File and Settings Transfer wizard fails

[Guest]

I changed the configuration of my PC, eliminating a harddrive and
re-installed XP and all my programs because I guess the wizard isn't smart
enough to reinstall my programs too. The system was reconfigured with a
larger harddrive for E and F; Can D are partitions and the same harddrive as
before the config change. Well I found the the transfer wizard wouldn't work
at all until I upgraded to SP2 - that is a bug. So after working around that
bug I found another huge bug. Since I changed the configuration it appears
that the wizard is looking to put something somewhere yet can't quite figure
out where. So, instead of popping up a message that it can't find such and
such and then allow me to maybe continue or even point it where such and such
might be, but NO, it just aborts the process!!! The message "The wizard
encountered an error OK" is a lazy peice of workmanship. So tough cookies
because the wizard isn't going to tell you how or why the error was
encountered.
I need to get the PST file out of there as I am now missing over 3 months of
emails.

Is there a way to get this worthless wizard to keep running short of putting
the old smaller harddrive in which has since been formatted and being used in
another system?

I quantify my statements with the fact that I was a senior product tester
STE III at MS for over 5 years.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I changed the configuration of my PC, eliminating a harddrive and
re-installed XP and all my programs because I guess the wizard
isn't smart enough to reinstall my programs too.

No - it was never intended to do that. It is called the "Files and Settings
Wizard" - not the "Applications, Files and Settings Wizard".

The system was reconfigured with a larger harddrive for E and F;
C and D are partitions and the same harddrive as before the
config change.

Doesn't matter if the drive configuration is the same to the Files and
Settings Transfer wizard.

Well I found the the transfer wizard wouldn't work at all until I
upgraded to SP2 - that is a bug.

That is not a bug. That is more likely a lack of understanding how the FAST
wizard works and the concept of "versions". It is possible that you
exported your profile using one version of FAST and needed to use the same
version of FAST to import with.

So after working around that bug I
found another huge bug. Since I changed the configuration it
appears that the wizard is looking to put something somewhere yet
can't quite figure out where.

What leads you to this conclusion? Did you install *all* of the
applications you had before? Doesn't matter WHERE you installed them - just
that you installed them and they are the same version (or use the same
settings and put them in the same place in your profile.)

So, instead of popping up a message
that it can't find such and such and then allow me to maybe
continue or even point it where such and such might be, but NO, it
just aborts the process!!! The message "The wizard encountered an
error OK" is a lazy peice of workmanship. So tough cookies because
the wizard isn't going to tell you how or why the error was
encountered.

So you are assuming you know why the error occurred but then go on to say
that you don't know why the error occurred because the application did not
tell you.. Confusing to say the least.

I need to get the PST file out of there as I am now missing over 3
months of emails.

You did backup your files with methods other than the files and setting
wizard regularly before this - right? Pull your PST file from you last
backup.

Is there a way to get this worthless wizard to keep running short
of putting the old smaller harddrive in which has since been
formatted and being used in another system?

Hmmm.. Something about tools. You have to be able to use the tools.
Something my grandfather used to say comes to mind about tools and those
that use them.. But you've probably heard it. heh

I quantify my statements with the fact that I was a senior product
tester STE III at MS for over 5 years.

"was"...?

------------

The general gist of what I am reading is that you assumed this tool did
things that it did not advertise and you did little to no research before
trying to use something you do not understand - not did you do any research
after you started having trouble.

The best way to use the FAST wizard that I have found is from the CD. This
is so that you are insured you are using the same version for both the
export and import of the files and settings.

I would have suggested that you should have used some imaging product (like
Norton Ghost) to backup your configuration completely before you changed the
hard drive.. Then if you changed more than that - a simple repair
installation would have fixed that up. Not to mention that the one thing
you explicitly complain about (PST file) - you should be able to restore
from your regular backups - or should have thought about backing up
separately before such a major change.

Put more succinctly - I do not see a basis for your complaints. If you were
a "product tester" for any software - you should have known the procedures
for properly using a piece of software - of which one is to attempt to
understand the software before you jump in and the other is "backup your
system in a known fashion" - since you have no idea what might happen using
this piece of software.

I have used the FAST wizard hundreds if not thousands of times to go from
and to various configurations.. The only trouble I have had with it were
versioning problems - which can be gotten around using the CD to do the
transfers.

 

[Guest]

I feel so terrible now because I didn't spend half my life pouring over the
documentation, my bad.
Shenan, are you paid to support this crap?
I said I worked at M$ because I'm aware of how they operate. I am in amuch
better place now (my choice, I left M$) giving people their money's worth not
repackaging someoine elses crap and call it gold. The product that I guess I
didn't read up on is buggy and you are an apologist. If I was to spend half
the time reading the documentation as you suggest that is continually
re-invented and or updated, then I think it would be a full time job! There
are basic things that should work and this one doesn't. I do have backups but
thast was not the point. The point is M$ pushes stuff that is incomplete
saying it is the end-all. The FAST (oh how cute - like the Clean Air program
- nice name but has nothing to do with the real meaning of the word) should
know what version it is running.
Now Shenan, please wipe that brown stuff off your nose and try to be helpful
instead of an apologist corporate nome!
I'm going to a forum that actually tries to help rather than apologize and
blame the poor suckers that use the crap!

No - it was never intended to do that. It is called the "Files and Settings
Wizard" - not the "Applications, Files and Settings Wizard".

Also called a wizard implying vast knowledge

Doesn't matter if the drive configuration is the same to the Files and
Settings Transfer wizard.

Then why won't it say what the problem is???

That is not a bug. That is more likely a lack of understanding how the FAST
wizard works and the concept of "versions". It is possible that you
exported your profile using one version of FAST and needed to use the same
version of FAST to import with.

A bug since it doesn't "know" what version it is

What leads you to this conclusion? Did you install *all* of the
applications you had before? Doesn't matter WHERE you installed them - just
that you installed them and they are the same version (or use the same
settings and put them in the same place in your profile.)


So you are assuming you know why the error occurred but then go on to say
that you don't know why the error occurred because the application did not
tell you.. Confusing to say the least.

And so what am I supposed to do be thankful that it has confused me and that
I shouldn't darer try to say what I think might be wrong? Again, I have been
using this M$ crap for years an know its idiosyncrasies, so an educated guess.

You did backup your files with methods other than the files and setting
wizard regularly before this - right? Pull your PST file from you last
backup.

Nobody needs your condescending BS, except your close friends maybe, oops I
said close friends when obviously that's incorrect, sorry.

Hmmm.. Something about tools. You have to be able to use the tools.
Something my grandfather used to say comes to mind about tools and those
that use them.. But you've probably heard it. heh

You mean you are actually derived from a human? Wow, pretty cool and did
Gramps tell you that some tools don't really work as intended?

"was"...?

And never will

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I feel so terrible now because I didn't spend half my life pouring
over the documentation, my bad.
Shenan, are you paid to support this crap?
I said I worked at M$ because I'm aware of how they operate. I am
in amuch better place now (my choice, I left M$) giving people
their money's worth not repackaging someoine elses crap and call it
gold. The product that I guess I didn't read up on is buggy and you
are an apologist. If I was to spend half the time reading the
documentation as you suggest that is continually re-invented and or
updated, then I think it would be a full time job! There are basic
things that should work and this one doesn't. I do have backups but
thast was not the point. The point is M$ pushes stuff that is
incomplete saying it is the end-all. The FAST (oh how cute - like
the Clean Air program - nice name but has nothing to do with the
real meaning of the word) should know what version it is running.
Now Shenan, please wipe that brown stuff off your nose and try to
be helpful instead of an apologist corporate nome!
I'm going to a forum that actually tries to help rather than
apologize and blame the poor suckers that use the crap!

There was nothing in your original post to be helpful with, actually. It
was you - complaining - about something you thought should be mor than it
was ever advertised to be. *You* decided to complain about something *you*
didn't bother looking into when *you* should have known better given the
information *you* privided.

In my opinion - you had no point - and I provided assistance in as much as I
could given what you have.. You shoulda/woulda/coulda - but didn't. You
should have backups to remedy this situation. You should be able to copy
your PST from the last backup or from the old hard drive. You could have
been performing periodic backups so that in case something like this ever
happened - a just in case thing. My question is - did you?

As for me being an apologist - only to you.
I'm sorry you didn't RTFM.
As for me being a brown nose to anyone.. hah
That's laughable.

My last bit of advice to you is to learn to use the search engines out there
to look into things you do not understand before you decide to try them. I
have never seen Microsoft "push" F.A.S.T. like it was the "end-all be-all" -
it is a tool.. And like any tool one attempts to use - they should
understand its purpose and uses before attempting to use it in their
situation.