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I've asked around a number of forums to learn about the least-troublesome, most-straightforward means of backing up the "AppData" folder from an external laptop disk drive onto an external storage device.

To offer full context of the issue, the hard drive from my laptop was affected by an operating system error that triggers an endless loop of "Automatic Repair" reboots. It was recommended that I should back up my "Users" directory from the drive as a failsafe to protect my drive's information before applying a fix to correct the problem. I was able to perform simple copy-and-paste backups on most of the Users folder's contents individually, but many previous attempts to do so had been stymied by the "AppData" folder, which didn't respond to a copy-and-paste backup, and had even prevented the duplication of other files within the same Users directory if grouped together in the process due to "administrator permission" error messages.

While doing some online searches about what to do, I found a pair of links to this forum ([1]; [2]) that seemed relevant to my issue, and thought I'd ask my question here. If anyone believes they would need to refer to my other forum posts elsewhere, I'd be happy to include a list of my other assorted forum questions upon request; specific details about the pertinent hardware, available support devices, and a myriad of other user recommendations given to address the issue would be found therein.

The affected computer is an HP Pavilion laptop which runs Windows 10; if any further specifics are needed, I would be willing to provide such details upon request as well.

10/16/2023 EDIT: I've included an additional series of links to help provide some further context on the issue; some are comments of my own, while others are recommended from replies by other forum users. Hopefully, they will be of some use to anyone willing to offer advice.

HP link 1

HP link 2

HP link 3

HP link 4

HP link 5

Microsoft link 1 (ATTN: RobinsonSilvestre reply)

Microsoft link 2 (ATTN: Derrick19 reply)

A few others can be found among the comments below; sorry, but I'm too new of a user to add any more here. Thanks!

10/17/2023 EDIT: Oddly, I can't see the aforementioned comments I had beneath this post; it contained a few other links that I thought may have been pertinent to my question, so I hope those comments are possibly visible for other users, because I don't see them here on my end. I doubt I will be able to directly add more here (I'm limited in the number of links I can post as a new user), but I will try to include them again later if possible -- not to say what is still visible wouldn't be of value. If this is some kind of error that an Admin might be able to correct, I hope that could be managed somehow.

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3 Answers 3

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  • If the HDD has issues, stop using it. Each attempt to repair the drive or operating system in situ can cause loss of data.

  • Make an image of the whole HDD, and verify it, by booting from a rescue USB or CD. There are many tools to do so, and some are free for personal use. See Macrium Reflect Rescue Environment, DriveImage XML, and many alternatives. You will also need a place to store the image, such as an external SSD or HDD as large as the PC's HDD, or larger.

    A full drive image backs up everything, including AppData, the entire Windows operating system and all installed applications, all documents, photos, music, etc. Even if the HDD has serious issue, you can use a disk image to restore data, applications and settings.

  • Once you have a full image, it is safe to try fixing Windows, e.g., by downloading the Windows 10 ISO and creating a bootable USB device with, "Create Windows 10 installation media."

    • Try first to install Windows, keeping all files.
    • If that fails, then you can try reinstalling completely, knowing everything will be lost on the HDD -- but you have a good image to restore some files from (if you were to restore the whole image, you'd be back to the original issue of continually rebooting).
    • If even full installation fails, likely the HDD needs to be replaced.
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Both answers don't seem to really address the issue, so here's my take on this.

Windows running into a bootloop can have a few causes. One is damaged system files and another is a harddisk with drive errors.

The advise to make a backup before doing anything else is definitely a good one, but given that the cause can be a failing drive, a full 1-on-1 backup is not recommended as it may trigger a read that fails the drive completely, doing more harm than good.

So copying appdata is a good thing indeed.

What you will run into is files being in use if you attempt to copy the files from your own user, or a permission error if you copy the data from a different installation or user.

This presents a problem, the data is not copyable by conventional means. If you have the means to verify if your disk is failing (being able to run a SMART check on it) that should be your first goal. This will tell you how much you can "try" with the drive. CrystalDiskInfo should be able to provide you with this information after you transfer the disk to a working system.

Based on wheter or not the disk is fine, here are my recommendations, and why I recommend it.

The disk is fine, has no smart errors

If the disk is fine, a full disk image is the best option as it leaves the data in tact and allows you to fix the problem and attempt things. Keep in mind that this is definitely not a good idea if the disk is not fine. A disk can be failing while the SMART status is still displayed as healthy. Do not just look at the status, but also check the stats and ensure that you understand the numbers (higher numbers are usually good)

If you give up on fixing the root cause and just want to reinstall windows but have a backup of your files, copying your data is the next best thing. In order to copy your users folder, you will need to give administrator access rights to your folder. This should happen automatically if you doubleclick the folder in order to access it. It will then access all files and modify the rights to get you into the folder.

If you get an access error while setting the rights, it is likely that your disk is failing and you should abort. Copy any data that does not require you to change access permissions first, then you can attempt it again, skip all errors and consider the integrity of these files failed. See also the next section.

If your drive is failing

If your drive is failing, every second you attempt to read/write from/to it, you may damage the drive further, reducing the chance of getting information off of it.

What you want to do is prioritize the data and copy the most important things first if you haven't already done so. Anything that requires special permissions, such as the user profile should be copied last, because setting access permissions requires a recursive mutation to the disk that will access all files, and can't be controlled what is and is not accessed.

You can try to double-click the users folder to gain access, it will prompt that you need to set rights, press ok, and after 5 seconds cancel the operation. This should at least have set rights at the root folder allowing you to enter the folder, but may prompt the same error when accessing subfolders. Using this method, you can try to copy your documents first.

AppData is a nice folder to have, but you should narrow it down to your most important folders only. This includes your email client, but you should reconsider your browser and only do that as a last copy. Keep in mind that Google Chrome stores the passwords in the profile encrypted and they cannot be transferred by just copying the userprofile. You need access to Google Chrome, then export the passwords, and import them again later which is only possible if windows works. The only thing you can save here are the tabs you had open and your bookmarks. Keep that in mind and consider if a loss of that information is acceptable.

As for your email client, keep in mind that if you use IMAP or Exchange (not pop3) you will likely have the email stored on the server and just configuring your email client again will download everything.

If you use Outlook and you have a PST file archive, then try to backup the PST file.

What if I don't copy AppData?

Appdata can contain your settings and also sometimes contains the programs. More often than not, what is inside appdata is not considered crucial. It depends on the program, but more often than not, there's not much else than program data and you don't actually need to copy things. Some programs store their settings in the registry, and other programs store the settings in user files you open/save anyway. Program speciffic settings are often not changed, and if you change them, changing them again in the future is relatively easy.

It is not going to be a huge loss if you cannot save AppData, more an inconvenience. One exception here is Google Chrome if you store your passwords inside it. Even though this is also stored in your AppData folder, they are stored encrypted, so even a backup does not give you access to these passwords.

Final note

If the harddisk is indeed failing, you should give up on fixing the problem, and instead replace the drive and install windows fresh. Don't even consider using an image backup or clone the damaged disk to the new one. You will clone the bad sectors also and even though the drive is technically fine, SMART tools will immediately start identifying the drive as failing.
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First and foremost, I wanted to take the time to thank everyone who spared the time to help me out with this issue on this forum and others over the past thirteen-and-a-half months. Granted, I would have liked to have seen more mobility here and elsewhere so that I wouldn't have needed to join so many forums and create so many topics to resolve the problem, but whoever did engage to help out, thank you. The effort was truly appreciated. Each of you tried to help me navigate my way through every frustrating twist and turn of the repair effort, whether it was backing up the hard drive, opening the laptop, or creating external rescue media most recently; the whole ride was driving me bonkers, so I also thank you all for your patience and empathy wherever given. A thousand times over, thanks for everything.

Which brings me to why I've returned: in the past few weeks, I finally broke down and managed to pull together the funds to sign up for the HP SmartFriend Service, albeit begrudgingly. Working with one of the HP SmartFriend technicians via teleconference (as well as a Staples technician prior to that -- thank you for your help, Steven), it was determined that the hard drive was clear in another battery of scans, and through HP SmartFriend, I ended up purchasing the installation media through them. Several days later (about a week ago now), another SmartFriend teleconference led me through the reinstallation attempt, only to receive a series of error messages; from the results, the technician determined that the errors pointed to a more fundamental problem that never rested in the software. Apparently, the root cause of the "Automatic Repair" reboot loop was a malfunction in the laptop's motherboard all along; as such, it was never feasible to correct the matter at home on my own, with or without professional guidance. Based on that, the only options to truly fix the matter are to either surrender it to a professional for repairs, or simply invest in a new laptop altogether -- whichever may come first.

So, yes, I got that bad news fairly recently. Facts are stubborn and depressing things sometimes; while I can accept the answer as to why the problem occurred, it sucks that it took more than a year to get that answer in the first place. Since I don't currently have the estimated $300-$400 available to pay HP to fix the defective motherboard, I'll just close the topic with this reply as my "answer" to the question.

Sorry I couldn't solve the problem in a way that helped other users; at best, anyone else with this "Automatic Repair" reboot loop might want to consider that it's a hardware issue rather than a software problem.

Best of luck.

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    Please edit your answer and remove all the rant. Be precise and specific. Otherwise it is of no use to future visitors. Commented Feb 1 at 6:47

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