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Win 7 restore- then restore Acronis backup.

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My win 7 dell is still running, but there is a damaged windows file periodically causing "the blue screen of death". Dell support tells me that the only way to fix it is to "restore" win 7. This will wipe out all of my data on my HD....my life.

How can I use my acronis 11 home backup to restore my data and programs without wiping out my restored Win 7 or reverting it to the damaged version? I have far too many programs to reinstall them one by one.

thanks Larry

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It is not possible to backup your applications separately from Windows OS. It is possible to backup your content separately from windows.

Wiping out your hard disk seems like an extreme measure...

The first thing I would do is:
- from windows, start a command prompt with administrator rights,
- type sfc /scannow
- look at the results and see if anything can be fixed,
- using windows explorer, copy your data files (for example the content of the C:\Users\UserA directory to an external disk for safekeeping)
- type chkdsk -r to verify your disk
- if anything has been fixed, see if your problem subsist.

- if you have a Windows DVD installation, reinstall Windows. This is the ONLY way you will not have to reinstall your apps.
- if you don't have the Windows DVD installation, the only way to reinstall Windows is through your recovery utility.

Thanks for your prompt reply.

The Dell hardware support guy spent an hour on GoToAssist going through the steps you suggest and some more with specialized Dell software. Using the Dell windows 7 reinstall disk to reinstall windows was his final suggested solution. To me it sounds like the solution is worse than the problem. It would probably take me a solid week of work to reinstall everything I have on my hard drive. Yetch.

Thanks Larry

Lawrence,

You can reinstall Win 7 from the DVD and this will just update the OS. Your applications, settings and content files will not be affected.

THis will take you some 20'-25'mn, plus the time necessary to reinstall updates.

That is very encouraging. I can do that. Are there any options I want to make sure I do or do not select in the process. Thanks.

Hi Lawrence:

Be careful about using restoring using the 'Windows' Disk. Just make sure it is an actual Windows disk and not a restore disk.

Some computers come with an actual 'windows operating system' disk. Others come with a 'restore disk' that has the operating system version on it, but the 'restore' disk will wipe the whole drive before reinstalling.

Matthew

Matthew

My disk says "Reinstallation DVD, Windows 7 Premium 64 bit". Which would this be?

Lawrence