I crashed my machine after reloading some .NET framework files. Since windows no longer loaded, I used the HP Recovery disks and did a full backup to both DVD and USB of my hard drive. Then I went ahead and let the recovery disks reformat and reload the system to factory. I went to use recovery manager to re-install all those apps and files, but all it did was copy all the stuff to a folder on my C:\ drive. SO the dozen or so apps (quicken, genealogy, adobe paintshop & pdf, MS SQL) are not loaded. Yet it appears that my entire system is sitting in a file folder. Great if I only wanted data, but I really would like to use the apps without reloading it all from scratch. I did not find any executable files to start such a reload. I was happy with my machine before the crash, and if I could have done a simple recover to before I installed those files, I would have done so instead of the reformat. Alas, no matter how far back I went, windows was pretty much DOA.
I Have an HP Pavillion with win7.
Is this a lost cause?