I can’t believe I have to resort to SRK for this one but I’m totally stuck.
So I did a FILE backup of my Vista box onto my external HD. Installed W7 Ultimate onto my box and attempted to restore my Vista files from my external. I made a special folder on W7 on my C drive called “backup” where I temporarily put my backup files. I cut and pasted everything to replace the stock W7 folders (i.e. documents, downloads, pics, videos, music, blah blah blah blah…) and for the most part, it worked. Except for the 'ol “program” folders… Program files and program files (86x) won’t show up when I cut and paste. If I cut and paste they’ll take up the space on my hard drive but they’ll show up as “empty” when I look into my start menu or if I go through C drive the actual applications will be missing. That doesn’t make any FUCKING sense and I’m beginning to lose patience. Mostly because Google isn’t turning up shit on this one. That and I can’t stand not being able to figure this crap out. Does anyone have an answer for this one because I’m at a loss.
And please don’t suggest the “Upgrade” option when installing. I deleted my main Vista box after the backup so it won’t pull up a Windows.old. It’s gotta be from Custom. And don’t suggest the Windows Easy Transfer or whatever it is because that won’t work either in my case.
So wait your trying to copy your Program files from a vista install to a Windows 7 install? That’s not gonna work and I dunno why you thought it would really. You’re gonna have to reinstall the programs, for the most part, software has to be installed for it to work, very few will work after being copied and not actually installed.
Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know why I even posted this. I thought about it after I put the thread up and I was wondering what the hell I was doing. I think the thing that’s throwing me off is even though I need to reinstall the programs, it’s still taking up all my space on my C drive. Example: Let’s say the program Photoshop was copied over via backup/restore. The program folder in the start menu will show up empty though if I check the folder on the C drive, it’ll be taking up however much space it’s supposed to be taking up. I guess that’s what I’m not understanding. Am I just copying over all the installed/saved components of the programs and just don’t have the application itself to run?
If I understand what you’re asking, basically you have copied over the program, all the information as it were but due to it not being installed properly there have been no registery keys setup which would give you your icons etc. In short. Make more sense? It’s there but windows hasn’t been told it is basically.
Were there any special permissions on your files and folders when you were on Vista?
If you had several users under Vista, it’s possible that permission to view Program Files’ folder contents was denied to everyone but you/administrators. Those permissions carry over when upgrading to Win7, but since you are no longer you on Vista, you on Win7 can’t view the folder contents.
You should be able to go to the folder’s properties and give yourself permission to view folder contents, then find the applications and manually add their shortcuts to Start Menu > All Programs.
Yeah that makes a lot more sense. So the only way to remedy is just to reinstall main programs? All the data that’s on the hard drive will be accessible once the registry keys have been re-written?
To my knowledge there were no special permissions as I was the only person on the computer. I was checking that out yesterday when I accessed the security tab on the C drive. Didn’t go folder to folder but as the administrator, I’ve full control over C. Kept the same username and pass from the Vista box and that username is in the administrators group. I’ll check it out again just to double check but I don’t think that’s the issue. I think minii’s probably going to be right on this one. But thanks for the replies from both of you.
Sad to say that I’ve committed this sin for as long as I’ve been on computers but… this is the first time I’ve done a backup. Ever. So it’s all new to me. Thought it would be a lot easier than this. Thankfully I’ve got the option just to ghost the drive with W7 so I don’t have to deal with this BS anymore.