Fab's AutoBackup forums

Saraneth

Member

Registered: 2014-12-14

Posts: 4

[SOLVED] Help needed with restore please

I must apologise for asking what will appear to some people as either a silly or a basic question but, as a very new user and with only limited time left, I just cannot afford to make wrong assumptions about how things work and then make mistakes and have to start again.

I really need a step-by-step walkthrough of restoring this machine with four user profiles because it really doesn't seem as straight-forward as I was hoping. Having said that, I'm in panic mode now and not thinking clearly, so I really would be very grateful for any help.

The laptop had four user profiles: Guest, Debbie the Pancake, Sophie Pie and Computing Gowlett (because I was actually logged into the 'Computing Gowlett' account when using AutoBackup 6, it has named that account as 'User' instead of Computing Gowlett). After the reformat, during the reinstallation of Windows 7, I called the initial user account that was created, Computing Gowlett, and I am now logged into that account attempting to restore the others.

I believe that AutoBackup 6 can automatically restore the other three accounts without me having to create them first. The backup folder (175GB on an external hard drive) is on an external hard drive and is named GowlettFabs. You can see the directory structure in the picture below, but how do I get from there to actually restoring the four user profiles? Clicking on any of those folders and then clicking OK doesn't seem to activate the 'Next' button. And how will it handle the fact that the 'Computing Gowlett' account appears in the backup named as 'User'?

Sorry again to be stupid but you know how it is when you're doing something new and begin to panic   :8

Thanks very much for any help guys.

Last edited by Saraneth (2014-12-17 15:54:37)

Fab

Administrator

Registered: 2011-05-11

Posts: 1,307

Re: [SOLVED] Help needed with restore please

The laptop had four user profiles: Guest, Debbie the Pancake, Sophie Pie and Computing Gowlett (because I was actually logged into the 'Computing Gowlett' account when using AutoBackup 6, it has named that account as 'User' instead of Computing Gowlett). After the reformat, during the reinstallation of Windows 7, I called the initial user account that was created, Computing Gowlett, and I am now logged into that account attempting to restore the others.

I guess that this "'Computing Gowlett" account has been named "User" at first computer run, then renamed to "'Computing Gowlett". As the program grabs the user profile name instead of its name in Windows (to avoid wrong character issues), this is a normal thing.

I believe that AutoBackup 6 can automatically restore the other three accounts without me having to create them first.

That is not totally true because it will not create all the users accounts on the fly except if you decide to restore the files using the command line (since you are already panicked using the GUI, this is not a good idea). You need to restore each backup at a time. If you have not created the target user account, then use the "Add a local user account" check box, fill the user name field (for example, "DEBBIE THE PANKAKE", the password is optional) and check the "Local administrator" box if you want to make it an administrator on this computer. Select the X:\...\GowlettFabs\2014-12-14\USER-PC\DEBBIE THE PANKAKE" as backup folder and click "Next". The program will create the account and will let you choose which item to restore. Just do this like you did at backup time until the copy job finishes. Repeat that with every other account to be restored. You can restore the public stuff choosing any of the users accounts as target. This does not matter because only public items are going to be copied.

The backup folder (175GB on an external hard drive) is on an external hard drive and is named GowlettFabs. You can see the directory structure in the picture below, but how do I get from there to actually restoring the four user profiles? Clicking on any of those folders and then clicking OK doesn't seem to activate the 'Next' button. And how will it handle the fact that the 'Computing Gowlett' account appears in the backup named as 'User'?

The fact that the backup is named "User" does not matter. You can restore it to the "Computing Gowlett" without problem.

I really hope that this will be helpful for you

regards,

---

Fab

Saraneth

Member

Registered: 2014-12-14

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Help needed with restore please

That's great, thank you very, very much. It's just started doing the restore now - it'll take a while with 175GB to go at but at least the ball is rolling thanks to your help. Cheers