wait until they work some of the kinks out. Do you have a dedicated system that you can use for Vista, and XP on another machine? None of that helps you now anyways...

Did you copy files from both OS's, or just one? If you did just one, I know for a fact XP shouldn't behave that way. The file names should remain the same. For Vista... I dunno. Haven't played with it yet.

And yeah, it'd be nice to know if you copied and pasted or used a backup program? For moving files around within the OS, the copy and paste method is pretty fail-proof. When you start swapping between partitions and external drives, then back to a new partition, there's a little more room for something to occur. Even though they both use the same file system, I believe some reading has stated that Vista also has it's own sort of file system as well.

I dunno - it's all speculation until we know how you copied your files. Also, do the file names remain that same on your external and only changes to numerical values once placed back on the partitioned drive - or do they become numbered once you place them on your external?

 

If the files are in numbered folders, can you do a search by file extension to see what folder the files are in? For example, for all your Word docs, do a search with *.doc, and place all your word docs in a new folder "Word Docs." Same for executables (*.exe), text (*.txt), Excel (.xls), music (*.mp3, *.mp4, etc), movies (*.avi, *.mpeg, *.wmv, etc.) and just drop them into new folders, i.e., "Movies, "Spreadsheets", etc. Pain in the *ss to do, but it's a start if everything saved to numbered folders. Good luck....

 

I had Windows OneCare Live software (anti-virus, system monitoring software). It had a "backup files" button, so I clicked on it. It asked where I wanted to backup to, and I selected my external HD. All the files are put in numbered folders. For instance, there are 116 separate folders now on the external HD. They are called Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc.. all the way to Part 116. Each folder containes compressed files, and they are arranged in no sensible order.
I shoulda done the drag-and drop thing, but I didn't. Do you think I should look for help in Windows OneCare? I'm really stuck on this, and I don't wanna pay Best Buy $99 to fix it.

BTW, make fun if you will of Vista, but it is really nice, and sooner or later all you PC users will have it; just like everyone now runs XP.

 

If Bill Gates didn't give so much of his money to charity, I would track him down and kick him in the nuggets for making me buy a new operating system so often. [:@] I don't even know the benefits of Vista, but the consumer in me wants to buy it. Maybe I am just a lemming.

 

Would a quick fix be to just get the machine back up and running, reinstall the back-up proggie, restore your backup(s)?? Never mind about the file system, not necessary in this case. What it appears to me is that the naming convention your backup software used is why you see your data indexed like that on the removable HD.

Here's some insider information, if you don't have vista, wait (til about end of may). their whitepapers are already discussing patches that they knew would have to be released incrementally.

Edited to add the following...
One more thing, not everyone runs a clone or even a mac, how about linux and the many flavors/distros.

 

Yeah well Steveo (Steve Jobs that is) comes out with a new OSX every 6 months. Be glad M$ doesn't do that.

 

if you used a backup prog then it probably put it in a format where it can also restore. use the same prog to mount them......a little insider information here, i have been using vista since november (full release) and i have had no issues. other than some software not working, but most things can be run in comaptibility mode. all other issues have to do with UAC, user account control, and the fact that no one, not even domain admins will ever run as admin on vista. whenever there is an escalation is authentication needed, it will prompt you. it is also the ONLY operating system that does not need to be pathched for DST this year. everything else, and i mean everything else needs to be patched, all versions of windows server, outlook and windows other than 07 releases and vista.