Lost Backup??

Hello everybody
The problem I have is that windows do not recognise the backup files I made.
The story is:
I wanted to format my hard disc. Before doing that, I used the win xp driver to backup my files and settings. The backup was done in an external hard disc. Then, I formated my pc, installed windows, drivers etc and tried to retrieve my files and settings from the external hard disk. To my great dissapointment, I couldn 't do that because the windows' program couldn 't recognise the path I inserted. It was as if I gave a path which contained nothing!
Two observations:1) When I decided to backup my files and settings, I had windows xp sp2 installed. After the format, I have sp1, though I don 't think that this caused the malfunction.
2) The backup was made in files with the extension .DAT

Please somebody help me, I really have to retrieve these files.

 

That makes me wonder what program you used to create these backup files. You will have to use the same program to restore them.

The native Windows backup program (ntbackup.exe) makes files with a .bkf extension and you say your files have .dat extensions.

 

The program I used is the "files and settings transfer wizard ", which is standard with win xp. The backup is a bunch of files about 2 GB each which have the extension .dat
I talked to microsoft support and they told me that maybe I cannot retrieve the files and settings because the backup was done on service pack 2, while now I have not installed it (yet). Do you think that might be the problem?
One more thing: The external hard disk, where I made the backup, had a FAT32 file system, while windows were installed on NTFS.
Thanx in advance, Mike

 

Mike, from what I read about that procedure, it does not move programs, only user files and settings. If you have not reinstalled the programs then I can understand that you would get a "Path not found" message or the likes.

The files storage system, whether it be FAT or NTFS, is not relevant.

The SP2 issue had doubtful relevance but you can eliminate that by going ahead and installing the package.

I think installing all the software you had before is what is going to be the answer.

 

Well, it seems that SP2 was the solution to the problem. Since I installed it everything seems to be ok. Thanx for the help, anyway.