Can't open programs after a System Restore from a Backup, please help

[Hexdur]

After I performed a System Restore from my old hard drive onto my new SSD, I cannot open any of my programs. I am new to a system restore so I assumed my desktop would look exactly the same, but it does not. My desktop look like I freshly installed windows 7 and now I have 2 drives a C/drive and a D/drive all my files and programs are in the D/drive. The files for the programs are there but I cannot open any of them from my D/drive. I'm not really tech savvy but I usually find solutions to my computer problems through googling. But this one has me stumped!

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

You've mucked up somewhere, whatever you did it doesn't sound like a System Restore the way you explained it. (System Restore from one drive to another?).

It seems to me that what you have is indeed a fresh Windows installation as you suspected.

You'll have to reinstall any applications that won't start.

 

[LukeFatwalker]

The answer is that Sys Restore is not the solution you need for what you're looking for. Sys Restore restores "Windows system files, registry settings, and programs installed on your computer." but even on that last part, most programs have files and whatnot elsewhere that doesn't always get restored properly. So the reason they aren't opening is partially because they are missing some files.

First step is to try running Startup Repair. It could be a critical system driver that needs repairing and while it sounds weird, it could fix the driver and you might be able to load into these programs. If it doesn't work, you'll want to back up whatever data (important docs, etc) and re-format the machine.

As I mentioned, it doesn't sound like Sys Restore is for you. I'm getting the impression that you want a comprehensive restore solution. There's many third party solutions that function similarly to Sys Restore but perform better such as Comodo Time Machine or Rollback Rx. You can also try disk imaging, but if you prefer the overall speed and performance of Sys Restore, you may find them a bit sluggish.

Once you find a solution that works I'm sure you'll be a lot happier; you're not the first nor the last person to buy into the Sys Restore hype!

 

[Hexdur]

You've mucked up somewhere, whatever you did it doesn't sound like a System Restore the way you explained it. (System Restore from one drive to another?).

It seems to me that what you have is indeed a fresh Windows installation as you suspected.

You'll have to reinstall any applications that won't start.

Is system restore not the correct term? What I was trying to do was basically create a system image from my old drive for my newly installed SSD using a backup external drive. I did not want to delete my old drive just in case I messed up, so now I have 2 operating systems in my computer. Old drive and new SSD(which didn't create a system image properly). Do you have any advice on how to do this if I were to start over?