Is it possible to back up one's programs and settings then restore them after formatting and reinstalling Windows 7 on a new set of hardware?
I don't think you can do a clean install and then restore programs and settings.
For new hardware I have always done a clean OS install, reinstall all programs, adjust settings to my preference.
If you're interested in transferring your current OS to new hardware, here are a couple of tutorials by Kari and Kaktussoft you can take a look at:
Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer
Make Windows 7 bootable after motherboard swap
You can also post questions in these tutorials if you're interested.
I store user data on a different partition than the [C] OS + programs partition, so i can "transfer" user data to a new OS/hardware.
Quote