Perhaps a reader here who has the requisite version would volunteer to try
to retrieve your data if you send them CDs (that's if you want to entrust
your data to a complete stranger).

One other point, though I don't expect this to be terrific news for you. As
I understand the "anytime upgrade" you're not going to have to pay the full
cost of an ADDITIONAL version of Vista. You will just have to pay an upgrade
cost. I don't know what those costs are, but it's not like you'll have to
buy an additional licensed version. You'd just be upgrading your current
version.




"Lowered Expectations" <LoweredExpectations@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message news:FC6AB26E-9DAB-4CB1-977C-019B4DDD22D6@microsoft.com...[color=blue]
> Pardon, please this rant. First: thanks to the gents here who have
> already
> answered my earlier questions.
>
> The results of the answers are not encouraging me to calm down.
> Oh well.
>
> --The Problem: I (and how many others?) was on the Vista beta and RC1/2
> program.
>
> Near the end of the trial period I looked into purchase options.
> Microsoft told me/us here:
> [url]http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/preview.mspx[/url]
> and elsewhere, that all that we need do was MAKE the backup while RC1 was
> still viable (I did that), and then buy and install one's own preferred
> Vista.
>
> ALL I was told to do was make a total back up, choose and buy a Vista
> version.
> I opted for Home Basic.
>
> I cannot put my old settings, files or folders into the new OS. Period.
>
> This is wrong of Microsoft. You have locked me out from my data.
> Microsoft told us to make backup before installing the clean, paid-for
> Vista.
> They NEVER told me that my backup would be completely useless.
> And furthermore, even though I'd now just like to get back to XP (which is
> not so evil as this Vista-Thing), I cannot put my RC1 backup of data into
> an
> XP install.
>
> So I'm screwed. I paid for Vista. I can't have my data back unless I get
> (am told elswhere here) Ultimate or something near that.
>
> Phooey. If anyone has a solution short of suicide of the user, please
> tell.
> WHAT were they thinking????
>
> A user, typical, not savvy, reads and believes the public information of
> the
> link above.
> The link DOES not tell the user that they can't save their old data to the
> new OS via disk. It only speaks of "Easy Transfer" between two
> computers.
>
> I don't have two computers, anyway. I don't even have the one computer
> that I had before the RC1 timeout. I have nothing. I've lost all my
> data---until, it seems, I knuckle under and pay for Ultimate (or will Home
> Premium do the "trick").
>
> A rant ends. I'm spent. Please help me? There must be thousands of
> others
> like me today, tearing their hair in regret at ever, ever leaving XP.
>
> I have been a Windows user since 1995. You'd think I'd have learned
> something about it by now. Finally I have learned. Very sorry here.
>
>
>
> That's a boondoggle lie of gargantuan proportions.
> Microsoft has ruined me by locking me out of my own computer.
>
> This deserves a new thread. It is such an literally incredible bit of
> nonsense;
> ANYONE going from any of the trialware Vista to paid-version Vista would
> naturally expect to be able to move their data over to the new OS via
> disks.
>
> I can't believe this.
>
> ----------------
> This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
> suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
> Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
> this
> link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
> click "I Agree" in the message pane.
>
> [url]http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.mspx?mid=fc6ab26e-9dab-4cb1-977c-019b4ddd22d6&dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.general[/url][/color]