How do I restore an old Iphone 3gs backup if it does not appear in the "restore backup" drop-down list?

Question

Hi
Last night I tried to install ios 6.1.2. The install failed. I tried again and this time it recommended restoring the phone - I agreed and it worked, but after the restore was completed, I could not get out of the set-up assistant screens on the phone. It kept saying either connect to Itunes, or connected to Itunes - there was no conclusion of the set-up process.
So again I chose to restore the phone - this time I got through the process and asked it to restore my last back up. It did so, but it turns out the back-up is empty. Looking at the time of the back-up, I think what happened is the phone  synced while it was stuck in the set-up assistant, and the old backup with all my data was overwritten with a new empty back up.
If I use windows explorer I can see a back-up set from earlier in the evening that should contain all my data (6pm)  but when I look in iTunes that backup set is not available for selection in the "restore back-up" drop down list. Perhaps its only a partially completed backup, but at 1.55gb it sure contains a lot of valuable data. How can I make iTunes see or use the 6pm backup set?

Answer 1

yes - sadly I think that's what happened. As the phone was connected, it was syncing and backing up automatically while I tried to complete the set-up process. So an empty back-up overwrote the full one. But the full back up is still there in the application data files - it must have done a back-up automatically before it restored the phone. So why can't I see it and use it in iTunes? Very frustrating!