Can I restore a Windows backup on Ubuntu?

Question

I have a laptop running Windows 7, but now I want to use Ubuntu, so I need to transfer my data to Ubuntu.

I have backup of all my important stuff made with the backup and restore utility provided with Windows.

Would I be able to restore that same backup on Ubuntu?

Solution 1

It depends on what exacty you configured Windows Backup to back up, and what your drive/partition setup looks like.

Windows Backup can create two types of backups:

• For user files, it compresses the files into a bunch of ZIP archives (apparently trying to keep the size of each ZIP file below 200 MB). These can be opened with any decompression tool that supports the ZIP format (which is probably all of them). Although it's a bit cumbersome to search through them for individual files, it should be possible to mass extract them all into a folder of your choice.
• For the system partition (which, if you have just one partition, might also contain your data), it creates a virtual hard disk (VHD) file. These can be mounted in Linux, and the contents browsed just like a regular hard drive.

So either way your backup should be accessible under Ubuntu. It's not quite as easy as clicking "Restore", and you might find @ChrisF's advice to use an external hard drive to be more convenient, but your data is definitely not locked away for good.

Solution 2

You won't be able to restore a Windows backup onto Ubuntu unless you create the backup in a standard format (like .zip). They're different operating systems and there won't be a backup/restore program in Ubuntu that can read the Windows file format.

Your best bet is to get hold of an external hard drive and simply copy your data onto that. Then when you've installed Ubuntu plug in the hard drive again and read the data back off it. Failing that write them to a DVD - without using any backup utilities. Ubuntu should be able to read a standard data DVD.

Comments

[Jay Vala]

I did have backup of all but it is created with windows backup utility so i just wanted to konw that if it will work in ubuntu?

[Jay Vala]

Ya i just want to restore..as what you asked

[Jay Vala]

what if I use ubuntu backup utility to backup in windows and then use that ssme in ubuntu? Is there any utility that runs on both platform?

[ChrisF]

@JayVala - you won't be able to run an Ubuntu back up utility on Windows either.

[Jay Vala]

Thank you sir!!! thank you very much...please if possible provide me with any alternative possible.

[ChrisF]

@JayVala - I did. Copy the files to an external hard drive, or write them to a DVD.