[lostonmypc]

Recently reinstalled Vista. I have a Western Digital backup drive which Norton uses to backup computer. I had to reinstall Office and other programs such as Turbo Tax, however, I could not get back 2 of the 3 tax returns I had prepared for family. I did save print copies in Acrobat reader files but cannot get the actual tax returns loaded. I can see the returns but they will not load into Turbo tax as I get a message indicating they are corrupted. I can get to Windows.old but that does not allow me to retrieve the returns. The problem as I see it is that there are backup files on the WD drive created by Norton, however, I do not wish to restore an entire file backup as I am afraid it will reinstall the problem which caused me to reintall Vista in the first place. Is there a way to get into those backups and find the tax returns in question? Or is there a place where the tax files may be hiding and I cannot see them? When I try to open any of the previous backups, the computer asks what program to use to open the file and I am lost at that point. I would truly like to recover these files as it will be very tedious to input all the data back into Turbo Tax.
Thanks for your help.

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If the system can find the files, but reports they are corrupt, not sure you have any options. You might contact TurboTax Tech Support - I doubt they are very busy now so they might help.

I found this but I cannot vouch for it.

it will be very tedious to input all the data back into Turbo Tax.

Note sure I would worry about that, unless you mean next year, when TT pulls in previous year's data? Unless , you have not filed for 2010 yet.

You have a copy of your returns, and I assume you kept the source documents (copies of W-2, 1098s, 1099s, donation receipts, etc.) so in terms of being audited, they have a copy of your return. In terms of putting it all in next year - yeah, that would be a pain. I wish I had more to offer. Perhaps someone else reading might. But frankly - sadly - the fact Windows and TT can find your file, but TT reports it is corrupted, that's a bad sign.

[Digerati]

If the system can find the files, but reports they are corrupt, not sure you have any options. You might contact TurboTax Tech Support - I doubt they are very busy now so they might help.

I found this but I cannot vouch for it.

it will be very tedious to input all the data back into Turbo Tax.

Note sure I would worry about that, unless you mean next year, when TT pulls in previous year's data? Unless , you have not filed for 2010 yet.

You have a copy of your returns, and I assume you kept the source documents (copies of W-2, 1098s, 1099s, donation receipts, etc.) so in terms of being audited, they have a copy of your return. In terms of putting it all in next year - yeah, that would be a pain. I wish I had more to offer. Perhaps someone else reading might. But frankly - sadly - the fact Windows and TT can find your file, but TT reports it is corrupted, that's a bad sign.

[gorham]

The problem as I see it is that there are backup files on the WD drive created by Norton, however, I do not wish to restore an entire file backup as I am afraid it will reinstall the problem which caused me to reintall Vista in the first place

What if you fired up a virtual machine like virtualbox and restore your norton backup to this get your files off. Then delete the virtual machine.

[Digerati]

Ah, I should have read it again. I thought you used Norton already, after reinstalling Vista.

I am surprised Norton does not allow you to recover individual files. In fact, it would not make sense it doesn't. There is the issue where it might reinstall the problem, but if it overwrote the whole disk, like an image backup, it would overwrite all changed and new files since the backup.

If it is an image backup, then I agree with gorham's excellent suggestion of a VM.