Steps to full recovery

[ChuckM_30075]

Last week my CPU fried my MB (that's a story for another time). The MB vendor offered to RMA the board, but I would have to buy a new CPU (slower), so I opted to replace the MB instead and keep my existing CPU.

I can't just reboot from my existing hard drive since the new MB should use some different drivers. (I tried that once...lost the contents of the drive) The good news is that I have a backup of my Vista Home Premium x86 system saved to another PC made with Acronis TI Home 2010. The backup type is "Disk and Partition Backup" of my entire C: drive...omitting only .tmp and .~ files.

I don't think I can just restore the entire backup for the same reason that I can't reboot from my existing hard drives...so my question is this: What is the least labor-intensive way to restore my C: drive after reinstalling Vista?

Can I simply do a restore of all folders except C:\Windows? Or am I going to have to reinstall all my applications one at a time?

If someone would step me through the process, I'd appreciate it.

TIA...Chuck

 

[pat mcgroin]

Im not sure what caused the contents of your drive to be lost earlier but..
How different is the new MB that you have?

I have replaced MBs and then ran a repair install to reconfigure windows for the new board.
As long as the cpu was the same type it went well.
Then you will need to reapply the system drivers for the new MB.

 

[ChuckM_30075]

Pat...thanks for the info.

How different is the new MB that you have?

My old MB is an XFX nForce® 750a SLI (MD-A72P-7509) and the new one is an ASUS nForce 750a SLI (M4N72-E). Yes, they're similar, but I'm not making any assumptions that they're completely compatible.

I'll give your technique a shot and let you know how it goes.

 

[pat mcgroin]

with both of them being NForce 750a they should be almost identical.
Eventhe system drivers should be the same.
The sound may be different though.
Either way it should boot up.

 

[ChuckM_30075]

I forgot to mention that my C: drive is a Mirrored Raid. When I tried to do the Windows "repair", I was asked to load the Raid drivers...the load failed...that's what happened last time.

Ended up having to do a clean install...restoring from backup a little at a time.

 

[pat mcgroin]

Well it sound like you got it going.
Did you give it the RAID drivers when tou tried?
It may have wanted the specific ones. Im not sure.

 

[ChuckM_30075]

Yes...I gave it the RAID drivers...no joy. Don't know what I could have done differently