E-mail contacts etc lost forever?

[Barrymore]

My new Windows 7 PC refers. I was shocked to discover that because it uses Windows Live Mail all my mail and contacts
that were on my previous PC are gone as well as my google bookmarks, Steam saved games etc.
My son has tried, in vain, to retrieve my e-mail records.
Does anyone know if there is a way of recovering any of my data, especially my e-mail contacts?

 

[Cray]

What happened to your old desktop?

 

[bekdik]

1. What email client did you use on your old machine?
2. How did you migrate your old machine to the new one?
3. Do you have backups of the old machine?
4. Where are you located?

 

[Bryn]

My new Windows 7 PC refers. I was shocked to discover that because it uses Windows Live Mail all my mail and contacts
that were on my previous PC are gone as well as my google bookmarks, Steam saved games etc.
My son has tried, in vain, to retrieve my e-mail records.
Does anyone know if there is a way of recovering any of my data, especially my e-mail contacts?

Your post makes absolutely no sense. Why would you lose any information if your old PC hasn't been modified? The way you've described your situation implies that you now have a new PC. Just move whatever you want across. Also, it makes no difference what application you use to access your email.

If the hard drive in the old PC has been reformatted, then you only have yourself to blame. Who did you think would backup your data if not you or your son?

Not all games support Steam cloud saving, and POP and IMAP email accounts need to be backed up locally. It takes a few seconds to make a local backup of your browser bookmarks, in case there's a problem restoring from your Google account. A few quick Google searches would have told you everything you need to know before initiating the move to a new PC.

 

[werner]

Your post makes absolutely no sense. Why would you lose any information if your old PC hasn't been modified? The way you've described your situation implies that you now have a new PC. Just move whatever you want across. Also, it makes no difference what application you use to access your email.

If the hard drive in the old PC has been reformatted, then you only have yourself to blame. Who did you think would backup your data if not you or your son?

Not all games support Steam cloud saving, and POP and IMAP email accounts need to be backed up locally. It takes a few seconds to make a local backup of your browser bookmarks, in case there's a problem restoring from your Google account. A few quick Google searches would have told you everything you need to know before initiating the move to a new PC.

thank you for putting into words what I was unable to express.
But anyway, this is the new internet(tm)

OP, if you still have two machines, go here
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-easy-transfer

 

[Barrymore]

I saved all the files I thought I needed then formatted the drive then installed it in my new PC.
My e-mail client is Afrihost but as I said, my son attempted to recover my old e-mails and contacts
but was unable to. I now know what I should have backed up but it's now too late.
I am an old timer and not too clued up in these matters.

 

[Bryn]

I saved all the files I thought I needed then formatted the drive then installed it in my new PC.
My e-mail client is Afrihost but as I said, my son attempted to recover my old e-mails and contacts
but was unable to. I now know what I should have backed up but it's now too late.
I am an old timer and not too clued up in these matters.

Afrihost is not an email client. An email client is a program used to access email, like Outlook or Windows Live Mail. Afrihost provides a mail server that can be used to send and receive mail, but that it not the same as online mail and does not sync to a cloud.

 

[Barrymore]

Afrihost is not an email client. An email client is a program used to access email, like Outlook or Windows Live Mail. Afrihost provides a mail server that can be used to send and receive mail, but that it not the same as online mail and does not sync to a cloud.

Thanks for enlightening me. Will check with my son and return.

 

[Barrymore]

Right. Windows 7 came with Windows Live mail 2012. My old PC had XP with Outlook Express the e-mail client.

 

[vinodh]

If your email is with Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo mail etc, then you should have lost nothing. If your email is hosted elsewhere, then the email service provider should have backups.

 

[biometrics]

Right. Windows 7 came with Windows Live mail 2012. My old PC had XP with Outlook Express the e-mail client.

Outlook Express stores mail and contacts on your PC. So it's gone I'm afraid. Unless you have the original drive or a backup.

 

[Swa]

Your post makes absolutely no sense. Why would you lose any information if your old PC hasn't been modified? The way you've described your situation implies that you now have a new PC. Just move whatever you want across. Also, it makes no difference what application you use to access your email.

If the hard drive in the old PC has been reformatted, then you only have yourself to blame. Who did you think would backup your data if not you or your son?

Not all games support Steam cloud saving, and POP and IMAP email accounts need to be backed up locally. It takes a few seconds to make a local backup of your browser bookmarks, in case there's a problem restoring from your Google account. A few quick Google searches would have told you everything you need to know before initiating the move to a new PC.

I actually blame Microsoft for this. There should not be such a thing as OS tied installs except for drivers. Settings and data should be stored in application folders and preferably separate from the OS so that it's easily migrated. Win7 makes things even harder storing it in hard to access locations of which there can be several used at the same time with several hard links to them.

 

[Bryn]

If your email is with Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo mail etc, then you should have lost nothing. If your email is hosted elsewhere, then the email service provider should have backups.

Very few email providers store that many emails. Most will keep the last 30 days on the server, and don't keep records of any sent mail. I find it annoying actually. When I restore my email account I get duplicates for the last month.

I actually blame Microsoft for this. There should not be such a thing as OS tied installs except for drivers. Settings and data should be stored in application folders and preferably separate from the OS so that it's easily migrated. Win7 makes things even harder storing it in hard to access locations of which there can be several used at the same time with several hard links to them.

MS could definitely improve things when it comes to backups. OS X can restore a system completely on a new PC using Time Machine. Personally I enjoy starting from scratch every few years. The system is cleaner and faster, and I just restore the apps I use frequently. Even then, my documents are on OneDrive, so that will download itself automatically once you've configured your MS account. And I've used Simfy for music for nearly two years now, so nothing to backup there. Evernote stores my notes in the cloud too.

 

[gfmalan]

I actually blame Microsoft for this. There should not be such a thing as OS tied installs except for drivers. Settings and data should be stored in application folders and preferably separate from the OS so that it's easily migrated. Win7 makes things even harder storing it in hard to access locations of which there can be several used at the same time with several hard links to them.

I hear you, but also disagree, all your settings and data custom to you are saved in one location. So if you backup that 1 folder you have everything, from cached entries, to user docs.

%USERPROFILE%
Typically c:\users\profile

 

[LinuxMan]

Bit of a crap one there.

Always backup the full user profile folder c:\users\username
As described above..

 

[supersunbird]

Win XP users are stored in a different location than c:\users and Outlook Express stores it all deep away.

OP, have you loaded something on that old drive you formatted? If you have that's problematic, shouldn't have cleaned that drive so hastily.

 

[Venomous]

Right. Windows 7 came with Windows Live mail 2012. My old PC had XP with Outlook Express the e-mail client.

ok. so then the mail should be converted, and another little program must be run BEFORE anything else is loaded on the old HDD. It can recover your old email contacts, and carry on doing auto-complete, as you did before, except this time using a different email client.

 

[Venomous]

I saved all the files I thought I needed then formatted the drive then installed it in my new PC.
My e-mail client is Afrihost but as I said, my son attempted to recover my old e-mails and contacts
but was unable to. I now know what I should have backed up but it's now too late.
I am an old timer and not too clued up in these matters.

It is for that reason that I give back old HDDs to clients. Normally wrapped up in protective material of some sorts.

My instruction. If you have not needed anything off the drive in 6months to 1 year then we can add it to their PC, place it in an external enclosure or they can dispose of it.

 

[Venomous]

After formatting the data would have to be recovered, if nothong was written over by other info. It can be a costly excercise.

 

[Rickster]

This is why you must use a cloud based email account, non of this crap happens.