Computer GURU's ONLY! (Backup question)

[Scrapster]

This is what I "want" to do. I have a laptop with all my important programs and stuff. I'd like to format and reinstall windows but I don't want to have to reinstall my programs and start from scratch. Is there ANY reasonable way to backup my programs and somehow copy them back after the format w/o reinstalling them?

I do have a 2nd computer (tower) networked to my laptop and I could store all of my stuff on that until I'm done reinstalling windows on the laptop. Also, I have a CDRW installed in the tower. This stuff MAY or MAY NOT help me.

So I'd like to know if this can be done. Are there any programs that can aid me with this?

 

[konichiwa]

No. 99% of programs make registry keys upon installation, and those are deleted on a clean format. You can backup your registry, but importing an old registry into a new computer is generally considered a no-no. Backup your data and documents, even program settings files (*.ini, etc) and then just reinstall them manually.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Just do it the right way. Fresh format, install everything fresh. A lot of programs dump junk into the windows folder/etc...

 

[Pastore]

Koni, couldn't he do some kind of ghosting of the drive? Or am I misunderstanding the point of ghosting a fixed drive?

 

[Tran23]

From what I know, programs themselves can't be backed up, mainly because most of the time, the files are placed in multiple places(Windows directory, Program Files directory, etc.) There are programs that make an image of your hard drive, but that kind of defeats the purpose if you're going to format.

The only think I can think of doing(I've done this myself), is to format the system, reinstall everything you need, and then make a back up image. This doesn't really answer your question, but it does safe time in the future when you want to format again.

 

[konichiwa]

Beast

Ghosting is a great solution for someone who wants a 1:1 copy of a drive. However, he doesn't -- he wants only his programs. Ghosting is like creating an "image" of your hard drive, exact copies of everything (including the old registry and OS)

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Typically you'd ghost a drive right after it's been fresh installed...

 

[Scrapster]

damn

 

[todd_r]

Basically, if you want a fresh install, the best thing to do is back up your data files, format the drive how you want it, do a clean OS install, re-install your apps and restore your documents and data from the backup. If you don't want to resize or reformat your partitiions, you can install the OS over the previous installation (assuming that they are the same OS) which will help some. Just my .02