Restoring Win 7 from file backup

Hi Folks,

My hdd just died (unrecoverable). I have a full file backup of the main partition on an external drive, and I'd like to try to use that to restore my comp to its state at that point. I do not have an image backup - just a full file backup using Retrospect (with Open File Backup).

Because I don't have a full disk image, I figure that I have to install windows 7 first in order to get the system reserved partition installed. I'll do this with my Lenovo recovery discs. Then I plan on restoring *all* the files (OS included) on the main partition.

I'm concerned about a couple things: 1) If retrospect's open file backup didn't manage to back up some files correctly (though it did report 100% success and verified all files), and 2) Some boot files sometimes need to be at specific addresses on the disk. Perhaps there are some other things I should be worrying about too - I dunno.

Does this sound like a good plan? Will it work? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Allie

Win 7 Pro x64 SP1
Lenovo Thinkpad T410
500 GB HDD

 

Bet you will make image backups now right?

If you are restoring all files, to me, this sounds like you are just restoring what was listed in Windows Explorer. According to Roxio's website, there is supposed to be an Emergency Recovery CD to use first. Might look for that first instead of going straight to the OS. Also, did what you backed up in Retrospect include the OS? I only ask as I have never used the software before.

 

haha - you bet!

Not sure what you mean by "what was listed in Windows Explorer" - it backed up all files (and since everything is a file, i think it backed up everything. just that it won't put all the files back in their old physical locations on disk as far as i understand it). I do have the emergency recovery CD, but again, I didn't backup the system reserved partition, hence the idea of installing windows first in order to get that partition installed. Perhaps after getting the System Reserved partition installed I could use the emergency recovery cd...

And yes - all files are backed up including OS files. So, given that, think it'll work?