Windows 10: Deleted all in Password Mgr how to retrieve from external hard drive?

*Huh I accidentally deleted all my passwords from my Password Manager, I back up daily to my 2Gb external hard drive, but have no idea how to retrieve & restore. I am old & half blind, please be gentle with me! Thanks,*Confused Sylvia p.s. I can't remember posting on here before. I am using a WIN 10 OS on a desktop computer. It is just over a year old.

:)

 

Recovery

Hi

I saved all my data in my external hard disk and was in password protected hard disk. but i want to retrieve the data from there, but i forgot my password. can you tell me how to retrieve the data without losing anything.

 

Card reader not working Windows 10

after upgrade to W10 system does not recognise external Usb Cf card . I cannot download photo's from the card.

In device mgr I upgraded the driver and was notified that i have the right driver.

How can I activate the CF card reader? all hard drives and external backup drive work Ok.

Leo vekemans

 

Hi, sorry to hear of your problem. Which password manager program are you using? Lastpass? Keepass? Roboform?

Or do you keep your passwords in a particular browser?

Are you certain your passwords have been backed up?

 

I back up everything every time I close down the computer, it's automatic. I have a 2TB external hard drive. So, logic tells me that it should have saved the contents of my Password Manager. It took me a long while to get them all up again, after I got this computer, (July last year) The techie that helped me set it up was not very au fait with transferring important stuff over, so I have a hard copy, instead of him finding out how to transfer the whole dam thing over, as per the instructions, I could have done better myself....grrr, anyhoo, How do I access the info on said hard drive? And, should I be looking for the date before the day I actually deleted them all? If so, step by step would be nice, as I am old & half blind, sigh....thanks in advance. I've never had to restore anything before....so a good time to learn!
Oh, I just saw where you are, I grew up in Corby New town! Have been in Oz 50 years next year! Coincidence, wow...*Cool

 

Hi, to begin to try to answer the question, we still need to know what we're dealing with.

1. Which password manager are you referring to? Is that a program you have installed such as Keepass, Lastpass or Roboform?
2. Accessing the data on your hard drive depends on what format it's in. Are you using a specific backup program (which may compress data e.g.), or is data simply copied literally file by file, folder by folder?

- I'm in the Midlands, about 20 miles from Birmingham. (It's raining, but was nice yesterday...).

 

Your passwords are stored in some file on your hard-drive -- I hope. Getting that file from your backup onto your hard-drive depends upon what programs make the backup, and what program is being used to create and store your passwords. For example, if you were to tell me you're using one of these: Macrium Reflect, Image for Windows, many of us can give you a fairly good road-map for using either Macrium Reflect or Image for Windows, and many others can tell you what folder/what file needs to be restored.

 

*Confused I looked up my Password Manager, but it doesn't seem to have a name, as such, just "SAVED PASSWORD MANAGER, LEGACY" it was just an add-on I installed when I set up FF in 2005. As I said the techie (?) who helped me change computers when I got my whole new computer system (OS WIN 10) last July, did not research HOW to transfer the passwords over, just copied & pasted them, en masse , one at a time....sigh......anyhoo, I started from scratch back then, now I am starting from scratch once again, it's so time consuming. I just back up every time I close down, because he showed me a box to click on! But, how am I to know HOW the data is saved. I just assumed it would literally save it in the format it was created in. Sounds like this is not the case....I am not one to wish my life away, but I am now wishing I was born a little later, so I could understand the technology a bit better, I can't believe how the language changed between the demise of the very user friendly WIN XP & the def NOT user friendly WIN 10! That's my rant for the week, *Rolleyes sorry folks, It's just so frustrating & a big waste of time!! Thanks to all of you for your help, maybe someone can explain it a bit for me? (ever hopeful) ! thanks, Sylvia *Focus

 

Well to insure this doesn't happen to you again go ahead and buy one of the leading password programs. I can recommend RoboForm everywhere works for all my computer and devices including my Android cell phone, its easy to learn use and they have good tech support. Your password are stored on each device you use the program on and also in a cloud account. You only have one password to remember make it a secure one.

 

Well, thanks for the suggestion, Clint..., but I am very happy with the programme I already have. It was MY fault I accidentally cleared out all the dam passwords, sigh, I just want to know why I cannot seem to find out HOW to retrieve them from my Toshiba 2TB external hard drive, which gets backed up every time I log off. Why did I buy it in the 1st place? In case the computer crashed, I could then restore my data, isn't that why we have an external hard drive? It took me a few years to really understand why I needed one, now I have one, no-one seems to be able to tell me HOW to retrieve my data, now that I need it! How stupidly crazy is that? I'm beginning to wonder if i am living in that parallel Universe! My apologies to Roland, I was not aware of your answer....this seems like I might as well not bother trying to find the info, just keep on creating new passwords as the need arises. Seems a bit silly, though, I paid good money for the hard drive, now it seems like if I ever do have a crash, I will have to pay someone to figure out how to retrieve everything. I guess it's all just money driven......so much for paying money for help to set this all up a year ago. I do thank you all for trying to help me though, I will keep on plodding away....Thanks folks.... Sylvia

 

+ 10 for Roboform. That, and some other password managers have two basic options.

1. keep all your passwords encrypted on your PC
or
2. have them 'in the cloud' so all your devices can share passwords.
If the latter, the cloud service backs them up for you.

So for example, having just bought my first Android smart phone, I have the same passwords available to me on 2 PCs and my Android phone.

===================================================================================
Restoring your data from your external drive.

You need to know what to look for on it. We can't tell you that as we don't even know which backup program (if any) you are using.
And if we did, it could well be new to us. So we don't know if your backup is compressed, encrypted, how to access it, whether it uses a database format or simple straight copies. Thus it's impossible to advise on that at present.

There should be no need to pay anyone for this. I would suggest if you don't know yourself, then start from scratch and set up a backup strategy you understand and can make use of.

There are plenty of good free backup programs around.
I've searched for 'best free backup program' for you:
32 Free Backup Software Tools (Updated September 2017)
Best Free File-Based Backup Program | Gizmo's Freeware

Windows provides 'File History' - where documents you work on are continually updated for you on your backup.
The Backup and Restore section of this forum will contain references to backup programs.

Then to create compressed copies of entire disks, partitions and Windows partitions:
Disk imaging ... means e.g. if Windows is dead, you can restore an image of a previous working state -which you update periodically- (even to a new disk) from your image set.
Macrium Reflect (free/commercial)
Aomei Backupper (free/commercial)

The routine use of these tools can save you a huge amount of time and frustration, and potentially 100s of £s,$s,euros...

 

Oh, boy, that all sounds like Greek to me. My bro in law is visiting soon & I will show him all this, ask him if he can advise on that. It would have been a great help if the guy that was supposed to teach this all to me did so, or gave me some links to helpful info. I just took his word 'cos I though he was a nice guy whom I had known for a few years & had helped me before. Apparently I didn't have enough money to persuade him to stay & do that much, (he said) ........I just assumed that the info would be saved in the same format it was entered in. He really turned out to be a dud. I guess I was lucky he did the basics for me. Ah, well, we live & learn. Thanks so much Dalchina, & everyone. Rob is expected in a week or so, so I will consult with him & see if he can help, advise me how to go forward with it all. As I said, I am very happy with my password Manager, & don't want to change, it was MY fault I am in this predicament, not the programme, it has always worked well. Much Love & Blessings to you all for your time. Sylvia......

 

Well if your program worked well, your passwords would be backed up to the Cloud, and you could restore them from there.

What ever backup program your using to back up your data, its through that very same program that you would restore your data. You might want to give the guy that set it up for you a call he should know at least what program he set up. Surly if we knew what program was being used someone here would be able to assist you in restoring your data.

 

Well, that was the way I was thinking, Clint, but I no longer want to associate with him, as you can imagine. Thanks Clint, I will consult with my Bro-in-Law, he will be here next week-end. I was so overwhelmed when I realise just how difficult it was to install & use WIN 10 , after using WIN XP since 2005 that there were a few things I forgot to ask! It's hard to understand learning this on-line at my age, but, still I am proud of myself that I can do anything at all, seeing as I had a stroke at the end of January, but now I had one eye fixed (cataract surgery) at least I can see! Many thanks for now & I will visit next week-end if I can. Sylvia *really

 

to make your life easier with windows 10, have your Bro in law install Classic Shell on your computer, with this program you can have your old XP desk top back just as it always was and work pretty much as we have become accustom with. I personally started using it with windows 8.1 and like it better than the original XP or my preference is the windows 7 desktop. There are still a few things different but not nearly as much as the windows 10 GUI.

You fortunately have found the very best windows 10 forum, we have lots of very smart windows 10 experts here to help at every aspect of windows 10, you'll learn a lot just by reading the threads. And every one here is very friendly and helpful never be afraid to ask a dumb question there are none. Someone here will always be willing to help you out.

My wife is stalling on getting the cataract surgery, one of our friends had the 1 in 10,000 issues and ended up in the emergency surgery at the hospital things went really bad on her second eye, the whole thing has us all worried now.