Restoring everything from old windows

[Achint2000]

The back story

Spoiler

Today I tried to install windows 10 and for that, tried to convert from MBR to GPT and it ruined my boot sector. Tried to use a disk partition as USB flash drive for boot sector transfer but that all trashed and didnt work at all. While using diskpart, accidentally entered "clean" in wrong disk and it erased all partitions to unallocated. Used EaseUS partition manager to recover - recovered fine.

Now I couldn't get my Windows 7 to boot. I tried literally everything. The windows disk recovery is totally trash. It simply doesnt ever fix anything, just says that this version of windows isnt compatible or it cannot fix the problem. (Is there a way to properly fix Microsoft's ridiculously unnecessarily complicated boot sector/file/manager?)

So I installed another copy on another partition of the same SSD. Now that booted fine. All I want is, that old windows installation, everything back, exactly the same including themes, programs, registry, EVERYTHING.

I have all the old files.

Spoiler

Program files
Program files (x86)
Program Data
Users
Windows
... basically everything old

Now I have a hell lot of programs there, registered softwares, LOTS of games, themes, and specially, over 50 GB of updates including Windows Update, game updates like GTA 5, COD Ghosts etc. I dont wana sit and waste all that time and internet bandwith again.

Is there a way to completely restore everything from the old files?

Or the other way could be if I can boot the old windows somehow. Can that be done?

I've had it with Windows. Past 7 years, every once a while something happens for some reason and it just can't boot.

So I have 2 options here:

Spoiler

Rebuild old windows boot sector, probably impossible as nothing related to boot makes any sense

or restore everything old

 

[Alabalcho]

The way to "completely restore" is from a backup you've made when everything was OK.

There is no way you can transfer installed programs, their settings, registrations etc between two Windows installations. Just cant.
And before inflicting even more damage on your damaged partition - make first an image backup before turning to someone who knows how to restore boot files.

 

[photonboy]

There's no simple way to do what you ask, barring buying a copy of Windows 10 and let it try to UPGRADE the original partition (Delete the new partition first).

Otherwise, you would need to reinstall everything from scratch if you can't figure out how to repair Windows 7's boot.

*Have you tried to get to the RESTORE POINT recovery option of W7 repair? (System Restore)
http://www.dell.com/support/article/ca/en/cadhs1/SLN151680/how-to-run-a-startup-repair-on-windows-vista--7--8--81-and-10-operating-systems-on-a-dell-pc?lang=EN

I assume "Startup Repair" is what you mean you tried and that fails?

 

[USAFRet]

All I want is, that old windows installation, everything back, exactly the same including themes, programs, registry, EVERYTHING.

Just to add to the "No" pile....that's not gonna happen.

This is specifically what backups are for.
My backup routine is such that I can recover from the previous 1AM.
Full system...all drives.


And before any major hardware or software change...a full drive image is the final step in prep before hitting the Go button.
Always have a fall back position.

 

[Achint2000]

I've been exactly here like a hundred times. What I usually do is, copy and overwrite all non-microsoft related data, including program files, program data, user app data, user documents, etc. Then I have a backup HDD on which I have all my downloaded setups. I just reinstall them and they work every time. As for the games which aren't on steam, I just used GTA 5's CD installation and it just added registry keys and stuff. As for the themes, use WindowBlinds8 and a skinpack from 2014 so reinstalling both of them worked fine as well. Adobe Creative Cloud softwares, a simple install should work. As for simple things like Skype, appdata will do. So, I guess it will take a lot of manual time to be done... No software for this found in past 7 years. Just the Windows Updates cant be transferred, including registry.

As for some good news, I fixed my old Win7 installation.
At first, when I had converted the OS disk from MBR to GPT using gptgen.exe which totally messed up my boot sector, I was trying to get something from Windows recovery environment, I accidentally cleaned my OS disk and all it showed was "unallocated". Then I used EaseUS Partition Manager from my laptop, used my USB HDD, shrink-ed 8 GB out of it and created it as an NTFS bootable partition using the USB tool. Then I put the HDD on my desktop, booted from it and it perfectly recovered EVERYTHING in like a few seconds. All three original partitions out of 6. The difference was, it said "Simple MBR disk" where I had converted it to GPT. For a moment I thought I lost all my files but I browsed them and they were all perfectly there. Just three partitions were lost, which were all empty, all system reserved, made from an aborted windows 10 installation a while ago. When the partition had I made for Win10 was recovered, it was somehow created as a logical one.

I tried again but got too annoyed so I just angrily deleted both system reserved partitions on my SSD (One original, other one to which I was trying to recreate boot sector in).Then I installed a copy of same Windows 7 on that logical disk partition, it worked all fine. Just thought to give it one last try, I wanted to go to the command prompt again but as I clicked "Repair your system", it found some errors and a way to fix them even before prompting me to ask which windows installation to recover (where it always says this version of windows is different or something). And it had plans to restore bcd from a backup i dont know where came from. So I clicked "Repair and restart". Last time (2-3 hrs ago?) when I tried this, it froze everything and just took mouse input. This time, it rebooted instantly and I saw 2 Windows 7 in dual boot, one renamed to "Windows 7 Ultimate (Recovered)". I just hit enter on that and it simply worked. Happy as ever. Past 7 years, this is the first time windows built in recovery tools actually worked xD

So to sum up, I dont have this problem any more.

On a totally different topic, what exactly do backup softwares do to keep all this intact and why in the world is windows booting system so complicated? And can I create backups from a windows which doesn't boot anymore? (so that I can format and restore)

Thanks a lot for your replies.

 

[USAFRet]

Backups are what you create before the system gets messed up. It creates a snapshot of how the system is 'right now'.

And the windows booting process is no more, or less, complicated than Linux or Apple, or any other modern large OS.