Microsoft KB Archive/314931

= Missing Data or Program Settings After You Upgrade to Windows XP =

Article ID: 314931

Article Last Modified on 9/26/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
 * Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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This article was previously published under Q314931



SYMPTOMS
When you try to upgrade your operating system to Windows XP, Setup may stop responding (hang) or encounter an error while finalizing settings. In Task Manager, Svchost.exe may appear not to respond. When Windows starts, data may be missing or you may not be able to access data that is stored in your user profile folder. This data may include Start menu shortcuts, items in the Startup group, items in your Desktop folder, e-mail messages, or documents, pictures, or music files that are stored in the My Documents folder.



CAUSE
This problem occurs if you had files that were stored in a folder structure that exceeded MAX_PATH (256 characters) before you upgraded to Windows XP.



RESOLUTION
Click Yes, download the updated Setup files (Recommended) in the Get Updated Setup Files dialog box during Setup. After Setup is complete, you may need to rename files (or folders) that you cannot access because the folder structure exceeds MAX_PATH (256 characters).

To work around this problem, press SHIFT+F10 and XCOPY User~tmp.@01 to a safe location before you restart your computer and then continue Setup.

After Setup is complete, try to search for missing data files by using the first part of the file name. Data files that were stored in a deep path may have truncated file names or no file extensions. For example, &quot;March Sales Forecast.doc&quot; may have been truncated to &quot;March Sales Fore&quot; (with no file extension).

If you cannot find your data files that have truncated file names, restore missing data from a backup.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: maximum path limitation too long

Keywords: kbqfe kbsetup kbprb kbhotfixserver KB314931

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