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    I had two computers--the main one with Vista and the second with XP--both with One Care.  I used mainly the vista one for my work and had backed up my files on Dec 12.08.  My Vista computer crashed on the 14th and when I reinstalled the OS, I was unable to reinstall One Care on it.  I then tried to use my XP computer with One Care to restore the files, but was unable to do it (so far) even with tech help.  I then upgraded my XP computer to Vista and reinstalled one care on it with no problem.  However, when I tried to restore my files, I seemed to be having the same problem as before, though it did search out the files.  However, although I thought it had failed I just found a one care restoration folder on my C drive.  My current question is : how can I reinstall these files throughout my computer so I will have my old files in the old places, etc.    (This isn't the end of the story since the files I'm restoring were September backup rather than my Dec 12 backup and don't seem to contain very much data.  But half a loaf is better than none--I think.

    Thanks in advance for any help.

    Don
    Wednesday, January 14, 2009 12:51 AM

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    What is the "same problem as before" when trying to restore the files?

    Are you encountering errors?

    What is the backup location? External drive, DVD/CD, Network Share?

    Was the PC backed up using Centralized Backup and was the PC that failed a Hub Pc in your Circle, hosting the backup location?

    OneCare will restore files to their original locations if you have the same User profile structure on the PC that you are restoring to as the PC that the files were backed up from unless those files to be restored already exist on the new PC. If the files were restored to the \OneCare restore folder, and they are all there, you may need to manually move them to where you want them.

    Why did it restore a September backup rather than the msot recent one? Did you select a custom restore to restore files from another PC?

    -steve
     

      Restore files from a backup

       

      If your computer goes through a hardware failure or if some of your files are deleted from your computer and you've backed up your files, you can restore the files to your computer from a previous backup. If you're using a hub PC, you can restore backup files from any computer in your OneCare circle. You can choose which files to restore and which backup to restore the files from.

      To restore all files from a backup:

    1. Open Windows Live OneCare.
    2. In the main OneCare window, in the Backup and Restore area, click Restore files.
    3. Click Restore files from a local backup.
    4. Click Express Restore.
    5. Click Restore files.
    6. Click Finish.

      7. To select specific files to restore or to select a specific backup to restore from:

    7. Open OneCare.
    8. In the main OneCare window, in the Backup and Restore area, click Restore files.
    9. Click Restore files from a local backup.
    10. Click Custom Restore.
    11. To restore files from the most recent backup of your computer, click Restore files from the current backup on this computer.

      12. –or–

      Restore files that were backed up from another computer.

       

        1. Click Restore files from backup of another machine.
        2. Click the backup that you want to restore files from.

      –or–

      Restore files from an earlier backup.

       

        1. Click Restore files from an earlier backup or a backup from another computer.
        2. Click the location of the backup device, and then click Next.
        3. Click the backup that you want to restore files from.
    12. To restore all files that are no longer on your computer, click Restore all missing files.

      13. –or–

      Restore specific types of files.

       

        1. Click Restore files by file type.
        2. Next to the types of files that you want to restore, select the check boxes, and then click Next.
        3. Next to the files that you want to restore, select the check boxes, and then click Next.
        4. Decide whether you want to restore files that have the same name as files that are already stored on your computer, click the appropriate option, and then click Next.

      –or–

      Select the files that you want to restore.

       

        1. Click Search for files to restore.
        2. In the search box, type all or part of the name of the file that you want to restore, and then click Next.
        3. Next to the files that you want to restore, select the check boxes, and then click Next.
        4. Decide whether you want to restore files that have the same name as files that are already stored on your computer, click the appropriate option, and then click Next.
    13. Click Restore files.
    14. Click Finish.

      15. Note

      If OneCare detects that there are no appropriate files to restore, you won't receive the Restore files option.

    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
    Wednesday, January 14, 2009 2:55 PM
    Moderator
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     Thanks for all the information, Stephen.  

    My backup is an external drive.  I've been working with  OneCare support for weeks, trying to restore a OneCare backup I made just before my computer crashed,  I won't go into the details, but it proved to be impossible to get restore to work with that particular backup.  I've been at it for so long, that I'm giving up on it. 

    However, don't ask me how, but yesterday I (inadvertantly) managed to get an older backup got onto my C drive after a Vista clean install.   We tried to open it, but without success.   The files were .zip, so it looked to me like an unrestored backup.  (I still can't figure how it got onto my C drive after a clean install of Vista.)  Anyway,  last night, I reconfigured the OneCare restore to make my "C" drive the backup and, lo and behold, it restored those files.  Well, that's sufficient.  I'm happy.   Case closed. 

    Thanks again for your suggestions and all your help in the  past.  You really are a great resource.  

    Cheers, Don.   
    Don
    Thursday, January 15, 2009 6:23 PM
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    You're welcome. And I'm sorry you had such trouble with the restore and that support wasn't able to help.
    I am glad to read, however, that all is now well, even though it was via a rather unorthodox solution!
    The reason I had asked about the backup type - Centralized, etc., was that it does appear that a backup made to a Centralized backup location from the Hub PC is pretty problematic to restore from if the Hub PC undergoes a failure/reinstall of the OS. I don't know that for certain, but it is a pattern I've been observing.

    -steve
    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
    Thursday, January 15, 2009 7:16 PM
    Moderator
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    Hi Again Stephen:

    No, I wasn't using a hub.  I was backed up to an external drive.  The (best) backup that my computerI (with support) was originally trying to restore (and failed to restore) came from a different (independent) computer.  (When Vista was restored on that computer, I (with support) was no longer able to install OneCare on it.  My other computer had xp and we couldn't restore the backup with the XP, so I bought Vista (upgrade from XP) for this second computer and tried to get my prime OneCare backup using that one.  That's the one on which I somehow got the September backup onto the C drive (unrestored), but this "new" vista computer  wouldn't give me the option of restoring the backup I wanted (the one I made just before the computer crashed).  It's complicated, I know.  Anyway, I can't spend any more time on this so I'm content to live with what I have.  Fortunately, all my important documents had a second and third backup.  (I also had Acronis 11 but my updates for a year were corrupt.)  The only thing I'm really missing are a year's worth of emails.  (I thought I had them backed up independently too, aside from the Acronis and OneCare, but that backup turned out to be incomplete. 

    I'm an easy user with computers--mainly word processing--- yet I seem cursed.  I must have angered the Computer God in a previous life.

    All the best.  Don.
    Don
    Thursday, January 15, 2009 8:49 PM
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    When you do want to spend any more time trying to restore the missing emails, you can manually open the zip files with WinZip or other compression utility and look inside each for the files. When you find them, you can extract them manually. If it is an Outlook pst file, that was split into smaller pieces before being put into multiple zips, you'll need to re-join the parts uisng this:
     

    http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/

    -steve

    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
    Friday, January 16, 2009 4:50 PM
    Moderator
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    Thanks Stephen. I've bookmarked the link. 
    Don
    Friday, January 16, 2009 6:26 PM