Member Avatar for Jake Kittell

Hello folks,

I have recently run this wizard from a winxp home edition machine, copying the data files to a network drive. Next the computer was wiped clean, formatted and had fresh winXP pro put on it. So I fire up the new Files And Settings Transfer wizard (F.A.S.T.) and point it at the directory created by the old computer FAST and it says no information found.

Research tells me that I should have used the FAST program from a cd so that the identical program could handle the data file. Having failed that, there is a utility out there aparently authored by microsoft, but since abondaned, called fastconv.exe. It is a command line tool with a deviously had to figure out synatax. It just tells me that it doesn't like my data file.

Has anyone beaten this beast down before?

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Dani AI

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Brief summary and what to check first: Files & Settings Transfer stores its image as a USMT-style folder (usually named USMT2.UNC) that contains an IMG00001.DAT (and a small STATUS file). The wizard also expects the same migwiz/migwiz.exe version that created the image, so mismatched FAST versions can make a perfectly good image look unreadable. (howtogeek.com)

Practical recovery steps (in order): 1) Verify the USMT2.UNC folder exists and contains IMG00001.DAT + STATUS. 2) Copy that whole USMT2.UNC folder back to the root/drive it was originally written to (many users report success when it sits under C:\ or the original drive letter). 3) Run the Files & Settings Transfer Wizard on the target machine, choose New Computer -> “I don’t need the Wizard Disk…”, and point the wizard at the parent directory that holds USMT2.UNC (for example C:\ or the network share root) rather than selecting the USMT2.UNC subfolder directly — this often fixes the “no information found” error (this is the tip from and many forum reports). (bleepingcomputer.com)

When the wizard still refuses to read the store: try FASTConv.exe to extract the image manually. Typical usage that many people used is along these lines (run Command Prompt as Administrator, create the destination and temp folders first, and run fastconv from C:\ or from the folder containing USMT2.UNC):

fastconv.exe /S:C:\USMT2.UNC /D:C:\Recovered /T:C:\Temp

Notes and quirks from community reports: some fastconv builds require running from C: and/or expect the /S switch without a drive letter (try both forms), and the tool is unsupported so results can vary. If fastconv fails, there are GUI helpers (FASTImgWiz) and modern USMT utilities (UsmtUtils.exe can verify/extract stores) that may help — compatibility with XP-era stores is hit-or-miss, so treat these as last-resort options. If the IMG file is corrupted, professional recovery or restoring files from the original disk image may be the only option. (techtalkz.com)

Comments tied to the thread: ’s KB pointer is a good baseline for use of FAST, and ’s “point at the parent directory” suggestion is the single most commonly successful quick fix reported by users.

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Member Avatar for Jake Kittell

I have learned to hate it too. Thanks for your thoughts, unfortunately, the new and old pc are the same. The old now reformatted away.

How about FASTConv? Any ideas about the usage for that?

Thanks very much,
Jake

Member Avatar for Count430

Hi be sure to point at the parent directory holding the *.UNC (folder\files)

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