I’m glad that Files&Settings transfer worked for you. My experience wasn’t so positive.

I recently had to rebuild an XP machine. I backed up the data to a *new,* known-good USB 2.0-attached hard drive using F&ST *and* Acronis True Image 9. I *tested* the arechive with Acronis before proceeding, and it said that everything was good to go. I then rebuilt the box. When it came time to bring my files back to the new install, F&ST just complained that it couldn’t read the file, and that I needed to use a new disk… Huh?? For that matter, Acronis failed also, in that it said that the archive was corrupted.. after testing it and saying it was OK.. Huh?? Their tech support resorted to MS-style finger pointing; anything to deflect the blame from their product, and none of the comments or suggestions were relevant, or effective. Soooo, consequently, I don’t trust either tool. And Acronis gets no more of my money until they actually sell something that works, and their tech support folks buy a clue.

I don’t know about you but In the last 3 - 5 years I have never received a Windows XP CD. So this method would never work, especially on a DELL computer in which case the “CD” is really a recovery utility and is useless as Windows XP CD. The method I have found that works far better, is simply partition your drive into 2. C and D, all system related stuff goes on C
all applications and data files goes on D. There are even registry entry scripts that I have built up that redirect MyDocuments, and PageFile to the D drive. Now copying over the data and apps is a piece of cake.
The other alternative that requires a little guts is to “clone” the original drive onto the new computers drive, and then fix up any driver issues with internet access driver finders, or use the Lockergnome find of DriverMEchanic I think it was called.

By any chance is there a transfer wizard for transfering settings from a Windows XP PC to one with one of the Vista OSs on a PC?

Those migrating from XP to Vista might want to consider the vastly improved wizard that’s included with Vista. Just pop the Vista disk into the XP box to run the new version.

One product that works well migrating programs, profiles, data and settings is “Aloha Bob’s PC Relocator.” I’ve used it, in several versions over the years when moving stuff to a new PC. Yes, you’d have to buy it, which you don’t with the transfer wizard, of course. But it just works.

I’ve tried using the Files & Settings Transfer wizard to no avail. The new computer doesn’t recognize the file I just created using the same OS on the old computer. Both are WinXP SP2. I get this error “The location you specified does not contain stored information.” I’ve looked and the file is indeed in the folder I’ve selected; 22MB in size. I really don’t understand why F&S would not recognize it’s own file format? It’s not just on this PC but others in the past as well. It seems to be a hit or miss when it comes to using this feature of WinXP.

I had the same problem as Dean-April 16, 2007. My work around was to point to the drive, not the file. It looks like F&ST makes a pointer in the root. Not sure though. Bottom line, when I figured that out, the restore worked great.

Hi all

I’ve been round the loop and found that the following works!
Only use the File & settings transfer wizard from a cd and use the same cd in both the new and old pcs. This means that the wizard that you use is identical on both pcs and the transfer is then successful. It doesn’t matter if the cd is an old copy of Windows XP or a newer version.

I’ve also just picked up a counter-intuitive point from the MS website which says that if you are going to use the network to transfer files you must run the wizard on the new pc first!

Regards
Michael Barr
http://www.solvedit.com.au/content/view/75/42/

This program has many flaws it is very flakey i have had to try 2-3 times on a each pc and it gets very annoying when doing 100+ pcs!

We have had similar problems to these, with equally mixed results.
Our current problems are 2:
1. Doing a transfer from a machine running WIN 98 SE to a new one with Vista (business).
2. Taking a FAST file set created as a backup (and verified at the time) on an XP pro system which has failed, and transfering it to a new system with Vista business.
The second problem is the main one, as the FAST folder, on a CD, is the only data available from the old system.
If there is a tool or method for getting the USMT2 file into a form readable by the Vista Easy transfer tool, this would solve both problems: as we can run the XP FAST routine on the win 98 system, as an intermediate step!

We have used the FAST tool on several systems, with similarly results, even after verifying that the USMC2 file is OK. It does seem that the data must be retained in its original folder when being transferred, and that it is best to write that folder directly to a location readable by the ‘new’ system: either a shared folder/network drive, or a removable drive.
We have currently two problems waiting for a solution:
1. An older system running Windows 98 SE, about to be replaced with a new Vista business system, and
2. A failed system which was running XP Pro. The drive is not readable, but a FAST folder was created on an external drive as a back-up.
We are looking for a means to get the FAST file(s) into a form which can be processed by the Vista Easy Transfer on the replacement systems.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Hello, i just had the same problem as many of you. I used FASt to backup my settings and files to a usb drive. Formated, reinstalled win xp and the like. I came to restore my FAST and it was like “FAST cannot find data in this location. so i pointed to all the folders and finally, you have to point to the folder that includes the FAST folder. my advice: use FAST to backup to the root of a usb drive, makes it alot easier. lol

I needed to recover my computer and transferred the settings and files using FAST. I didn’t have any DVD’s to store the data, so I used USB drives to transfer the data temporarily to my other computer. When I needed to transfer the files and settings back I received the following message, “The location that you specified does not contain stored information._”. I’ve tried pointing to the drive and then the folder but nothing resolved my problem. HELP!!!

Hi,

I had the same problem. I found the tool so it may be handy for you. Here is the link: http://www.fastconv.org/

Enjoy

PS Do not trust bill.

Hi,

having the same problem I googled the solution up. Here is the link to the tool which helps extracta the data from .dat files FAST: www.fastconv.org/

Good luck - it helped me.

How can I transfer more than one user at a time with transfer file and settings wizard. I have some PC’s with 20 users?

after transfer from xp computer to a vista one, via windows easy transfer, via in house network, went well, just can not find my transfered data on vista computer. I looked on the two new signin openings, old files from xP are not there.

Thanks for any good words. Daniel

I tried different thing and it worked. I didn’t use the CD; I RDP’d to the “old” machine, I put the user in an admin group, relogged, mapped network share, then I ran the program (Files and Settings Transfer), pointed to the network location.

On the “new” PC i logged on as Admin, pointed to the network share (previously mapped) and …it worked great. Just point to the root of the directory where the USMC2 is saved. Meaning, one level up from the content of the folder. That’s it.