Using the Windows Backup utility I have made a complete backup of my computer. As the computer has been running slowly I would like to wipe my hard drive clean. If I restore all my data using the Windows Backup utility will I need to reinstall all the programs or will these be restored automatically? The computer is running Windows XP Professional.

The Windows Backup utility has several types of backups which it can complete. In the first instance, you can complete a standard Backup which copies files from your computer onto a set of backup media (such as CDs, DVD, external drives, etc). This is setup by either clicking the “Backup Wizard (Advanced)” on the “Welcome” tab in the Backup utility, or clicking the “Backup” tab and manually selecting the files and folders that you wish to backup. Assuming that you select all files and folders then your backup should contain all files and folders on your computer. You could make the logical assumption from this backup routine that it is possible to recover programs from the backup. This may be possible for some programs, but unlikely for the majority of programs. Most programs have common files which are installed in other directories, such as the Windows system directory. Unless you know the exact files which the program uses (very unlikely) then you could not simply recover the program directory and expect it to work. In any case, it would be much easier and quicker to reinstall the program rather than try and determine which of these special files are used by each program. Additionally, the programs often require particular entries in the Windows registry and these are not captured during the standard file and folder backup process. As you can see, if you have completed a full file and folder backup then it would be challenging to recover individual programs from the backup.

Given this dilemma, you may be wondering if it is worthwhile even backing-up the programs since they cannot be recovered, and they are instead just occupying valuable space on the backup media. The reason that many people backup the programs even though they cannot be directly recovered is because users may wish to transfer settings from the old programs. For example, you may have a program with specific settings or personalised preferences that you may wish to keep. Assuming that the program stores these in the program folder (and not some other location that is not backed-up, in a way which allows us to selectively recover data of interest, such as the System State data backup of the Windows Registry) then you could potentially recover these settings and transfer them back onto your computer once the program has been reinstalled. The generally accepted method of doing this procedure is to first reinstall the program on the computer. This will make sure the program is installed with all the correct support files and other components (such as registry entries) placed in the correct location. Once this has been done, copy the backed-up program folder over the top of the newly installed program folder (over-writing any of the new files with the backed-up files). This means that if any of the files in that folder contain settings or preferences they have now been overwritten with the backed-up copies that actually do contain your settings. It is important to note that the version of software which you reinstall should be the same as the version in the backups, to avoid any problems with differences in file formats or requirements between versions. Furthermore, this is also not likely to work in all situations since many programs store their preferences under the user profile directory (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data). This is done so that different users on the same computer can all use the software and their preferences are stored in different locations, so that every user does not receive and modify a common set of preferences. Therefore, if you attempt to recover settings using this method but they do not come across then you may also wish to look under your profile directory to check whether there are any preferences stored in that location which you can transfer from backup.

However, getting back to the original question of whether you should even bother backing-up the programs themselves. If you are not concerned about being able to recover program preferences then it would not be worthwhile backing-up the programs since the vast majority could not be recovered from the backups and expected to work, given the aforementioned reasons concerning shared files and registry entries. However, if you do wish to potentially recover settings then I would recommend that you continue to backup all programs. I imagine that there would be quite a few programs on the computer which do not store their preferences within the program directory, but instead in the user profile directory. You could individually assess which programs store their preferences where, and then only backup the programs which store their preferences in the program folder itself. However, this would be a time consuming process and potentially error-prone and you may not remember to check and backup newly installed programs. Therefore, it would be much neater and less error prone to simply include all programs (e.g. the entire C:\Program Files) directory in the backup. Additionally, given the relatively inexpensive cost of storage media there is not much cost benefit in skimping on the amount of data which you are backing-up.

So far we have only discussed the standard backup and recovery backup mechanism in the Backup Utility. There is also another feature called an Automated System Recovery (ASR). This creates a floppy disk and backup media that allows you to restore the system configuration state on your computer in the event of a catastrophic failure. This should only be used as a last resort, since it will format the hard drive in your computer and complete a reinstallation of Windows and then recover the system state as it was when the backup was created. ASR will backup the system partition on your computer. This means if all your data is stored on the one partition (for example, your WINDOWS directory is on the C:\ drive and so is all your data, such as C:\Program Files, C:\Documents and Settings, etc), which is the case with most home computers, then ASR will backup this data with the system partition backup. Therefore, in theory, you could use ASR to restore all that data back onto your computer. However, a major downside of this approach is that whenever you create an ASR set you need to do a full backup, you cannot complete an incremental or differential backup (these are backup types which only backup the difference between your last full backup and the current time, rather than doing a full backup of all data again). This means that each ASR set you create is going to be very large and also quite time consuming to create, depending on the amount of data on your computer.

Therefore, given the end-game that you are trying to achieve I would say that the Backup Utility in Windows is not the best choice for your needs. You may need to look at an alternative third-party backup product. The one which I have used in the past, and found to be quite good, is Acronis True Image Home (www.acronis.com.au). It seems that this software would meet your needs quite well allowing you to recover the entire system with minimal fuss, and also backup the system efficiently with minimal disruption.

However, before looking at any backup mechanisms you need to consider the reason that you would like the functionality specified, as I don’t think this kind of backup will help with your needs. Creating a system image backup (essentially, taking a snapshot of your computer in a known good state which can be placed back onto the machine should there be a major failure or corruption) is good for a disaster recovery situation, but in your case this is to solve a problem with the computer running slowly. If you intend to snapshot the computer, wipe the hard drive and then restore the snapshot, then this will not help at all. This is because you are restoring the system back onto itself, with all the problems of that system (such as the fact it is running slowly). Therefore, in your current situation the only way to resolve the issue would be to backup the data you wish to keep (either manually or using a backup program) and then wipe the drive and reinstall Windows plus all your applications from scratch.

Determining how to efficiently recover your system requires forward planning, so I would recommend that you commence that planning now when you manually reinstall the operating system and applications on your computer. Once this has been done, bring your computer to a state with which you are completely happy (e.g. all applications are installed and configured as you desire). Then, using a program such as Acronis, snapshot the computer in that state. This is now the “gold master” image of your computer. From this point onwards just use the backup utility to backup the personal data on your computer. Now, in the future if you want to reinstall the system on your computer, simply restore that “gold master” image back onto your computer. This will put the computer back into the good state as when you took that image. Then, to restore your data, simply recover from the backup sets that you have created subsequent to taking that gold master image.

The only downside of this approach is that you are likely to install applications and programs subsequent to taking the gold master image of your computer. Therefore, if you restore the gold master onto your computer you will have to reinstall these applications. However, this should only need to be done once as you can install those applications immediately after you have restored the gold master image and then take another gold master snapshot with those applications installed, giving you an up-to-date image. Whichever way you look at this approach, it is much more efficient than having to reinstall Windows and all your applications from scratch every time you wish to do a clean reinstall of the computer.