So I turned my computer on 2 days ago, and it started restoring it automatically and I didn't want to turn it off just in case something bad happened, so I let it go, I left and came back and it was done, it said I had to setup all my stuff again, it also said I had windows vista now. I had windows 7 before the restore, but now have windows vista, I also lost all my files, is there any way I can get windows 7 and/or all my files back? I can't figure it out, please help.
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did you purchase windows 7?– KeltariApr 25, 2013 at 3:43
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3And how did you manage to create that mess? That's quite an accomplishment to turn windows 7 into windows vista, with a "restore". You're lucky you didn't turn it into Windows 95. if you have a license then maybe you can download it and enter hte license details you have. pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/f/download-windows-7.htm– barlopApr 25, 2013 at 4:18
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@barlop: I think it should be fairly obvious how this happened (see Jan's answer below) so I frankly don't see the need for sarcasm.– KaranApr 25, 2013 at 13:30
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1 Answer
I suspect this was a restore initiated by the laptop (manufacturer) on boot, from the restore partition (and the machine came pre-installed with Vista and you had later installed Win7). That is, Windows did not 'do' the restore.
I have no idea if any data files are salvageable from that, but consider it unlikely - I think that kind of restore is a raw byte copy from one partition or another.
In that case, only if you have an external full-partition (image) backup, you can restore the partition.
If you have only limited (data) backups, install Win7, re-install all software and recover as many data files from the backup as you can.
If you have no backups it is a painful lesson learned, sorry.
answered Apr 25, 2013 at 12:41
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Yeah, can try different data recovery programs and perhaps some files might be salvageable uncorrupted, but in any such situation it's going to be a real pain validating each recovered file/fragment.– KaranApr 25, 2013 at 13:32