drumz wrote:
> I changed the configuration of my PC, eliminating a harddrive and
> re-installed XP and all my programs because I guess the wizard
> isn't smart enough to reinstall my programs too.

No - it was never intended to do that. It is called the "Files and Settings
Wizard" - not the "Applications, Files and Settings Wizard".

> The system was reconfigured with a larger harddrive for E and F;
> C and D are partitions and the same harddrive as before the
> config change.

Doesn't matter if the drive configuration is the same to the Files and
Settings Transfer wizard.

> Well I found the the transfer wizard wouldn't work at all until I
> upgraded to SP2 - that is a bug.

That is not a bug. That is more likely a lack of understanding how the FAST
wizard works and the concept of "versions". It is possible that you
exported your profile using one version of FAST and needed to use the same
version of FAST to import with.

> So after working around that bug I
> found another huge bug. Since I changed the configuration it
> appears that the wizard is looking to put something somewhere yet
> can't quite figure out where.

What leads you to this conclusion? Did you install *all* of the
applications you had before? Doesn't matter WHERE you installed them - just
that you installed them and they are the same version (or use the same
settings and put them in the same place in your profile.)

> So, instead of popping up a message
> that it can't find such and such and then allow me to maybe
> continue or even point it where such and such might be, but NO, it
> just aborts the process!!! The message "The wizard encountered an
> error OK" is a lazy peice of workmanship. So tough cookies because
> the wizard isn't going to tell you how or why the error was
> encountered.

So you are assuming you know why the error occurred but then go on to say
that you don't know why the error occurred because the application did not
tell you.. Confusing to say the least.

> I need to get the PST file out of there as I am now missing over 3
> months of emails.

You did backup your files with methods other than the files and setting
wizard regularly before this - right? Pull your PST file from you last
backup.

> Is there a way to get this worthless wizard to keep running short
> of putting the old smaller harddrive in which has since been
> formatted and being used in another system?

Hmmm.. Something about tools. You have to be able to use the tools.
Something my grandfather used to say comes to mind about tools and those
that use them.. But you've probably heard it. heh

> I quantify my statements with the fact that I was a senior product
> tester STE III at MS for over 5 years.

"was"...?

------------

The general gist of what I am reading is that you assumed this tool did
things that it did not advertise and you did little to no research before
trying to use something you do not understand - not did you do any research
after you started having trouble.

The best way to use the FAST wizard that I have found is from the CD. This
is so that you are insured you are using the same version for both the
export and import of the files and settings.

I would have suggested that you should have used some imaging product (like
Norton Ghost) to backup your configuration completely before you changed the
hard drive.. Then if you changed more than that - a simple repair
installation would have fixed that up. Not to mention that the one thing
you explicitly complain about (PST file) - you should be able to restore
from your regular backups - or should have thought about backing up
separately before such a major change.

Put more succinctly - I do not see a basis for your complaints. If you were
a "product tester" for any software - you should have known the procedures
for properly using a piece of software - of which one is to attempt to
understand the software before you jump in and the other is "backup your
system in a known fashion" - since you have no idea what might happen using
this piece of software.

I have used the FAST wizard hundreds if not thousands of times to go from
and to various configurations.. The only trouble I have had with it were
versioning problems - which can be gotten around using the CD to do the
transfers.

--
Shenan Stanley
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html