Folks, I'm really struggling with this one and I bow to the tech heads on here who show me up to the luddite that I am! 

 

I've just got a new PC running Windows 8.  The old system went kaput over a year ago and was running XP.  Since then I've been getting by on my phone and work laptop.

 

Prior to the old system dying on me, I'd be religiously backing up the files on the computer to an external hard drive.  Turns out there have been a few changes between XP and Windows 8 and what should be a simple task isn't.  Also turns out that if I'd simply copied the files I wanted rather than let the system manage this for me then I wouldn't be in the mess either!

 

Can anyone give me directions/instructions about what I need to do to restore all of my old music, pictures etc. as I'm gonna be really miffed if they are un recoverable. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

I had the same concerns moving from xp to win 7, but downloaded a util from Microsoft that allowed you to restore to win 7 from an xp backup. Hopefully there's an equivalent for win 8.

I had the same concerns moving from xp to win 7, but downloaded a util from Microsoft that allowed you to restore to win 7 from an xp backup. Hopefully there's an equivalent for win 8.

Thanks, I'll take a look for that tomorrow.

Are you still in Cardiff? ?

If you want any help gimme a shout. I'm away for a week at the moment mind.

Here's a link to the one for windows 7 - the slightly concerning information on the web is that there seems to be no equivilent for windows 8.

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/restore-a-backup-created-on-a-previous-version-of-windows

 

Another possible way forward - again from my windows 7 experience, but there was another download for win7 that allowed you to run a virtual xp machine in a window, This had access to the full disk. I wonder there's the same for win8 and you could restore via that?

 

Hope you get it sorted

 

Bloody Microsoft!

Are you still in Cardiff? ?

If you want any help gimme a shout. I'm away for a week at the moment mind.

 

Thanks.  Managed to recover a good portion of the data as it orginated from SWMBO's laptop and we managed to start that up.  Just some old photo's and a little bit of music of mine to go.

 

Sadly the windows 7 solutions don't work for windows 8.  Absolute shocker that Microsoft haven't supported this.  Poor show. 

What I would do in this case is see if you can get hold of another computer - Restore the data you have onto that machine then manually move them back to the hard drive.

 

Once you have manually moved them all to the hard drive then plug it in to your Windows 8 machine and copy them across. 

I've tried this as one of our very old laptops has xp on it.  No good though as apparently the back up and restore function wasn't present on XP home.  Only the pro version.  WTF!

 

A friend in work is sourcing a hard drive dock with a plan to plug the old hard drive directly into this and I should then be able to copy the files from the old drive as though it were an external drive.  I'll post up if I have success should anybody want it for future reference. 

I've tried this as one of our very old laptops has xp on it.  No good though as apparently the back up and restore function wasn't present on XP home.  Only the pro version.  WTF!

 

A friend in work is sourcing a hard drive dock with a plan to plug the old hard drive directly into this and I should then be able to copy the files from the old drive as though it were an external drive.  I'll post up if I have success should anybody want it for future reference. 

 

Have a read of this

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Windows-XP-Home-to-Windows-XP-Professional

Thought it polite to offer an update should anyone be interested or have this issue again in the future.

 

Bought this a hard disk doc for the tidy sum of £10 delivered.  Plugged the hard drive in and Robert is your Father's Brother! 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002611YO2/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Missed this thread.....lol......either way its good to know you restored the files? For future backup just use the windows method which is now built into all versions of MS Win 7 / 8.... Simplez...... Also as a recommendation is to upgrade to Windows 8.1 which is due for release in October if my sources are correct... Its slightly better on the tiles and navigation. 

Missed this thread.....lol......either way its good to know you restored the files? For future backup just use the windows method which is now built into all versions of MS Win 7 / 8.... Simplez...... Also as a recommendation is to upgrade to Windows 8.1 which is due for release in October if my sources are correct... Its slightly better on the tiles and navigation. 

 

It was using the in buit Windows method that got me into this mess - the windows back up and resotre feature from XP isn't supported in win8 meaning I couldn't restore!        

 

Had I just copied the files I wanted to save, labout intensive as it may have been, I'd have been fine. 

Oops forgot about the XP method was shoddy.....never used it apart from in windows 8.

 

Best advice is just write yourself a robocopy batch script and set up a schedule for it to run. I do that on my lappy to the NAS box..... Also wrote a nice one for copying machines at work and some files on servers....