Using Windows 'backup and restore' to...restore some files??

[808dude]

I'd have thought this would be an intuitive process, but it doesn't seem so. I have an old HD that I used to use for backups in a different PC setup, and though I deleted those backups when I moved on to a different HD, the backups were recoverable using Pandora and I believe intact since I never used the drive in question after that time. So specifically, I now have a folder called "Backup Set 2011-02-13 190024" that contains a 84 zipped folders worth 13.1GB that comprise that backup, and I want to restore them in some automatic fashion to see what's actually worth salvaging. (I assume this doesn't have to be done one-folder-at-a-time, drilling down through five layers of branches in the folder-tree, and almost immediately forgetting where I am...) But when I look at "Backup and Restore," I can't bring up this or any target folders - the link "Select another backup to restore files from" produces a blank set of choices, and there doesn't appear to be any way to 'load' a particular folder to restore, as I would have expected. What am I missing?

 

[Alabalcho]

Install WinZip (for example), and extract all files into the same folder. This will rebuild your original drive under that folder.

 

[808dude]

Hmmm...I just gave that a couple of tries with unencouraging results.
trial 1: folder 11 (only) extracted. I figured I must have accidentally selected only that folder.
trial 2: folders 34 through 41 plus "USERS" extracted from somewhere. All the numbered folders are empty. Drilling down four or so levels into the USERS folder, I find it has only some gmail backups that are not of interest.

Anticipating the next question, yes, the zipped folders 34-41 have about 200MB each that isn't getting extracted. And regardless, I don't want to end up with 84 folders with random recovered items in them for me to try to piece together, so I still am thinking/looking for a "restore"-related way to re-create the original folder structure.

 

[808dude]

No solution yet, in case anyone wants to offer another suggestion. Extracting all of those folders hasn't worked in several tries - leaves me with irregular smattering of recovered files, all buried deep within other empty folders, so it would take me forever to make sense of the 86 backup folders I have to work with.

 

[hang-the-9]

Windows 7 can't open XP created backup files, is that what you are using?

You said you deleted these files then restored them using a file recovery program. That can easily corrupt files. The backup program may be able to read the index of the files, but not the actual files.