Unable to recover backups from HP Recovery Tool

[sphil4407]

Hello, we had an OS failure from Vista, and the computer would not boot to the OS. I used f11 for the recovery tool and proceedd to burn a set of Discs containing all my personal information (4 dvd total, took a while to write them). Then the recovery tool re-installs Vista. However, I can't seem to find any of my personal information from the backup dvds. My computer doesn't recognize any content on the DVDs, and I also attempted to boot from the DVD drive and it does not boot into the drive. I then tried to use the recovery manager in the computer in order to select backups, but the tool says there are no backups on my discs.

The recovery and backups, and troubleshooting were performed per these instructions:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00882383#AbT2

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00881405#AbT2

I tried to update the firmware on the DVD drive, but it would not update, possibly because it had the latest firmware already? I put in some other DVDs (a movie), and it read just fine in the drive. However, when inserting the backup DVD, the drive does not see anything in there.

I'd surely appreciate any help you guys can provide, as we had some info on here that will be impossible to replace. That goes to show that we need to back up more often.

Also, there is a partition on the hard disc - could that be some type of backup for any of our personal files?

[Chimney_83]

Greetings @sphil4407, 

Welcome to HP Forums and Thanks for the post. 

I understand that you performed recovery on the computer using the recovery kit.

During the recovery, you selected the option to backup your personal files. (Did you select the folders that you wanted to backup)

Now you are looking to restore the backup files. 

Don't worry, I will be glad to help. 

Have you tried the backup and restore program in the control panel. 

Found couple articles to regarding the backup and restore usage. Please try them. 

HP Notebook PCs - Use Windows Basic Backup and Restore Center to Back Up Files in Vista

HP Notebook PCs - Recover Windows Vista Operating System Using Microsoft Windows Backup and Restore

HP Notebook PCs - How to Restore Backup Files Created During the F11 Backup Procedure

Let me know if this helped. 

If the information I've provided was helpful,

Please give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Accepted Solution" and "Kudos" buttons,

That’ll help us and others see that we’ve got the answers!

Good Luck.

[sphil4407]

Hi Chimney, great information. I used the HP tool for the backup, and I selected all documents in that heading. I followed this link as it is the most relevant to me:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01673043

I tried to restore the backup, but it said it was unable to recognize any backups on the discs I inserted. Is there a program or boot option to view what is in the dvd backups (all 4)?

Thanks again very much for your assistance,

Brian

[Chimney_83]

Thanks for the reply. Have you tried the disc on any other computer to check if you can read the contents of the disc?

Are you able to find backup.exe file in the disc as suggested in the article? 

If the file is missing, the backup might not have been done correctly.

If the information I've provided was helpful,

Please give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Accepted Solution" and "Kudos" buttons,

That’ll help us and others see that we’ve got the answers!

Good Luck.

[sphil4407]

Placed the DVD into another conouter running windows 10 and Linux and both did not show any contents on the DVD. Would this indicate the backup was not performed properly?

Also to confirm, the hp recovery partition would not have any personal documents backed up on it?

[Chimney_83]

Thanks for the reply, looks like the backup was done successfully. Recovery partition would not have your data. 

One last thing I could suggest is to insert the first backup disc in the computer. 

Open folder options from the control panel.

Click on the View tab and select show hidden files. Find the screenshot below.

If the files still do no appear, then the backup is lost. 

If the information I've provided was helpful,

Please give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Accepted Solution" and "Kudos" buttons,

That’ll help us and others see that we’ve got the answers!

Please do post your technical queries on our Forums for assistance. 

Good Luck.