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formatting hard drive

759 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Tense 
#1 ·
Kiwiguy,
I successfully reformatted my hard drive, but when I re-installed some of the programs that I had backed up on my other hdd, they wouldn't work without re-installing them from their original cd's or disks. Error messages indicated that some files were missing e.g ".dll" etc.
What did I do wrong and how can I get those programs to run once I have restored them? :confused:
 
#2 ·
Backing up and restoring from backed up files is very different to reinstalling programs on a fresh copy of Windows. For this reason I only ever backup data, as the system files are of limited value.

Your new copy of XP has a fresh clean registry, with no knowledge of any installed programs.

Copying back the installed programs does not tell the Registry they are there.

All your data created will be there, but you need to reinstall all the programs. Backing up the programs in this manner is unhelpful when you then reformat and install windows anew.

To be able to copy everything back in a working format requires special "drive imaging" software, such as Nortons Ghost.

This will copy back an exact replica of what was saved (including all damaged files you probably wanted to get rid of), so thats not always helpful either in some cases.

Bottom line, when you reformat, you should reinstall every program. Its always been that way since Windows 95.
 
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