I had a Lenovo G580 that I had upgraded to Windows 10, and the latest round of either Microsoft or Lenovo patched (or possibly their interaction) resulted in the laptop going into a Lenovo “automatic repair routine” loop that could not be resolved other than by resetting the computer to its original settings, and of course deleting all the data in the process. It also forced the machine back to Windows 8.
When I try to restore my data from my Passport Ultra, the restore function doesn’t list any files to be restored, despite the fact that there are 925 GB worth of backups on the drive. HELP?
Hello,
What backup software did you use to create the backup?
WD Backup using the My Passport Ultra .I can send you a screenshot if that’s helpful - version is 1.0.5556.3650 dated 3-19-2015
Hello,
WD Backup created a backup folder on the root of the passport ultra. You can browse this folder called" WDbackup.swstor" and just copy and paste your files back to your computer.
Hi Hamlet
Sorry it has taken so long to respond – I finally decided to give up on my Lenovo and am now trying to reconstruct my life on a new Dell!
I see the files in the folder you referenced. If I copy the individual “Program” files to my new C drive folder with the same name, will the executables work, or do I need to re-install? Can I also do that for the “User” app data etc.?
I see that there is one folder marked WindowsImageBackup, but the .vhdx files in that folder can’t be opened/restored. Is there a tool to retrieve data from those, and if so, would that just duplicate what is in the .swstor folder?
Thanks
Jim
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Thank you.
Further to my last email, now that I have tried to open up some of the sub directories, such as my App Data in the Users folder, I find all the files are just placeholders with file types such as DOTX_LAST. What do I do to get to the real file?
Hi Hamlet
Do you have any further guidance re my difficulty in getting to the actual data files on my Passport Ultra? I am wondering how to restore key elements and actual programs from my old Lenovo without jeopardizing files already in place as a result of installing Windows 10 on this new Dell.
Jim Colthart
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Thank you.
Hello,
I recommend you contact WD support directly for assistance with this.
https://support.wdc.com/support/case.aspx?lang=en
Was this issue ever resolved and if so, what was the resolution. I am currently having the same issue.
I spoke with the WD folks and they walked me through their opaque system. See the attached screenshot, and work your way through to the “Volume” folders buried three layers deep in the WD Backup.swstor folder. You should find your files there, and you can do a selective copy/paste operation. I have two volumes because I keep all my data files on a dedicated partition on my hard drive.
Hope that helps – if not, call WD – they were friendly and helpful, even though I hadn’t registered the drive when I bought it.
BR
Jim
Thanks for the response Jim. I can see the files but they are not in the correct format to simply copy them from the directory. The naming convention is xxx.PST_Last and xxx.PST_a1f2h3k4l5 but even when renamed, the files cannot be opened by Outlook. When you look at under the specific volume are your files showing up with the correct naming convention?
Jim, I ended up playing with this a little further and your directions worked perfectly. I was able to copy all of the old PST’s back into the correct directory and recover my email archives. Thanks for taking the time to provide the details!!
Yes, I just see a mirror of my existing drive partitions, so for instance, on the data volume, all of my directories are exactly as they are on the laptop, and I can open files by clicking on them in the backup folder, or copy and paste them back into the hard drive.
There are two WD apps on my Windows 10 – the “WD Discovery” folder is the one that contains WD Backup, which is what I used to create the backups in the first place. The other folder called “Utilities” also has programs, but I don’t think I have ever used them.
I leave my external drive plugged in continuously, so it makes hourly backups of anything that has changed.
There are other software packages that also create backups – did you perhaps use one of those when you set up your drive?
Our emails just crossed, glad it worked out!
Hi Jim,
May I know what’s the type of data you have lost? If you lost the documents or the photos, maybe you can see this YouTube video how to Recover Deleted Files from Hard Drive/Flash Drive/Memory Card. Thanks.
