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Can I just restore programs, not files?

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I have a backup that's a week old and my system had an issue and reinstalled Windows and I have my files, but I need my programs back. (The Windows reinstall wiped out dozens of programs).  Can my backup restore just the programs, desktop, etc, and leave the files alone?  If it must restore the files too, will it recognize that there are files there and just put in the ones that are not there, or does it wipe out the whole thing and just restores the files that are in the backup and wipe the more recent files that are there?

Thanks,

Bob

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Bob,

If your backup is a full disk backup then restoring that backup will replace Windows, your Windows programs and your personal files.

If you backed up using the default settings then you should have what's called an Entire PC backup which when restored will do the above.

Take note that full disk restores should be performed using the user created Recovery Media which you can create using the Media Builder tool found in the Tools section of the GUI.

Bob, sorry but the answer is no.  You can restore your whole disk & partitions backup which will restore back your Windows OS and all installed programs and data; or else you can restore back just your user data.

See KB 19296: Acronis products cannot be used to transfer applications to different system or upgrade OS which has the following statement as to why this is not possible.

The main reason is that you cannot just copy installed programs to a new operating system. To function properly, programs have to be installed using the installation routine to write various configuration settings and to set up configuration files in proper places. Even if you copy the contents of Program Files folder to the new system, most programs will not function because during installation additional data is placed to other folders and to Windows registry.

Bob, I would recommend making a file/folder backup of the files and folders that you want to keep.  Then, perform the disk restore, which will restore the programs and overwrite the data files that you want to keep.  After you are satisfied that the programs are running properly, then you can restore the file/folder backup which would then get you where you want to be.

Regards,

FtrPilot

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

"The main reason is that you cannot just copy installed programs to a new operating system.The main reason is that you cannot just copy installed programs to a new operating system."

Right you are, of course, Bob. Funny enough, 30 years ago you COULD, and migrating from an old computer to a new one took a couple of minutes, laplinking everything BUT the MS-DOS folder to the new system ...

Well, I guess, that's what you call PROGRESS ! Btw, I second the motion that whoever at MS who invented the registry should be SHOT !

Thanks, gang.  I have the recovery boot disk and the backup is on an external USB 3 gig drive.  I'm going to 1) copy all of MyDocuments over to that drive then 2) do the restore on the C drive, then 3) copy the MyDocs files back over, then 4) reinstall the few programs that remain.

I remember the LapLink days, I wish is was that easy now.

I appreciate it very much.

Bob