BleepingComputer.com: can I extract single files from a backup?

Folks, I finally got it using the FAST wizard. After trying all these other methods of getting the data, I was sitting at the users machine and noticed that the image we used was still SP1 and that we ran FAST before the image on SP2. I updated her machine and ran FAST wiz again with 100% success.

In other words, on XP, make sure that the versions are the same!

where can you get the utility rmv2opq from

i lost my files also, but i didn't give up, last night i tried post#77 for about the tenth time and what do you know it worked just like RRah1 said.

RRah1 thanks so much for your batch file, it worked like you said it would, all file recovered, YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!
i owe you a drink RRah1

one difference might have been ... i work on a 64bit computer, i transferred the IMG000.. files to a 32bit computer, ran the batch file and everything worked

PLEASE PLEASE FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD AND JUST IN THE WORLD:


Don't ever use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. Don't do it. Ever. Never. Ever. As long as you live, never use it. Tell your friends, your family, co-workers, random people in line at the bank.
Go buy an external hard drive (or simply another one if you have a desktop computer) and a copy of Norton Ghost. It will save your rear end, your data, and anything in between. Being the computer person that I am, I sometimes screw things up. My data would not be in existence today if it weren't for Norton Ghost. I make a backup every friday night. It takes about an hour on my 60 gig hard drive and it runs while I sleep. If you do this, you will never have that horrible feeling when you realize all your files are locked in an archive you can't access.

I went through a month-long odyssey, including idiot Microsoft techs, sleepless nights, unproductive days, cursing, screaming, thinking, and everything else. I got my files back, but I vowed never again to use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. I maintain my Norton Ghost backups and everything's perfect. I'll still answer a few questions, but everyone needs to do get this kind of a backup going. Losing data sucks...but you probably already knew that.


So please, get out of your chair right now, go to a computer store, and buy: an external (or second) hard drive and a copy of Norton Ghost. It will save your ass.
Or you can order them online. A good site is www.newegg.com

JoeKerr, on Nov 30 2005, 12:42 PM, said:

This sounds like windows for you I will try this it may take a bit till I can but I will and get back to you all

OK, ready for this? I've had files backed up in FAST for about 3 months now that I could not access and the original files were already deleted. It has taken me this long, on and off to figure out what's wrong. Microsoft updated the FAST wizard aka User Migration Tool in the past few months. What I backed up was on the old version which the new version will not decode and gives you the message that the files were created with a different version. I did a search for the file "migwiz.exe". I got two hits. One in c:\winxp\system32\umts and one in c:\winxp\$uninstallKBxxxxxx$ which was the old version. I copied the files from the uninstall directory to another subdirectory and can now run the older migwiz.exe program. It starts rebuilding the files correctly. At the moment, it stops midway with an error (nothing other than error). I think it's because my hard drive is out of space. We'll give this another go around with the appropriate amount of free space and see what happens.

As for the FASTCONV.EXE program. It works until the files are decompressed and it processes the TRANS.DB. I *think* this is because the fastconv program works with an even older FAST structure. I used to have the same problems everyone else has with getting the FASTCONV to actually find the directory. The reason is this: the program is already expecting to look inside of a USMT2.UNC directory. In your command line, send the path up to that branch and it will find it. ie:
Files are stored in c:\fast\usmt2.unc\
Send this path for the source: c:\fast
It knows the rest. Make sure that in the usmt2.unc folder resides the following files:
IMGnnnnn.DAT and STATUS.

If you need the FASTCONV.EXE program and can't find it, drop me a PM or EMAIL and I will send it to you. If you need the User Migration Tool for that was updated, I will do the same. If someone wants to host them I can send you the files.

It sucks that Microsoft writes these stupid little programs to help you and then does not include and backwards compatibility. Now off to complain on the Microsoft Tech Support forum....

Hey guys, first post here....
Ok so windows has reared its hopeless ugly head once again.... i have all my files extracted into the temp folder, and it loosk right as they total 26GB.. but thats it... fastconv isnt doing anything else.. no errors or anything, so just wondering what im supposed to do now?
i read further up all the .DAT files are my files.... but how do i get them named and put in the right places?

EDIT: I now have all my files extracted, but as 0006.DAT etc.. and i have no idea which ones are which.. how can i get them renamed to what therye meant to be?

Thanks in advance

This post has been edited by Sheep: 06 February 2006 - 12:30 PM

Just a few points about FastConv and F.A.S.T. from my experience that may help some people:

The Files and Settings Transfer Tool is a good tool and can save a lot of work in getting a new computer set up the way you like it, but I would never rely on it to store the data. By that I mean always back up critical data to an external hard-drive, or if that is not an option then do not wipe or give away the old computer until you have installed the transfer file successfully on the new one.

As some posts have mentioned - there are two versions of FAST for pre-SP2 and post SP2 - do not mix them. Always use the FAST wizard files from the new machine to collect the files from the old one.

If things get screwed up and you have to use Fastconv I have found that the folder with the source files needs to remain with the name USMT2.UNC or you will get the "Source folder is invalid" error.

You need to have three times as much free space on the new hard drive as the files that you are transferring, unless you use an external drive. Once for the transfer file(s), once for the temporary folder that they are expanded to and once for the final destination. Otherwise you will get errors and messages about needing to transfer files manually.

I have not found any magic solutions for the cases where the transfer database file gets corrupted - you can only sort through all the dat files trying to find and rename the critical stuff.

I hope that this helps some people.

I used FAST to back up my settings and some files before reformatting my hard drive and re-installing my software. I used a cdrw drive with software (In-Cd by Ahead software) that makes it work like a big floppy drive. It took two CDs to do the backup and I ended up with one file on each CD named USMT2IMG.dat. Not knowing any better I assumed this was correct and proceeded to format my drive and re-install windows. When I tried restore my files and settings I got the error "insert disk 1" even after making shure the correct disk was in the drive and dirrecting FAST to the correct location. Can anybody tell me how to get my data back?

I`m giving up I used all windows I have and none work

kmbergem, on Oct 30 2004, 01:59 AM, said:

Okay, so does anyone know whether you can use the tool to extract JUST a specific file? I used the /i:f:\USMT2.UNC\*.pst switch but I don't think that's going to work because I get the impression that it's not going to unpack the files, look at the original file name and check it against the string. Particularly since it's unpacking to a new folder NOT called USMT2.UNC.

I am going to guess therefore, that the /i: switch is used to designate which .DAT file to use, not which original files to extract? Can anyone verify this as it is currently running using the command above and hasn't errored out.

The reason I've started down this road is that I need to get my .pst file back out of the FAST store. Do I have to use fastconv.exe to pull ALL of the files (32G ) out of the store and then just go find the original .pst out of the restored directory?

Anyhow, everyone's help on this (admittedly old but still useful) thread is much appreciated.

yes you can but how to change the file to want it is ment to be after that I have no clue Im lost after the extracting as they come up as a bunch of other files

whiterabbit62, on Mar 20 2006, 09:54 PM, said:

Whiterabbit,

Try this link to convert files which have been backed up to removeable media:

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/fast.htm

and scroll to the bottom to find the "Rmv2opq" tool.

I had the same problem having run the File and Settings Transfer Wizard on a heavily infected PC, which I then formatted and attempted to restore the data. Following the advice found all over the internet I obtained every different version of "migwiz.exe" (5 different ones) and even downloaded and tried the "fastconv" utility. Absolutely nothing would work.

My further research led me to the Microsoft User State Migration tool, which is a command line version of the same application and is intended for network administrators involved in migrating users from older versions of Windows to XP (the latest version also supports Windows 2003). Success at last!!!

For the benefit of the many other people I found posting cries for help on forums all over the internet I have outlined the steps below; I have assumed a limited knowledge of command line utilities because I discovered that many people asked for assistance in this also ;)


1. First go to the Microsft User State Migration website and download the utility from the link on the page below (I used version 2.60 but I assume that later versions will also work as well):

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopde...rstateusmt.mspx

2. Install the program using the defaults.
3. Open a Command prompt: "Start -> Run -> cmd.exe"
4. Navigate to the loadstate directory: "cd\usmt\bin"
5. Run "loadstate" with the store path as the parent directory of your "USMT2.UNC" directory. (For example, if your data is in C:\USMT2.UNC then the store path will be C:\)

If the EXACT same user profile does not exist on the new PC then include the "/lac" switch (local account create) and "/lae" (local account enable).

As an example, if you backed up the data belonging to "Fred B" from the old machine but have not created a user with that name on the new machine, and you have copied the USMT2.UMC directory to the root of the C drive your command will be:

loadstate c:\ /lac /lae


There are plenty of other command line options, but these are aimed at network administrators, and they can be explored by reading the included help files or by running "loadstate /?" at the command line. The utility also allows you to select specific files to extract but this relies on you creating various .inf files for it to reference. (I also used the /test option because it offered to run more quickly but make sure you have another copy of the USMT2.UNC directory somewhere because a power failure during the process will render the data inaccessible!).

Now it's a case of waiting for the utility to complete. If it fails check the "loadstate.log" file and check your file path and options. (Remember to point the store path at the parent directory as the application will look in that directory for the USMT2.UNC directory.)

Once it has completed you should now have a new user created on your PC with the same name as the user on the old PC and all the files and settings that you selected when you ran the File and Settings Transfer Wizard will have been restored under that user login.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Steve, ezipc.co.uk

I've tried absolutely everything with fastconv.exe, and no matter what I always got a error with a corrupt transdb.

But I think I've bl**dy cracked it (for me at least)!

I updated to the latest version of Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (FAST) by using [color=#3366FF]!KB896344![color=#000000]This is technically to provide support for migrating 32bit to 64bit systems. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896344

!Whether it's critical or not, i did a reboot before anything else!

I then ran FAST on the new machine, to create a backup for the new machine.
I then went to the new USMT2.UNC folder, and copied my original IMG*****.DAT files into it, but not the status file! This I left as the new one which had been written during the latest backup.
I then tried the restore using the new version of the wizard, pointing at the folder holding this new USMT2.UNC, and success.

I don't provide any guarantees, but it got there for me.

Regards and All The Luck In The World.