[jh6004]

Hi Everyone,

I used my college email address to get a discounted windows 7 download this past winter. I just bought a new hard drive and would like to freshly install windows 7 on it, however I cannot remember where the file was saved. I do not think that I burnt it to a disk at the time of download (my mistake) but I assume that the files were saved somewhere. Do any of you know where/under what name the files would be so that I could load it onto my new drive?

Please let me know what you think!

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Try *.iso

If that fails sort by size and look for a file that is @3gigs in size.

[jh6004]

Kelsenellenelvian, on 09 August 2010 - 07:46 PM, said:

Try *.iso

If that fails sort by size and look for a file that is @3gigs in size.

How can I do this though since folders do not show a size?

[jh6004]

By the way, I tried searching for *.iso and got nothing but a file for my virtual machine.

This post has been edited by jh6004: 09 August 2010 - 08:29 PM

[Tripredacus]

You can change the view of Windows 7 explorer the same way you did in XP. If you switch it to details veiw you will be able to see the file sizes.

As far as where it could be, it could end up being anywhere. Where people save their files is personal preference so there would be no real way for anyone to say "look here" and you would find it. It would be an extreme coincidence likely!

But first, make sure the drive is indexed, because Windows search might not find things that are in un-indexed locations. Then go into a command prompt, and do a cd\ so you are at c:\> then run this:

dir *.iso /s

or possibly if the file got hidden for some reason:

dir *.iso /s /a:h

[cluberti]

Agreed - it would likely be an .ISO or a .IMG file, and approximately 3.5GB in size.

[jh6004]

Tripredacus, on 10 August 2010 - 09:13 AM, said:

You can change the view of Windows 7 explorer the same way you did in XP. If you switch it to details veiw you will be able to see the file sizes.

As far as where it could be, it could end up being anywhere. Where people save their files is personal preference so there would be no real way for anyone to say "look here" and you would find it. It would be an extreme coincidence likely!

But first, make sure the drive is indexed, because Windows search might not find things that are in un-indexed locations. Then go into a command prompt, and do a cd\ so you are at c:\> then run this:

dir *.iso /s

or possibly if the file got hidden for some reason:

dir *.iso /s /a:h

I did this and it did find 2 new files: $IMQLTWG.iso and $RMQLTWG.iso the second one is much larger (about 3.37GB) and was created Jan. 22 2010 so I think this is likely to be it. How can I now access this file?

This post has been edited by jh6004: 10 August 2010 - 11:07 AM

[cluberti]

You would need to burn the ISO to a DVD using a disc burning program, or use the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD tool to put the contents on a 4GB USB key.

[jh6004]

cluberti, on 10 August 2010 - 11:32 AM, said:

You would need to burn the ISO to a DVD using a disc burning program, or use the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD tool to put the contents on a 4GB USB key.

Yes, I plan on doing that. First though, I need to find where those files are actually located. Since the command prompt only found the files but did not display a path, and a regular explorer search wont find them, how do I know where to get them so that I can burn them? Also, it seems to me that there should be more than just that one file... is that really all i would need to completely install windows??

[Kelsenellenelvian]

See that little open space in your start menu? It says "Search for programs and files" put this is it:

$RMQLTWG.iso

And it should find it for you!

Once found follow cluberti's advice in the previous post.

An iso is an image of the disk's contents. Kinda like a box that holds everything.

IF it is hidden (Probably is) do this and then search again please:

1. Click Start.
2. Type "search" in start search box.
3. click "Change search options for files and folders".
4. Now, Click on View tab .
5. Under View, 
       a)Select the radio button labeled Show hidden files, folders, and drives 
       b)Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.
       c)Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
6. Click on Apply and Ok.

This post has been edited by Kelsenellenelvian: 10 August 2010 - 09:15 PM

[jh6004]

Kelsenellenelvian, on 10 August 2010 - 08:28 PM, said:

See that little open space in your start menu? It says "Search for programs and files" put this is it:

$RMQLTWG.iso

And it should find it for you!

Once found follow cluberti's advice in the previous post.

An iso is an image of the disk's contents. Kinda like a box that holds everything.

IF it is hidden (Probably is) do this and then search again please:

1. Click Start.
2. Type "search" in start search box.
3. click "Change search options for files and folders".
4. Now, Click on View tab .
5. Under View, 
       a)Select the radio button labeled Show hidden files, folders, and drives 
       b)Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.
       c)Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
6. Click on Apply and Ok.

Thanks, I tried this but it still does not return anything, yet cmd still claims they are out there somewhere.

[cluberti]

jh6004, on 11 August 2010 - 07:23 AM, said:

Thanks, I tried this but it still does not return anything, yet cmd still claims they are out there somewhere.

Try dir *.iso /s /d - this will give you folder pathing information above the files it finds.

[jh6004]

cluberti, on 11 August 2010 - 07:55 AM, said:

jh6004, on 11 August 2010 - 07:23 AM, said:

Thanks, I tried this but it still does not return anything, yet cmd still claims they are out there somewhere.

Try dir *.iso /s /d - this will give you folder pathing information above the files it finds.

Alright, so I did this and it did find the files. However, it says that they are in $recycle.bin and I could not find this through explorer. So, I went to that level in the command prompt and did a dir /a:h and found the folder that the .iso search returned. It is called S-1-5-21-3391303531-2177660944-2853904521-1000 and the date provided to the left of it is 8/9/10. Should this be a list of things currently in my recycle bin? When I did a dir on the folder S-1-5... it came back with a bunch of .exe (as well as a few random .docx and .tar etc.) but there are no actual names just $ followed by a bunch of numbers. I was able to locate the .iso file I found before but when I looked in the recycle bin it was not there. If this is actually the windows 7 file, how can I recover it?

[cluberti]

Try this vbscript:

'// Get an account SID via Win32_Account

Option Explicit
Dim strComputer, strUser, strSID
Dim objWMIService, objShellApp, objItem
Dim colItems

'// Ensure that cscript is the engine used to run this script:
RunMeWithCScript()

'// Set error handling:
On Error Resume Next

strComputer = "."

'// Connect to WMI and get the list of Account/SID info:
Set objShellApp = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Account",,48)

'// Find the SID for the user:
For Each objItem in colItems
    If objItem.SID = "S-1-5-21-3391303531-2177660944-2853904521-1000"
        strUser = objItem.Name
        strSID = objItem.SID
    End If
Next

WScript.Echo "SID " & strSID & ":"
WScript.Echo strUser

On Error GoTo 0


Sub RunMeWithCScript()
    Dim ScriptEngine, engineFolder, Args, arg, scriptName, argString, scriptCommand
    
    ScriptEngine = UCase(Mid(WScript.FullName, InstrRev(WScript.FullName, "\") + 1))
    engineFolder = Left(WScript.FullName, InstrRev(WScript.FullName, "\"))
    argString = ""
    
    If ScriptEngine = "WSCRIPT.EXE" Then
        Dim Shell
        Set Shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
        Set Args = WScript.Arguments
        
        For Each arg in Args
            If InStr(arg, " ") > 0 Then arg = """" & arg & """"
            argString = argString & " " & Arg
        Next
        
        scriptCommand = "cmd.exe /k " & engineFolder & "cscript.exe """ & WScript.ScriptFullName & """" & argString
        
        Shell.Run scriptCommand, , False
        WScript.Quit
    Else
        Exit Sub
    End If
End Sub

[jh6004]

Thanks, but that didn't seem to work. I still was not able to recover the file. Is there any other way?

[cluberti]

jh6004, on 12 August 2010 - 08:41 AM, said:

It is called S-1-5-21-3391303531-2177660944-2853904521-1000 and the date provided to the left of it is 8/9/10. Should this be a list of things currently in my recycle bin? When I did a dir on the folder S-1-5... it came back with a bunch of .exe (as well as a few random .docx and .tar etc.) but there are no actual names just $ followed by a bunch of numbers.

jh6004, on 13 August 2010 - 01:50 PM, said:

Thanks, but that didn't seem to work. I still was not able to recover the file. Is there any other way?

I was helping you find the user that matched that SID, not finding the file. If you've got the file on disk in the $recycler folder under a SID, it's in that user's recycle bin (or was, and hasn't been deleted yet from disk). If logging on as that user doesn't show the file in the recycle bin to be restored, then the next safest way to get at it is to boot from a bootable environment on a DVD or USB key (like WinPE or a rescue CD) and copy the file off to a remote location, like an external hard disk drive. I generally work on the teach a man to fish model, for what it's worth .

Also, I must ask that you please do not quote a large block of text in a reply if you're not going to specifically comment on it's contents - a simple reply would have sufficed. I've edited your previous post to remove the code you quoted to minimize the wasted space in the thread, as well as to be kind to those folks who visit here who are on slow internet connections.