I’ve been backing up from a Dell W7 1 TB desktop for years. Now it died. I tried to Restore to my Dell W7 laptop while awaiting a Dell W10 1 TB I ordered. The Restore dialogue states there is nothing to restore but I can see my file via windows explorer. Per another FAQ it stays I should have a folder named smartware.swstor but there is none in the WD. Please help as I don’t want to pay someone to move my files over after buying this. Thanks in Advance
Hello jlongeuay,
In Windows 10 you will find backup and restore(Windows 7) option which will help you to restore your windows 7 backup in a Windows 10 computer.
You can also follow the below steps
*Once the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) window comes up, click or tap Select another backup to restore files from.
*If there’s more than one backup on the drive, select the appropriate one (probably the most recent).
*In the Restore Files (Advanced) dialog box, click the Browse for folders button.
*This brings up a basic file open-style dialog box. In that box, you’ll find a folder named something like Backup of C: or Backup of D:. The drive letter displayed, of course, matches that of the drive on your PC that you backed up. Select that folder and click Add Folder.
*That click will bring you back to the Restore Files (Advanced) dialog box, where you should click Next.
*You’ll be asked if you should restore the files to the “original location.” Should you? If your new PC’s drive letters and user folders correspond exactly to the old one, yes. Otherwise, pick another location.
So I have the same problem, I have a Passport Ultra, Windows 10. Been backing up my drive for over a year, then computer crashed. I had to do a clean install. Did that and went to Restore after downloading the WD Backup program. Found the latest backup and went to Restore. Took the better part of 8-9 hours and finally finished only no backup, no pictures no documents nothing…So rebooted everything, only now I went to try again and there is no files showing to restore from. Went to my computer and the passport drive shows up, there are files in there but I have no way of getting them on my PC. Really upset as all my pics are on there and lots of documents for my home business. Need help!
So now I went to the drive in my PC under the Passport drive, found all my files, only I cannot view them! The .pdf documents now have a -LAST extension and nothing seems to be able to open them. Ready to boil WD in oil. Same for the pictures all have the LAST extension added to them.
Ok, so I’m not alone! I have the same issue as Pally, system crash, clean install - no back-up to select. I’ve search for answers and only come up with a reason, see Answer ID 12937. It seems that on reinstalling the WD software it’s important to prevent a new back-up happening before you try to back-up to a different computer. Clearly the WD drive thinks the reinstalled Windows is a ‘new’ computer. Sadly our friends at WD didn’t see fit to put that in the user manual!!$%£@" Ok so now we’re trapped in this position I guess what we need is a suitably experienced computer geek at WD to tell us how to get around the problem. Over to you WD!
I have the same problem. Did you find any solution. WD must put in the manual that “on reinstalling the WD software it’s important to prevent a new back-up happening before you try to back-up to a different computer”. I didn’t know that
I have the same problem. Been backing up my main laptop to WD Passport. Sent that laptop away for repair, now need to take a file from that WD backup onto my second computer.
Problem:
When I open WD Backup and click restore, says no files to restore.
WD Recommended Approach:
So I read this topic which says the method requires a clean install of the WD Backup software: WD Backup: Restore Backup on a Different Computer
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Following those steps, I uninstall WD backup, then start clean reinstall of the WD Backup software. BUT I get to the screen where you select the backup source, click next, and the software crashes!
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So if I uninstall, then reinstall WD Backup same happens again.
So I have a perfectly good backup, which I cannot access. Help!
Update, issue wasn’t that the software was crashing, it was that when I clicked ‘Next’ the window closed abruptly but it was actually ‘thinking’ not ‘crashing’. So after around 15minutes the window reappeared and the restore feature appeared to work fine.
So the steps I wrote above are correct, just takes quite a delay from clicking on the restore button on the wizard, to displaying the screen where you select files to be restored.
Hope this help some others (key being do fresh install of WD Backup software on the destination computer, select ‘Restore’ option as part of install wizard).
This all seems rather stupid, or is just me? Why wont their software recognize their own drives and restore files. Having to delete the program only to reinstall it seems like the big corp at WD do not want to spend the few dollars to get a program that works the way we all expect it to work. I am really disappointed with the whole thing.
Same prob. When I click the restore tab, it won’t restore, but it will accuse me of trying to modify or erase (of all things!) the passport program.
I just want to restore my files to my computer, but now Im more afraid of losing everything, especially after reading some of these entries!
Fritz8
