InsideTech

 ok, heres the intro:

i have an older laptop with a 40gb hd partitioned into 50/50 drives. 18gb i think each. I want to make it one partition and do a fresh install of windows. So here is my question:

Is there a backup software out there that i can tell to back up my programs, documents, etc..... except for the win OS. I want to do a fresh install and re-install all my software without having to find their original setup programs. 

If so, where can i find it. I have found hundreds of backup softwares that let me choose the file extension to search for, but i want the entire program installation backed up.

 do you know of a program or suite that can reverse an installation to the original setup files or atleast setup files that will work? I know there are files that tell it how to uninstall, why not use that file to see how it was originally installed?

danman1453 says ...

 do you know of a program or suite that can reverse an installation to the original setup files or atleast setup files that will work? I know there are files that tell it how to uninstall, why not use that file to see how it was originally installed?

Regarding "reverse an installation to the original setup files" ... if you are talking about windows you can do that with the windows cd and select to repair windows installation.  That doesn't always work perfectly, but it will restore the ones that it finds are not there or are corrupt...a good deal of the time.  Otherwise manually is the way to go.

Regarding your theory on backwards uninstall....good luck with that.  Installation logs may tell you what files are where but in most cases you are not going to see the finer points that actually make the program work.  For instance, you may see that x file goes in y folder, however...it's not going to tell you where it unpacked that file from because it's inside your install exe which actually does not usually keep a record.

I don't quite understand why you can't just reinstall the programs you have installed. 

Any time you try to extract an already installed program file by file, registry entry by registry entry....you are biting off more than you are bargaining for (I wouldn't say this if I haven't been there, done that) some very small programs are extremely simple and can be done this way.  Especially ones that only have one registry entry to say, load at start up or a hook that tells the computer where a file is once a service is started or to tell the service to start if not started and only a few files.  When someone finds a program like that and successfully moves it from one computer to another they suddenly feel like it can be done with all programs.  This is not the case.  It is not just a matter of moving and matching...an install executable makes changes to the O/S and you are not going to find all those changes....UNLESS you are a programmer and you are intimately familiar with the language and procedure of creating programs of the same type you are wanting to move.

And no new updated programs? What is an example?

That's correct Stevo, deleting ntuser.dat ans ntuser.ini is also very usefull in many case.

I forgot that software page that I sent you that is for windows. Make sure you check the details of what computers, and OS it works on. Hope I helped you.

There are many possible causes of a slow PC. Because your computer is constantly working with files - moving, copying and deleting from place to place - it will eventually get cluttered with leftover files, some of which are not needed and just take up valuable disk space. You only have a certain amount of disk space available on your hard disk, and as it fills up the computer can begin to struggle to find room to perform its tasks.

Things to make your pc run faster:

Well you could keep your pc clean, you could use ccleaner, and that keeps your cookies, cache, and things like that clean, also your registry. That takes up room on your computer.

Take out software and products that you don't use on your computer. And if you have other things on your computer that you don't use take it out.

I wouldn't use things like google chrome, and other tool bars on your computer because that slows your computer down, and takes resources. I wouldn't use messangers either. They are fine to have but they take resources to.

Remove malicious programs. If you have windows OS then you could go to this website and you can use this to remove the malicious software. This is something great to have right now due to the conflicker virus. The conflicker can make fake software and they can get in your computer. And there is more to that to. But back to the PC.

Keep your computer updated. Such as your OS, hardware, software and etc.

You can defrag your system from time to time! I don't know if you know how to do that, some don't. You have to go to start, programs, system tools, and then defrag, and then when it comes up then click defrag at the bottom. "Defragging" is short for "defragmenting", and it's a process you run on a hard drive to help make it faster. It's something you need to do periodically as files on the disk becomes fragmented over time - hence the term "defragmenting". If you remove things, and add programs and things a lot I would do this once a week. I would remove programs, and everything that you don't want before doing this. I would also clean your computer before this to. That will remove other programs. Defrag even puts programs back in order.

Another way you can clean your computer, is disk clean, there are several ways to do this. Go to start, programs, accesories, system tools and then click disk clean.

There are lots of things you can do. There are more than this. Try these things. And if you need more help just ask. If I can think of anything else I will let you know.

Just a note of caution:  NTFS volumes do not need to be defragmented nearly as much as FAT volumes.  Defragmenting a disk too much will wear the disk out.  What you should do is run defragmenter and perform an analysis to determine if defragmenting is even necessary.  Perform a defragmentation when the analysis says to.  With normal use this should be right about 4 times per year (once a quarter).

 Where on earth did all that come from? The topic was done. wow. I don't know why, but all of that kind of irritated me. hmmm. If my response is out of line, just ignore it.

danman1453 says ...

 Where on earth did all that come from? The topic was done. wow. I don't know why, but all of that kind of irritated me. hmmm. If my response is out of line, just ignore it.

...SO out of line!

Ok after readin some of the replies, you need to think about this.

Norton Ghost is what most companies use as well as the state to refurbish there PC or to "Ghost" them. I use it all the time. It is the best the is. You will no longer have to reinstall applications on your machine or drivers:)