Windows 7 Clean install of windows.. How can I save installed programs?

[snarils]

Hi!

I need to do a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate, again. (if you recall my last post, you know why )

I'm going to wipe the drive and reformat and then reinstall Windows 7.

My problem is that I have some games installed which have rather large updates that I had to DL (took an hour or so). Is it possible to save these program files to an External drive in a way that would allow me, after reinstallation of Windows to restore the files without having to reinstall the game and download again the updates?

 

[snarils]

Anyone know of a way to do this?

 

[cybercore]

There is one way to back them up with all the updates if the games are steam-licenced.

If not, you can try copying them to another drive/partition, and then copying them back to their exact path locations after you reinstall 7. Don't forget their subfolders in My Documents and probably in other spots.

Again, remember your games' exact paths.