Backing up files
August 4th, 2016
Basically, I need info on how to Manually back up these programs that I cannot otherwise re-install as I am lacking the required materials. These being mainly my Microsoft office stuff (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), but may include the security system (Kaspersky I think), or some other software that I no longer can simply re-install. (information on manually finding these buggers and copying them onto a hard drive would be most useful.)
I can’t simply back the whole system up, because as well as an upgrade, I took this opportunity to purge my system of the random junk that has been floating around my memory for years. Things that I no longer need or want (just having them gone forever would be nice).
The problem with the above is, as I am manually taking data from my folders and copying it to an external drive, I have come in contact with things that look important but I really can’t tell if it’s required to keep for the computer to run at all. (Mostly, I just open up my program files, and get hit in the mouth with a wall of folders I cannot begin to decipher.
Basically, all I am asking is maybe a minimal list of things that should be included in this (ever growing) backup drive I have, and a description of how to find and extract all of the files that allow my Microsoft office software to run.
The computer in question is an Asus K50 running Windows Vista (64 bit) by the way.
any help would be appreciated, even if it’s a “no that’s impossible”.
I’ll try to make this simple. You can’t just copy “programs” from one computer to another for the most part. The apps you have mentioned – including Office – have thousands of registry entries, files in the System directories, and most importantly, have activation tokens that normally don’t allow a transfer from one machine to another. In summary – not practically possible. For the price of Office, go and buy a product key card – $140 (Home and Student version) for software you use all of the time money is well spent. Or find something from here.