Help... Hard Drive Failure...

[BigDPW]

My main hard drive failed and I had most of the important files backed up on an external drive... Well almost... I would like to know the best way to backup files to an external drive for recovery in the future when someone has a chance to explain that to me. It seems the software that came with the WD My Book drive did an okay job with files that weren't .exe's... So I have all the data but not the programs to restore and am having to reinstall.

My biggest question right now is how do I go about getting my licenses for downloaded games (FM10, TEW, OOTP, FOF, etc) activated when I don't have access to the failed hard drive to "deactivate" the old drive and reactivate it on the new drive?

I know I can buy new licenses if I want. I also know that some come with multiple licenses and that will help some but others only come with one license. Also will I need to do anything for games that came from steam too or is that system less problematic for this hard drive failure issue.

Do you guys know where the licenses are backed up for most games in the file system? I may actually have some of that in my backup HD but I am not sure. The games exe's aren't there for sure from what I can tell.

Thanks!

[DaddyTorgo]

just contact the manufacturer/issuer of the digital license and provide them with the CC number that you used to order and have them deactivate the old licenses. explain it to them.

[MizzouRah]

If you have Windows 7, create a "system image" once a week. You will never have to install all your files ever again if your pc's HD crashes.