Win XP files backed up for Win 7

[Amigalander]

I'd like to erase XP-32 and install 7-64 on my Mac Pro's 2nd hard drive. In my planning, I learned that Microsoft decided that:

1) XP can't be upgraded to 7 without a clean install
2) XP's backups made with XP's backup utility are useless in 7 since the backup utility is incompatible with 7 and the backups themselves are a proprietary archive. Genius thinking Microsoft...

I know the general recommendation is Winclone, (which I used to make an image), but I can't access files in that image. I load the image in Winclone and click "Mount" in the restore pane, but nothing happens. It won't mount.

Regardless, I want to be able to access individual folders and files, not an image. Is there something similar to SuperDuper for Windows? I want to copy everything to an external hard drive and maintain attributes (such as dates), and then once I've installed 7, bring some files back over (and again maintain attributes).

Thank you

 

[neilhart]

You may want to look at newer versions of Acronis. I have two licences and the older 8.x version works like a camp in XP but not on Vista. I purchased version 10.x for Vista. The current product is "Acronis® True Image Home 2010" which I have not tried yet, has support for Win7.

However, the backup files created by Acronis can be mounted (by Acronis) and your can access the archived file system, file by file if you want. And the file attributes are saved in the image.

I also noted that on the last 1TB 3.5 inch Seagate drive came with a private labeled version of Acronis (so you my already have it).

This is a good product for a windows environment.

 

[balamw]

This is a good product for a windows environment.

+1 for Acronis.

You can even convert Acronis images to VMWare VMs with VMWare Converter if you have to boot them.

I also previously used Nero Back It Up with some success of easily getting files out of the backup files.

B