What Folders To Backup For Rest?

[Epifire]

Hey guys. Over the course of two months I've had quite the handful of problems so I've become tired of trying to correct software issues. I run a Falcon Northwest Desktop so they come with the handy emergency reset flash drive (that I've actually used several times already).

Now here's what I wanna know, since I've botched this several times in the past. I have two drives C: and D: and the d drive has all my games (steam, modeling apps, etc) that don't have to be reinstalled. I simply want to retain the software registry (if possible) and bring those folders over to the reset version. What folders are the best to run off onto a separate flash drive (besides the obvious things like pictures and music)?

I'm running Windows 7 on the C: drive that's roughly a 250gb SSD. The reset drive reverts this to factory condition roughly dated around early Spring of 2012. Only the OS and general antivirus stuff goes on that drive. So what I'm wanting to know is, what all can I safely copy over that should insure minimal re-installation of other software? Of course I don't want to copy too much over at the expense of somehow copying corrupted Windows data (since that's why I'm resetting in the first place). It would be nice to just boot up my Steam or get back to modeling stuff in Softimage after the reset (without having to reinstall all of it). Thanks in advance!

 

[carnageX]

Copying software rarely works, and trying to "merge" registries from an old install to a new install will just cause more issues and headaches.

It may take somewhat longer to reinstall your software/configure your settings...but it'll save you headaches of trying to troubleshoot any problems that arise later.

Just stick to backing up your personal data under C:\Users\<username> (like Documents, Pictures, and possibly certain folders under AppData like your browser configuration/settings).

Otherwise, like I said, best option will be to reinstall any software besides Steam games, since those you can safely just simply transfer.

 

[Epifire]

Copying software rarely works, and trying to "merge" registries from an old install to a new install will just cause more issues and headaches.

It may take somewhat longer to reinstall your software/configure your settings...but it'll save you headaches of trying to troubleshoot any problems that arise later.

Just stick to backing up your personal data under C:\Users\<username> (like Documents, Pictures, and possibly certain folders under AppData like your browser configuration/settings).

Otherwise, like I said, best option will be to reinstall any software besides Steam games, since those you can safely just simply transfer.

Yeah that's what I was afraid of. Most of my stuff did end up in headaches for a lot of the same reasons. I mean I guess it's almost simpler to just go manually into the second drive (that's not getting overwritten) and launching exes that way. Just sucks when the search option on the start menu doesn't get me anything because the secondary drive is never really recognized by a new Windows install when I reset.

Isn't there some way to have a new copy of Windows "index" a drive and locations? Not sure but I swear I recall doing something like that on this current version I'm using now.