Trying To Restore My Backup To Reformatted Hd

Not knowing how much you need, will give you the whole story: about 2 years ago I got hit with a bad virus. Lots of time and work later I had gotten rid of the virus but not before it did me some permanent damage. The computer worked and being on the low end of knowing how to fix the rest I decided to live with what I had. It did pretty much everything it was supposed to EXCEPT could not get updates as MS decided (due to that virus) I was not using original program. I finally gave up until Win10 came along and I decided to get my act together and reformat the HD, get back to the long road of updates and install the new operating system, etc. The very same day I got started my machine told me I was about to have a HD failure. So I did the reformat and took it to a pro to replace the HD. When I got it back I did all the updates to get it back to current status, added some important programs and was at last ready to restore my backup. I have a Seagate 3TB Backup Plus which uses its own Seagate Dashboard program to manage it. Long story short, I cannot get the program to restore. I know the backup is there: the drive lights show half full and after much fooling around I was able to see the backup plan and all its folders. The backup plan was originally done 9/9/2013 and from that point continuously updated. I tried to restore all the files to the "Original Location" option. After hours of waiting it showed it was finished but when I checked my computer there were no restored files. It says you can drag and drop but I can't see how. When I look at the plan folders I can see folders out the wazoo starting with the original 9/9/13 date running along the top - but the last 3 months of folder updates are ghosts - grayed out - like unavailable or something. After a whole lot of searching I found a blurb that said you can't restore if the backup is active and to deactivate you have to hit the " or X (pause or stop) buttons. But there are no such buttons anywhere in the Dashboard program that I can find. I have searched Seagate website front to back and their tech people have just ignored my pleas for help. I sure hope someone here can give me a hand. If I can't get the Dashboard to work is there any other way to get that plan restored? PS: I am running Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS. I don't want to run the risk of installing Win10 and finding the Seagate incompatible. It could/would happen to me... Thank you in advance for any help you can toss my way! =^..^=

 

The X you refer to is simply the close button top right of every window. I suspect that your backup cannot be restored to original location because you have reformatted since the backup was created and original location now has no meaning. I can't tell you how to use drag and drop in this context as I haven't used the Seagate software you are using but it should certainly be possible and is your best and possibly only hope.

 

Thanks but I don't think so. The X and " buttons were in regards to inactivating an open backup plan on a certain page in the Dashboard program not in closing a window/program. If you did that you certainly couldn't continue to use the program to do your restore. Hoping someone is familiar with Seagate and Seagate Dashboard who can shed some light on my problems. Thank you.

 

From this page: http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/006148en?language=en_US#restore
According to it, the PC has to have the same name and you have to have the same username or it will not restore to the same location. (Read the Note: after 6)

Restore Process

1. Make sure that the drive is detected by your computer.
2. Launch the Seagate Dashboard software by double-clicking the Seagate Dashboard icon.
3. From the Home screen select Restore
4. Select Search for backups
   Note: This may take a while depending on the size of the backup but you will want to let it run until complete so all the backup dates will be available.
5. Next you will be asked to Select File - Select the date you wish to restore from and then select the data you are wanting to restore.
6. Next you will be asked to select where you want to restore the data.
   Note: The original location is only suggested if the computer has the same system and user name as the original backup. If either of those are different, you would want to restore the data to the desktop or alternate location, then copy the data to the new/correct location.

 

Thanks so much for your input - These are the instructions I originally followed and wound up with no restored backup. I'm wondering if my problem stems from the original location like Earthling tried to tell me. Still not sure about this. In your note you say it (original location) will only work if the computer has the same system and user name as the original backup. Even though the hard drive is new it was formatted with my previous hard drive's information. The operating system is exactly the same as is my user name. It is as it was when I bought the computer - returned to original store bought condition with my same personal data on it. In a more normal situation where someone is restoring data to their computer does restoring to original folders work because the folders are already there or would the restore process recreate those folders that are part of the backup plan? Sorry, in all my years of computing have never run into a situation where I actually needed to do a restore so I am very lacking in knowledge about the restore process. Thanks for your help!

 

You haven't said what the make and model of the PC is; but, Toshiba's and Dell's, for example, create a random computer name during the recovery process. If the recovery DVD's were not used, I can guarantee that the computer name is different. If you have that documented, you can change the name to match the old one. If you don't, you'll need to reinstall all of your software.

 

How far down the list in #4 can you get? No 6 says you can choose where to restore the data, so if original location isn't available or simply doesn't work can you use that?

 

Okay guys~ I decided to give it one more try - alas, before I got Davismccarn's latest words of wisdom. Earthling: I have always managed to get all the way down the list, it's the results that are/were depressing. Davismccarn: you are so correct (it's a Hewlett Packard Pavilion Elite by the way). Last night I did another restore attempt - not expecting anything more than the first time around. For some strange reason, this time I got a restore! Obviously must have been operator error the first time around but for the life of me I cannot see where I did anything differently. The backup looked different: the search showed that the 3 current folders (the ones previously greyed out) were now completely MIA. Even three current months lost was better than losing the whole thing so I went after it. After 4 hours it again said it was finished and I looked for results. On the surface it looked like it did just a little bit better - a handful of folders but nowhere near 4 hours worth. But properties on the C drive showed I had 588GB of data. So I started searching for hidden files. Sure enough, after an awful lot of poking around I found a grand total of 3 different names in the users folder - two of which I did not put on there. The first name appears to have been created when I did the reformat a month ago and only has basic folders with 30.8 MB of data. The second one looks to have been created when I tried the first restore, has the same basic folders but now with 5.7 GB of data. The third one, the one that is my true user name was created last night and shows different folders and contains 241 GB. Relieved beyond measure that I got my files back but now I have a real mess of disorganization on my hands. There are programs that work (so surprising since I thought I had to reinstall them) but they are not listed in the All Programs list. There are others that are missing but do have data files hanging around as expected.
Knowing this could never happen to you, I am now wondering what you would do if faced with this mess. Don't believe I want to attempt to straighten this out on my own and make another disastrous choice.
Thank you guys!!!