Worried about having to reinstall W7?

Barso · 6 Jul 2010 at 12:55

I have Windows 7 ultimate installed on my C drive with different utilities and all of my games including steam, about 60 games on my D drive.
But what worries me is if I have to reinstall Windows 7 incase a problem arises that will need a reinstall. I know that all of my programs are tied to the registry and they will all need reinstalled too but is there anyway I can format my C drive, reinstall Windows 7 and not have to reinstall all of the programs,games on my D drive?
Thanks for any help and replies, these forums are invaluable.

Participant · 6 Jul 2010 at 12:57

Acronis True Image. It creates a 'shadow' of your drive and you just restore it after reinstall.

Dano · 6 Jul 2010 at 13:01

Robbie G said:
Acronis True Image. It creates a 'shadow' of your drive and you just restore it after reinstall.

Which Windows 7 can do all on it's own so why pay for another utility?

Backup and Restore center Barso, create a system image file and tell it to do so on a schedule.

Participant · 6 Jul 2010 at 13:34

Dano said:
Which Windows 7 can do all on it's own so why pay for another utility?

Backup and Restore center Barso, create a system image file and tell it to do so on a schedule.

What if you can't install Windows? Acronis can restore everything before any OS is even installed.

That said the W7 utility is indeed good enough for most applications.

Dano · 6 Jul 2010 at 13:45

Robbie G said:
What if you can't install Windows? Acronis can restore everything before any OS is even installed.

So can windows if you bother to create a system repair disc as far as I'm aware.

Raumarik · 6 Jul 2010 at 13:57

Acronis feels faster but I'm lazy and prefer to just use the Win 7 one

Philtor · 6 Jul 2010 at 13:57

Dano said:
So can windows if you bother to create a system repair disc as far as I'm aware.

I can confirm that the backup & restore centre has the option to create a recovery disk which you can boot from and then browse to the system image you had backed up in the event of the system not booting at all.

Participant · 6 Jul 2010 at 17:04

Dano said:
So can windows if you bother to create a system repair disc as far as I'm aware.

philtorrens said:
I can confirm that the backup & restore centre has the option to create a recovery disk which you can boot from and then browse to the system image you had backed up in the event of the system not booting at all.

Ah, cool. Use that then.

theheyes · 6 Jul 2010 at 17:17

You don't need the specific recovery disc either, you can use the Windows DVD if you have one.