Can I RESTORE my PC from WINDOWS.OLD folder?

[DarkFudge2000]

Hi folks, I dont really know how to explain what I did, but I can tell you what I am now trying to do.....

I had my Win 8 PC recently crash and lock up several times on bootup...so I was finally able to load windows in safemode and I tried to restore from a previous restore point. All looked well when Windows rebooted and said it was restoring from an older point, but somehow the Windows 8 Pro CD in the DVD drive triggered a fresh install and I really dont know why....

However, the fresh install seemed to have put my previous desktop install into a folder called Windows.old.001

It looks like my old profile and app installs, file structure and everything is there, so my question is this.....is it possible to restore my PC back to my old desktop that had all my Firefox old favorites, stored passwords, PC games, settings, drivers, apps, everything back to the way it was? Or is that no longer possible now that Windows recreated a new desktop install?

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated thanks

 

[Burpo]

It is possible that you could drag & drop programs with associated folders & files etc. to the new install, but highly unlikely. Best to do fresh installs of your programs, then delete the Windows.old.001 folder..

 

[Bubbaleone]

It sounds like you (inadvertently) performed what's called an in-place upgrade, not a clean installation. This How-To Geek article walks you through How to Restore Your Files From the Windows.old Folder After Upgrading.

.