Normally, when you install windows 7 on an existing windows partition, your data wont get deleted unless you use the advanced disk option to format or delete your hard disk. If you have formatted your disk or deleted your partition before installing windows 7, this article wont help you to recover your files. may be you have to try some recovery software to recover your files.
Now, if you accidentally installed windows 7 on and existing OS partition, your old files will be moved to a folder named "WINDOWS.OLD" on your C Drive. so, you can very well get it back by browsing that folder.
If you are looking to restore your whole Windows OS
Supposing you need to restore your previous OS after you have installed Windows 7. Provided that you didn’t format the partition during Windows 7 installation, you should be able to restore back to your previous OS!
Here’s what you can do…
- Make sure there’s sufficient space on Drive C
- Double click Drive C and make sure a folder named Windows.old exists!
- Make sure Windows.old is smaller than the free space available on Drive C… ( duh!!! )
- Then place the Windows 7 DVD and reboot.
- At the Install Windows window…click Repair Windows.
- At the System Restore Option windows, choose your Windows 7 version to repair and click Next.
- Then still at the System Restore Option windows, click Command Prompt.
- In the cmd window, type the following commands :
C:
Md Win7
Move Windows Win7\Windows
Move “Program Files” “Win7\Program Files”
Move Users Win7\Users
Attrib –h –s –r ProgramData
Move ProgramData Win7\ProgramData
Rd “Documents and Settings”
- Then move the files in Windows.old by typing the following commands
move /y c:\Windows.old\Windows c:\
move /y “c:\Windows.old\Program Files” c:\
move /y c:\Windows.old\ProgramData c:\
move /y c:\Windows.old\Users c:\
move /y “c:\Windows.old\Documents and Settings” c:\
- Finally you need to restore the boot sector of the previous OS
- If your previous OS was Server 2003, XP or 2000 type the following in the command prompt – X:\boot\bootsect /nt52 c:
- If your previous OS was Vista, type – X:\boot\bootsect /nt60 c:, where X is your DVD drive. Replace with appropriate letter!
- For XP/2000 you need to type the following command also -
Attrib –h –s –r boot.ini.saved
Copy boot.ini.saved boot.ini
- Exit command prompt and restart your PC.
