Anyway to restore files from an .inp backup from reformat?

Hi djdelirius,

The files that are saved as .inp format are not backup of your files and folders. You may use the below link to get more information on this:

http://dell.to/ZFLkEe

There are many third party software available n the market which you may want to try to check if you can use that to retrieve files.

Sorry this is so long after the question was originally asked, but I spent many hours searching for a solution before testing my own idea and having a lot of joy, so felt I should share my knowledge with everyone. THIS SOLUTION WORKS COMPLETELY FOR ME, ON WINDOWS 7.

I assume these files were backed up using the Dell Backup and Restore program, or similar? The way I managed to succeed in recovering .inp files was to actually backup just the one file or so, in order to create a 'Profile1' path on my computer. 

I then delete the files inside this folder, leaving the folder intact. Copy the .inp files you had from the system backup into this folder, as if they were backed up there just minutes ago.

Open the Dell Backup and Restore program, and click Recovery. On the left hand side, click 'Data Backup', and it will give you an option to look through your documents, music, videos etc. This unfortunately is the backup you just made, but we can get around this. 

Click the search button on the top right of this window, and a message should appear near the bottom; "To search for your own archive, click browse." Do this, and it will search for your Profile1 folder. When it has found it, make sure the most recent folder is selected, and click Next. A list of all your recovered files should appear, and you can recover them directly from there.

Hope this helps people in future.

HI HARRY

M GETTING ERROR AS SELECT FILES TO RESTORE
I have created profile 1 folder and copied the .inf files ..bacup recovery also recognized it..

but .when I click it shows error..and I didn't understand select the recent folder?..

Are the .inp files you copied the ones you made before restoring your system?

hi..

I have copied it after restoring ...I got a BACKUP folder containing  .inf images

I know this is about a year too late, but if anyone else runs into this problem (like I did) there is a simple solution. Go to this dell website:

www.dell.com/.../en

and download the MigRestore software, this will enable you to recover the INP.files within your backup folder. Dell Backup and Restore software will not recover files that contain the XML document files which is a major flaw of course.  

I spend hours looking for the solution, so hopefully this will save someone some time. 

Regards,

TK

Hi Tadask,

I've downloaded the MigRestore, but when I open I can see none of my drivers in Browse button, could you help me to solve my problem?

I've already put my Profile1 folder in C, F (USB flash drive), External HDD, but none of them appears in MigRestore.

I have a Windows 7 Home Basic, Dell Inspiron N5010 and backed up some project files manually with Dell Backup and Recovery in external HDD, it shows me 10 .inp files.

Thanks.

Ederborges13

im having the same issue here.

Harry-Ogden post on 9 Sep 2014 PM worked great for me!

Odd that Dell doesn't just give us the option to browse directly to where the Profile1 directory is on the external backup drive. Dell if you are monitoring this post here's a good feature request.

Thank you Harry this recommendation saved all of my last years photographs and several hours of work.

I can't thank you enough for providing this!!!  I was stumped and now my files are being recovered.  For some reason, the final steps in my system restore were in a loop.  I had to use Task Manager to kill the Key... process.  Then, however, my backup was merely a folder full of .inp files -- and I had no way to access them.  Thank you! (Microsoft only referred me to Dell, by the way -- apparently not having this information.)

This solution worked for me. MigRestore.zip was unzipped. I moved the backed up folder to the local drive, and then browsed to it from the tool. Worked beautifully!

Thank you!

...and this is a lot of months later, after I spent hours trying to find a solution for this problem. Today I ran across your post and it is the solution that I was seeking. I just want to say thank you for your efforts and the post. Also, thank you Dell for keeping this post and the link available.

xedder

Hi,

I did a backup using Dell Backup and Recovery software and it saved files in .inp format.

Will I be to restore my files (in original format) if my laptop crash?

Thank you

Using the migrestore utility worked for me.  It did give an error after getting to 99%.  It appears that all the files I backed up with the Dell Backup and Recovery program were restored with the Migration Restore utility.  The original backup were all .INP files.  The restored files went back into the folders that they were originally stored in.

Thanks for this thread!