Windows 10: System restore changed from Windows 10 to Windows 7 documents missing

My computer (Compaq DC7900 Small Form Factor) came with Windows 7 installed on it. Last year, we took advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10. About a week ago, my most essential program (Visual CADD v5) stopped loading. After many attempts to resolve (including VCADD tech support), I decided to do a system restore. Before doing this, I ran backup to save my data. When the system restored, it restored to Windows 7. I did a Restore from the Backup I did before starting the system restore. None of my documents backed up to Windows 7. Windows 10 used a 'Documents' folder and Windows 7 uses a 'My Documents' folder. I don't know whether or not that has anything to do with it. My questions are these. First, can anyone tell me if this information is recoverable on Windows 7? If not, can anyone tell me if it will be recoverable if I buy and install a copy of Windows 10 and Restore again from Windows 10?
Thanks,
Ken

:)

 

Windows 10 upgrade then restore to windows 7 -- lost files

Hello,

I tried upgrading today from windows 7 to windows 10. I found that in windows 10 it was very sluggish and slow, so I restored windows 7. Now I seem to be missing many files -- all of my documents are gone from one of my users. The other user seems to
still have all its files. Where can I find these missing files? I tried a system search and could not find them. Please help!!

-J

 

Library File Missing

Recently changed from Windows 7 to 10. Just noticed the Document file is missing from Library when I'm burning a CD. Why is it gone? I was always able to burn documents to CD's before. Thank you.

 

Welcome to TenForums @kwillisjr

What you seem to have done is a Factory Reset from the original Compaq recovery partition containing Windows 7.

No, you do not have to buy anything. You had a digital licence for you machine recorded on Microsoft's activation servers when you took the free upgrade. This allows you to reinstall Windows 10, skipping entering a product key if asked, and it will activate automatically from the digital licence.

You could either do a clean install of Windows 10, or upgrade your Win7 to Win10 again. Either way, you can make the install media for free (on USB or as an ISO file) using the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft.

*Arrow Download Windows 10 ISO File

I would suggest you do the upgrade, as that will let you keep any Compaq utilities you may need. When you have Windows 10 running again you should then be able to restore your user files.

 

Hi Bree,
First, thank you for the answer. It was helpful and appreciated.

Still not out of the woods though. I downloaded and ran the Media Creation Tool and I keep getting this message:

"There was a problem running this tool. We're not sure what happened, but we're unable to run this tool on your PC. If you continue to experience problems, reference the error code when contacting customer support. Error code: 0x80072F76-0x20017".

According to the system requirements, my machine has everything required to support the upgrade. Any ideas?

 

I have also downloaded and installed all updates......to the extent that clicking 'check for updates' results in the message 'Windows is up to date'.

 

Tried running as administrator as well. No luck. What I mean is, I have administrator privileges as it is, but I logged into the default administrator account and tried running it from there. Still no luck.

I also tried running it from the Microsoft site rather than downloading and then running. I'm still getting the same message.

 

You can use this tool to get an official ISO file directly from the Microsoft download website. It creates the same link you would get if you went to the Microsoft download website from an unsupported platform such as Linux or MAC OS:
Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool

When you run the tool, make sure to click NO on the first window asking about using computer resources.

 

Or you can simulate being an unsupported platform by opening the page you downloaded the Media Creation Tool in Internet Explorer, then using F12 to open the Developers Tools and on the Emulation tab set the 'user agent string' to 'Apple Safari (iPad)'. The page will change to one offering a direct download of the ISO.

Either way, you'll be downloading an ISO. Windows 7 cannot natively mount an ISO so you'll need to either burn the ISO to a DVD with something like Nero, use third-party tools to mount the ISO, or use 7-Zip which can open an ISO file and extract all the files/folders it contains to another folder.

However you gain access to the ISO, the way to do an upgrade is to use File Explorer to navigate to the files the ISO contains and run the Setup.exe you'll find there.

 

I was out of town yesterday and today. That's why I'm just now reporting in.

It took three tries but I finally was able to download the ISO file. I burned that to a DVD disc. When I insert the disc, I am asked if I want to run Setup.exe off of that disc. I assume I do but want to double check here first.

 

That would be Autorun in your existing Windows 7 that's asking that, I presume? Yes, you run Setup.exe from within your existing Windows to upgrade it. Expect it to take up to an hour to complete.

You only boot from the DVD if you want to do a clean install.

 

OK. Finally got Windows 10 reinstalled and fully updated. Ran the backup and recovered all of my files. Reinstalled the problematic program and it now runs fine.

Thanks so much for your help.

Wow, what a ride!