Restoring back up from a different laptop?

[jonesy86]

I've got a laptop that has died and have everything backed up on an external hard drive.

When I get a new laptop will I be able to restore that back up from the old laptop on to the new one, so that all the files and programs will be on it?

It's probably a dumb question but I've never done this before so not sure how it all works.

 

[Jesus Baulks]

Of course. External hard drives aren't locked to only one computer.

 

[MarcusP2]

Backed up how? Unless it was a drive image you won't be able to just copy across your programs and have them work. Even then it may be iffy if your laptop has changed a lot so your driver installs are wrong.

I would reinstall your programs manually but you will be able to restore your docs/videos/files no worries.

 

[jonesy86]

ok, thanks for that, not 100% sure what type of backup it is, i assume i just did a standard one on my portable hard drive

so there is no way of restoring that back up with the programs working as normal?

 

[MarcusP2]

Probably not, unless it's a drive image as I said. But unless they're restoring to the exact same computer they can be iffy as all your hardware will be different.

A 'normal' backup wouldn't contain programs by default I wouldn't think anyway, just your My Documents and the like.