Vista upgrade lost documents

[jfn25]

Hi hopefully someone can help me I have just upgraded from vista home basic
to vista home premium I did the upgrade not clean install and the drive as
far as I know was not formatted, all of my programs have remained but i have
lost all of my documents folder although if I do a general search it finds
them but tells me that they are on a drive or network no longer available and
the file size as zero l have some of the files backed up but not all
including an accounts data file which i need is there a way that I can revert
back to vista home basic to revcover my lost files

many thanks

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, jfn.

Have you looked in C:\Users\<username>\Documents? Have you given yourself
permission to see files in that User folder?

There's always the "brute force" method when all else fails. Open an
Administrator:Command Prompt window: Start, type "cmd", then right-click on
"cmd.exe" at the top of the list and choose Run as Administrator. (You'll
need the Administrator credentials to get past this point, of course.) In
the DOS-like window that opens, use the simple-but-powerful commands that we
used over 20 years ago, before Windows. Type any command followed by /? to
see a mini-Help file showing the parameters and switches available with that
command.

To search ALL of Drive C: for ALL files, even Hidden and System files, type
at the Command Prompt:
dir c:\ /s/a

The "dir" produces the listing; "c:\" says to start at the Root (\) of Drive
C:; "/s" says to search all subfolders; and "/a" says to show all files, no
matter what Attributes may be set.

To narrow your search, use names of files that you've "lost", in a likely
folder, perhaps with wildcards:
dir c:\accounts\data*.* /s/a

If any filenames starting with "data" exists in the "accounts" folder or a
subfolder under "accounts", this command should list them for you.

Please post back and tell us, step by step, what you tried and what results
you saw. "Tried it" doesn't tell us much, and neither does "Didn't work".

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

 

[jfn25 via WindowsKB.com]

Hi RC

I tried the C:\Users\<username>\Documents it shows two profiles clive(new one)
and clive's (old one) but it shows no documents in either profile.

I have tried searching in DOS but am unable to find any of my old files that
I need it would appear that the my documents folder for both the old and new
profiles were recreated at the same time yesterday morning I can find some of
the files but not the files that I need if I do a search within vista using
clive as the searchh parameter it finds the folders but if I try to open them
I get the message that it refers to a location that is unavailble, is it
possible to reverse the vista upgrade ?

many thanks for your assitance

clive

Hi, jfn.

Have you looked in C:\Users\<username>\Documents? Have you given yourself
permission to see files in that User folder?

There's always the "brute force" method when all else fails. Open an
Administrator:Command Prompt window: Start, type "cmd", then right-click on
"cmd.exe" at the top of the list and choose Run as Administrator. (You'll
need the Administrator credentials to get past this point, of course.) In
the DOS-like window that opens, use the simple-but-powerful commands that we
used over 20 years ago, before Windows. Type any command followed by /? to
see a mini-Help file showing the parameters and switches available with that
command.

To search ALL of Drive C: for ALL files, even Hidden and System files, type
at the Command Prompt:
dir c:\ /s/a

The "dir" produces the listing; "c:\" says to start at the Root (\) of Drive
C:; "/s" says to search all subfolders; and "/a" says to show all files, no
matter what Attributes may be set.

To narrow your search, use names of files that you've "lost", in a likely
folder, perhaps with wildcards:
dir c:\accounts\data*.* /s/a

If any filenames starting with "data" exists in the "accounts" folder or a
subfolder under "accounts", this command should list them for you.

Please post back and tell us, step by step, what you tried and what results
you saw. "Tried it" doesn't tell us much, and neither does "Didn't work".

RC

Hi hopefully someone can help me I have just upgraded from vista home
basic

[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]

many thanks

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Clive.

it finds the folders but if I try to open them
I get the message that it refers to a location that is unavailble

Well, we've probably reached the limit of my ability to help with this
problem. As just one guy with one computer and no net but the Internet, I
never had to worry about Users and Permissions and such until Vista - and I
still don't know much about them. About all I can do is ask again what I
asked before:

Maybe someone else can jump in here. Or maybe you can post a new question
with a new Subject asking about how to get permission to see files in those
two User profiles.

One other thought: The "upgrade" process has never worked for me in Vista,
but others have reported that it creates a Windows.old folder holding files
from the former operating system. Do you have such a folder anywhere on
your hard drive?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

Hi RC

I tried the C:\Users\<username>\Documents it shows two profiles clive(new
one)
and clive's (old one) but it shows no documents in either profile.

I have tried searching in DOS but am unable to find any of my old files
that
I need it would appear that the my documents folder for both the old and
new
profiles were recreated at the same time yesterday morning I can find some
of
the files but not the files that I need if I do a search within vista
using
clive as the searchh parameter it finds the folders but if I try to open
them
I get the message that it refers to a location that is unavailble, is it
possible to reverse the vista upgrade ?

many thanks for your assitance

clive

Hi, jfn.

Have you looked in C:\Users\<username>\Documents? Have you given yourself
permission to see files in that User folder?

There's always the "brute force" method when all else fails. Open an
Administrator:Command Prompt window: Start, type "cmd", then right-click
on
"cmd.exe" at the top of the list and choose Run as Administrator. (You'll
need the Administrator credentials to get past this point, of course.) In
the DOS-like window that opens, use the simple-but-powerful commands that
we
used over 20 years ago, before Windows. Type any command followed by /?
to
see a mini-Help file showing the parameters and switches available with
that
command.

To search ALL of Drive C: for ALL files, even Hidden and System files,
type
at the Command Prompt:
dir c:\ /s/a

The "dir" produces the listing; "c:\" says to start at the Root (\) of
Drive
C:; "/s" says to search all subfolders; and "/a" says to show all files,
no
matter what Attributes may be set.

To narrow your search, use names of files that you've "lost", in a likely
folder, perhaps with wildcards:
dir c:\accounts\data*.* /s/a

If any filenames starting with "data" exists in the "accounts" folder or a
subfolder under "accounts", this command should list them for you.

Please post back and tell us, step by step, what you tried and what
results
you saw. "Tried it" doesn't tell us much, and neither does "Didn't work".

RC

Hi hopefully someone can help me I have just upgraded from vista home
basic

[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]

many thanks

 

[jfn25 via WindowsKB.com]

Hi RC

Yes I set all the permissions corectly but it still would not let me see the
contents,

However I downloaded a copy of WinUndelete last night and it found all of my
missing files and has restored most of them, I tried several of the restore
software programs but this was the only one which found all of the files.

I am now restoring the files to there correct locations and have learned a
valued lesson on the need to back up impoertant files

all the best and thanks for your assistance with this

regards

Clive

Hi, Clive.

it finds the folders but if I try to open them
I get the message that it refers to a location that is unavailble

Well, we've probably reached the limit of my ability to help with this
problem. As just one guy with one computer and no net but the Internet, I
never had to worry about Users and Permissions and such until Vista - and I
still don't know much about them. About all I can do is ask again what I
asked before:

Maybe someone else can jump in here. Or maybe you can post a new question
with a new Subject asking about how to get permission to see files in those
two User profiles.

One other thought: The "upgrade" process has never worked for me in Vista,
but others have reported that it creates a Windows.old folder holding files
from the former operating system. Do you have such a folder anywhere on
your hard drive?

RC

Hi RC

[quoted text clipped - 64 lines]

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Clive.

Congratulations! ;<)

I know the feeling. A couple of years ago, I lost two hard drives at the
same time; one died, the other was dying. Maxtor RMAed them both, so there
was no dollar loss, but there were hundreds of photo files among the 80 GB
or so on the drives. After a couple of weeks of trying everything I could
think of, R-Studio (from www.r-tt.com) was able to rescue almost all of
them.

Thanks for the report back. WinUndelete you say? I'll try to remember that
one.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

Hi RC

Yes I set all the permissions corectly but it still would not let me see
the
contents,

However I downloaded a copy of WinUndelete last night and it found all of
my
missing files and has restored most of them, I tried several of the
restore
software programs but this was the only one which found all of the files.

I am now restoring the files to there correct locations and have learned a
valued lesson on the need to back up impoertant files

all the best and thanks for your assistance with this

regards

Clive

Hi, Clive.

it finds the folders but if I try to open them
I get the message that it refers to a location that is unavailble

Well, we've probably reached the limit of my ability to help with this
problem. As just one guy with one computer and no net but the Internet, I
never had to worry about Users and Permissions and such until Vista - and
I
still don't know much about them. About all I can do is ask again what I
asked before:

Have you given yourself
permission to see files in that User folder?

Maybe someone else can jump in here. Or maybe you can post a new question
with a new Subject asking about how to get permission to see files in
those
two User profiles.

One other thought: The "upgrade" process has never worked for me in
Vista,
but others have reported that it creates a Windows.old folder holding
files
from the former operating system. Do you have such a folder anywhere on
your hard drive?

RC

Hi RC

[quoted text clipped - 64 lines]

many thanks