Opening XP Restore Settings dat files

[bmackeysr]

I just upgraded two computers to XP Pro. I did a Save current settings and files from both computers and then did a restore of the settings and files.

I'm missing the windows address book from Outlook Express. I've searched the drive for the *.wab and *.dbx as suggested by Microsoft, but have found niether.

Is there anyway of opening the *.dat files created by the XP save settings process to see if the files are in there?

 

[linney]

You could try opening the dat file in wordpad or notepad but what you find in there might be unreadable.

Did you search hidden and system files? Although you can select this in Search it might be worth a try turning on the two options in Folder Options/ View. There are also a few bugs in the Search program, have you done all your updates.

Try this link with a view to fixing your search engine (if you ever have problems).

http://www.dougknox.com/

Click on WIN XP FIXES on the left of the page and look for "Win XP Search Problems".

If your really stuck you should be able to revert to your previous operating system if you din't change from FAT32 to NTFS.

 

[bmackeysr]

Thanks, I did search for hidden and system files.

The dat files are actually 1.99gb each. Notepad or Wordpad cannot open them.

 

[linney]

You could try checking manually this location and see what is in there.

C Drive/ Documents and Settings/ YourUsername/ Application Data/ Microsoft/ Address Book

Also check the same location in all the other users folders in Documents and Settings (including Default User, Local Service and Network Service), and see if the Address Book turned up in there.

If you can't see the 3 folders mentioned in brackets above, you have not got the display hidden and system protected folders checked.