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Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.
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On my hp dm1 with windows 7 In full detail, this is what I did. I clicked to do a system recovery, it asked if I wanted to backup the files, I said yes. It said it backed up my files on the external hard drive. I continued the system recovery. It set my computer back to factory settings. I tried to recover my backup, it acted like it was restoring the files and showed them going into the c: area in a folder. I open the folder and it says the folder is empty. I hit properties and the folder contains 10mb+ of data. I go back into my LaCie drive, there are files labeled like backup.swm, backup1.swm, backup2.swm. I can't open these files or do anything with them. In a text document it lists all the files it apparently copied. It is only a list of text, nothing else. Have a 12 page research paper in these back ups that is due in a few hours so any help will be greatly appriciated.

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In the recovery manager backup file option, it stores the files to where ever you point it to save to. Once complete, there is an icon in the folder where you backed everything up (in your case, the external HHD). Click the folder, and then it will restore the files to your pc.

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Can I restore the files to another computer so that I may verify that I have all the necessary user files? The reason I ask is because I would hate to execute system recovery on my HP Pavilion g7 and lose valuable data if my external drive didn't back up everything.
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@SCTaylor wrote:

In the recovery manager backup file option, it stores the files to where ever you point it to save to. Once complete, there is an icon in the folder where you backed everything up (in your case, the external HHD). Click the folder, and then it will restore the files to your pc.


I saved my files to a portable usb drive.  When I go to the drive there is not an icon in the main folder.  I goto the subfolder that indicates it is the backup and there is an icon but it is called "restore" - is that what I click?  I'm a little nervous about running it.

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@SCTaylor wrote:

In the recovery manager backup file option, it stores the files to where ever you point it to save to. Once complete, there is an icon in the folder where you backed everything up (in your case, the external HHD). Click the folder, and then it will restore the files to your pc.


I figured it out.

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I am trying to restore these .swm backup files from an external hardrive to another HP notebook running Windows 8. The recovery manager does not recognize the back up folder or files at all. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

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@bhpdumont,

 

You might be able to use a workaround.  You say that the recovery manager doesn't recognize the folder or files.  If the backup was done using HP Recovery Manager from a different system, there should be a ReocveryMgr.exe file with the backup .wim files.  Is this the executable you are running that is not recognizing the files?

 

 

If the recoverymgr.exe file in the backup is not working, then a workaround may be the only option remaining.

 

Download and install 7-zip.

 

Next, open 7-Zip and navigate to the .wim files.  Right-click a .wim file and select 7-Zip>Open Archive.  This should let you view and extract the files to a location on the PC.  I know this isn't ideal, but it should give the option of getting your files back. 

 

Let me know what happens. 

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Hi, please can you tell me how you opened these files as i am in the same situation as you but all my kids baby pics are now swm files and i cant open them :((((
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@Daniella1985,

 

If the standard procdure of locating the program launcher (a .exe file) on the first backup media (disk 1 or the external storage device) is not working, then you can manually extract the files using 7-zip.

 

7-zip can be found here.

 

Once 7-zip is installed, open it and navigate to the first .swm file of the backup.  Right-click the .swm file and select 7-zip>open archive.  Once that opens, it should reveal the contents of the .swm files.  If the file contains something you want to keep, you can either extract each invidual file or extract the entire directory.  If you want to extract each individual file, highlight the desired file and click the extract button at the top.  If you want to extract the entire directory, make sure no items are highlighted and click the extract  button at the top. 

 

This is a manual process and it can be a large task depending on how many files were backed up, but it is one method to get the backedup files when the standard procedure is not working.

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Hi, I was facing some problems with my laptop (HP Pavilion dv6) and I tried to return it back to its original state. I had many important data on my hard disk and during the process I was asked if I was to back up my data. I have chosen to backup my data in the pen drive. Once the process has completed and my laptop is to the original state, I tried to restore my data from my pen. Great was my surprise when I found many backup files with swm extension on my pen drive. In addition to that there is a restore application on my pen drive. When I tried opening it  is saying  that it is not compatible with my PC. I have Windows 7 (64 bit installed ).

Can you help please.

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