On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 12:09 PM, Dave Lum <[email protected]> wrote: > I would kind of hope the backup would be on the entire drive including > programs, etc. so it should restore to pretty close to original…otherwise a > full backup isn’t very helpful J.
It depends... A pure "system image" will restore everything exactly as it was, including the wrong drivers, so it's basically the same as moving the disk, i.e., not helpful. A file-based backup may or may not include bits and pieces of the Windows system root and/or the Windows registry. Restores to the Windows system are complicated, especially on different hardware. I haven't looked into Microsoft's documentation on this recently, but years ago it used to involve voodoo and black magic. Third-party vendors had various home-grown heuristics and methods for trying to integrate stuff from the backup into the running system's registry. Results were mixed, in my experience. I've long since gotten away from trying, so I don't have recent experience. Now, if an application is not tightly tied into the Windows registry, it can be backed up, and restored to a different system, freely. -- Ben
