Windows 7 - How do I Restore my PC from an External Drive

I opened my computer the other day...Sony Vaio...and for some reason the whole thing was completely shot. It just said it could not open/start Windows, and other error messages. I tried the restore disc which didn't work, and a message said that I need to reinstall from manufacturers CD. I went through the Vaio recovery and backed up all the files/system files to an external drive. I reinstalled Win 7 and was wondering if there is anyway to restore back into my original settings. I have installed many apps and have settings on each and it would be a pain to have to go into each application and redo all my settings all over again one by one.

I am grateful that I was able to save all my data at least. And on the bright side, at least I got rid of all the junk I didn't need any more.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Are you able to access the corrupted windows 7 system? Do a Repair install on it, then run Easy Transfer with it. Then, restore the Easy Transfer File to your current Windows 7.

OK cool, I'll give that a shot. Let you know what happens...when I get home from work tonight.

Thanks

Were waiting?

Feel free to ask any question. I will detail everything to you, and make sure you post some detailed results too so that we may help you well. Good luck and have a nice day!

Sorry, been really busy...trying it now. Thanks

I do not have an installation disc which is supposed to come with the computer...I guess some systems do not come with them all the time. I could not get into windows and the repair disk that I copied could not repair it so I held f10/f11 and reinstalled Windows as a clean install as that was the only thing I could do. But during this process, Sony managed to save my data to an external hard drive which it labeled 2012-2-14(the day I did the reinstall).

When I tried the Easy Transfer and pointed to the 2012-2-14 file on my external HD it won't work. Seems like it has its own file extension.

Seems like I have to do this the hard way and re-setup everything.

Thanks

If you ran full Factory Recovery then didn't it reinstall Windows 7 over the old installation? So you have no old Windows 7 to Repair now. You'll need to start fresh by reinstalling your programs and settings. This is a much cleaner start since importing settings is a corruption path that can defeat a reinstall or recovery.

You also have the option to Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM since you're starting fresh - this is the cleanest start of all and is like having a new computer since most new computers come larded with corrupting bloatware and useless factory utiltiies which have better versions built into Windows 7.

Yeah, kinda figured I had to reinstall everything all over again...but could have been worse, could have lost everything like I have seen before. This will be more time consuming than anything else.

Thanks for the help

If you had made frequent images, you would have been back in business in 20 minutes. Look at this, it is the easiest and very reliable and fast - and it is free: Imaging with free Macrium