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Need information about back ups

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I have True Image 11 home and my XP has become unstable and I need to reformat. I have been lax with backups and haven't done a full back up in quite a while. What I want to know is if there is any way to back up my current files and programs minus the OS and then after reformat I could just relaod all data and installed programs, or can installed programs be recovered only if the OS is also recovered. Thank you for any help you can give.

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Since Apps usually add items to the Registry, which is part of the OS, you would have to reinstall the Apps if you reformat. Data can be simply copied and saved then added back afterwards.

Alternatively you could make a backup of your data files. and then restore them after you do your partition/disk restore. Some folks do this because yo can use a program to do this automatically on a schedule.

Applications and Win are just too complicated these days to be able to copy a program from one place to another. And all this complexity is reflected in the dozen or so files that make up the Win registry:

In XP the hives typically are:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SAM
c:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SECURITY
c:\WINDOWS\system32\config\software
c:\WINDOWS\system32\config\system
c:\WINDOWS\system32\config\default
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\ntuser.dat
c:\Documents and Settings\[username]\ntuser.dat
c:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat
c:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\NTUSER.DAT
c:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat

In Vista or Win 7 the list gets even more complicated.

Trust Dwnndrty, it will be faster to reinstall apps than to try to copy them and then correctly update the registry, even if you knew all the registry keys and values to enter and where to put them.

Backup everything and backup often. You never know when things will go wonky.

Thanks for your help. I was hoping to avoid reinstalling my programs but it is my fault since I have Acronis and still didn't do the backups! I appreciate your answers so that I know there is no real option. Thank you, Jo