The MigRecover Utility is an extraction tool for Microsoft’s Windows Easy Transfer and is vital in a multi-language environment or where you’re downgrading from a 64 bit Windows edition to 32 bit.
In my own case I only have a 32 bit release of Windows 7 Ultimate RC and had upgraded a workstation from 64 bit Windows Vista so this has been a life saver!
Big credits go out to the original developer of this fine extraction tool and to show my support I’m hosting this file as torrent’s vanish and temp. download links regularly break. Please show your support by helping out in the comments where people run into issues, I’ll help where I can but it worked a treat in recovering a 22GB SaveData.mig containing photos and documents from the last decade on my machine.
Download MigRecover Tool (USMT4)
Update: GUNHED provided a link in the comments to the latest version, kudos!
Archives
Instructions
Update: I’ve hacked together the following steps from the MigRecover readme.
- Rename your MigRecover archive to SaveData.MIG
- Move your SaveData.MIG to C:\
- Extract the MigRecover.zip archive to C:\, this will create a folder called C:\MigRecover on your system, and contain the files necessary to run the utility
- Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, then right click Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator
- Type the bolded text, and press <Enter> MD C:\MIGRECOVER\RECOVER
- Type the bolded text, and press <Enter> CD C:\MIGRECOVER
- Type the bolded text, and press <Enter> MIGRECOVER.EXE C:\SaveData.MIG C:\MIGRECOVER\RECOVER
- The data will be extracted, if successful, to C:\MigRecover\Recover folder
Update: If the above instructions have not worked or you are receiving corrupt file errors I recommend you contact Microsoft Support. Please note, you will very likely will be charged a fee for this service by Microsoft Support.
You My dear Sir are a SAVIOUR.
Recovered files from Laptop with Windows 10 in my workstation with Windows 11.
Simply followed your instructions.
Thankyou very much to you, developers and everyone involved.
I just recovered a couple very old Easy Transfer backups from ~15 years ago. Initially when I tried it, I ended up with all zero byte files with “corrupted” added to the name. Then tried adding what I thought I might have used for an encryption password to the end of the command line. Eventually hit the right one, and all files extracted properly. Thanks for sharing this!
Had some errors with some of my file names but it got the job done.
This worked perfectly for me. Thank you so much.
Olá! Ainda Tenho problema com meu arquivo .MIG. alguém pode me ajudar?
Great tool. Thanks for creating it. Cheers
You saved my life.
Thank you
if anyone is having an issue relating to MIGRECOVER.exe not recognised try adding “./” to the front of the last command
“./MIGRECOVER.EXE C:\SaveData.MIG C:\MIGRECOVER\RECOVER (your password) ”
windows 10 pro 1709.
http://www.migee.com/2011/01/17/mig-recover-and-viewer-utility-alpha/
http://www.migee.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/MigRecover_alpha.4.gif
GOOD LUCK
please help, i tried it, but the files i found in the RECOVER folder are like patch and having corrupt in there various file title. and i do not remember the password thats why am using this.
what i can i do now??????
Thrilled to find this gem. Everything seemed to work ok…except, when it attempted to extract the files it got as far as 99% complete and then
“error while creating the destination file”
Any ideas on what I might have missed or could try to fix?
Thanks
I got this error (0x0000007B). Mine was solved by removing the trailing from the destination path.
Saved my day! HD failed but had a .mig file on external drive from previous OS upgrade and new OS (Win 8.1) can’t/won’t migrate from that file. What is catalog.mig in the recover file? Don’t have any Mozilla folders in the recovered data files and wonder if this is where they are??
I have run this tool successfully and the MIG unpacks to a folder structure but it still seems like it is in a compressed format. There are many files and still an MIG and several lists. I thought that this would simply build a folder with the user that was exported and the associated folder for that account. Am I missing something here|….
Thanks for this. It was very helpful.
Esta ferramenta merece ser patrocinada e publicada!
Hello there.
I found your great tool and I can get it to run, but I get the message “Error while Creating the distination file”.
I have checked the permissions and there are full rights,
I can not just get on what the error is, can you help me.
my MIG file is created on a Win7 which was connected to a domain, and I try to extrackte it on a stand alone win 10
Where do I enter the password during the command prompt process?
MIGRECOVER.EXE C:SaveData.MIG C:MIGRECOVERRECOVER PassWord-goes-here
Thanks to VisserLabs for this it was very helpful!
You are a genius, sir, and a kind one. The tool and syntax worked exactly as advertised. Files restored!
Muito bommmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Salvou minha vida !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Phew thanks for saving my ass. I created a easy transfer file from win 7 that converted itself to a MIG on my usb and without it I could’ve lost 3 months of data.
Followed it word by word (renaming the files in particular) and just copy pasted in the elevated command prompt of windows 10, worked like a charm
The tool worked great for me, no issues. This error Error:” 0x000003EE” just means the tool did not find the file you were pointing to because of a missing drive letter or syntax error on user end. I got it 3 time before I saw that I was missing D: in my file path………..
I backup up my user profiles from a Win 7 Pro 32bit system to D: Swapped out my C: from 200GB to 500GB drive and installed Windows 10 Pro x64 of course.
Worked fine to restore the .MIG file.
Now I have to figure out how to import the 3 user profiles into my new Windows 10 OS as I have never used Win10 before??
Hey, (hopefully I will have this figured out before you get to reply but here goes)
I’m going from windows 7 on one computer to windows 10 on my new computer.
I think my issue is mostly syntax based, either that or I’m missing a vital step.
I’ll go with the most recent line I tried because between alternative quotation marks, and parenthesis and brackets I feel like next thing has to work.
MIGRECOVER>MIGRECOVER.EXE “F:Windowseasytransfer” C:MIGRECOVERRECOVER [password]
after this everything appeared to be extracting but much like before it was just an error message:
error while creating the destination file: C:MIGRECOVERRECIVERFileC:UsersDexterArtclassheroAppdataLocaladawaredata(various numbers-m.list
every other line in -l.list
I’m totally stumped, if you could help out I’d really appreciate it
I recently bought the parts to upgrade my PC. Little did I know that Windows 10 does not come with Windows Easy Transfer and I used it to move my stuff from the “old pc” over to the “new one”; like I did when I upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7.
When I realized I couldn’t un-archive my files I felt stranded in the middle of nowhere. I had them there in a huge MIG file and wasn’t even able to see the contents. I even tried to unarchive them at work, but the Windows 7 version at my workstation was a 32 bit one and wouldn’t allow to unarchive 64 bit data. I was frustrated.
Then I’ve found your utility. It worked perfectly. No errors whatsoever.
It saved me. It saved me frustration. It saved me time. It probably even saved money.
I can’t thank you enough. I even twitted about it.
I feel the need to donate some money.
-Nick
Hi Nick, glad to hear it helped! I put that utility up years ago to help others and it’s still very much in use by end-users 🙂
Great tool if you can work with command line. I recovered all my files. Thumbs down to Microsoft morons.
its saying MIGRECOVER.EXE is not recognised
I kept getting this error:
“Error while trying to open the source MIG file. Error: 0x000003EE”
So I just used this app to extract all my files: https://github.com/slombardo/MigHelper
Can anyone tell me how to solve this error when using this great tool?
Error while creating the destination file: c:migrecoverrecoverFileC:UsersK
arolineMusiciTunesiTunes MediaMobile ApplicationsBubble Blast 2.01.ipa
Found a new version, which solved the problem – great.
thanks so much…
There’s also this thing, which apparently works for Windows 8 and Windows 10 as well (which no longer have the original Microsoft Easy Transfer): http://www.zinstall.com/how-to/how-to-use-windows-easy-transfer-on-windows-10