Win7 upgrade from XP - where did my files go?

[mikester]

So I just now have upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate from XP, and was lead to believe that my various documents (important) and programs (not so important, but nice) would be intact or at least accessible. This is not so.

I can't find my old My Documents folder, even in the Windows.old folders. I have limited access to some, but not all folders (such as my downloads folder).

Office 2007 is nowhere to be found. Active Desktop Calendar is gone, and all the various programs and documents I had seem to have vanished.

What's more is that despite the fact I can see my old profile in the Windows.old folder, I am unable to gain access to it for some reason.

Please help?

 

[andy_mk3]

Everything is in windows.old, none of the programs will be installed in windows 7. Have a google for changing file permissions to access them.

 

[d_brennen]

There isn't an upgrade path from XP to 7. Not a supported one anyway. Did you not back up your important stuff?

When you say you can see your old profile in Windows.old, do you mean you can't access the files or they are not there? Is there the right amount of space allocated to account for your lost stuff?

 

[Dutchman]

Well, as already stated, there is no direct upgrade path and what you should've done is followed the link below from microsoft and used the windows easy transfer:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7
As for getting your stuff back, as above, it's probably not given you permissions but doing this should get you the permissions back:
Right-click on the folder, click on the Properties menu choice, click the Security tab, click the Advanced button, click the Owner tab. Your name should appear in the bottom box. Click the Edit button then a dialog will pop up. Click Continue. Now click your name in the list, then click OK.

 

[mikester]

Well, as already stated, there is no direct upgrade path and what you should've done is followed the link below from microsoft and used the windows easy transfer:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7
As for getting your stuff back, as above, it's probably not given you permissions but doing this should get you the permissions back:
Right-click on the folder, click on the Properties menu choice, click the Security tab, click the Advanced button, click the Owner tab. Your name should appear in the bottom box. Click the Edit button then a dialog will pop up. Click Continue. Now click your name in the list, then click OK.

Worked like a charm. Thanks!

As for my programs, I suppose I will simply re-install them all.

Also, I suspect I installed Win7 twice (installed on a netbook off a flash drive) by forgetting to re-set the BIOS to boot off the HDD. Can I simply delete the file named Windows.old.000?

 

[Duke]

You can always upgrade to Vista (don't need to put a key in / activate for 30 days) and then immediately upgrade to Windows 7. Probably better to do a clean install, but that is a way of keeping the software installed if you have a lot or don't have the original discs.

 

[theheyes]

Yes you can delete the windows.old folder. In future it would be a good idea to back up your important files before you attempt this kind of thing though.