Twice since I have had my new PC I have lost the system and needed to use the assist button. In as much as it kept my data it was fine, however all the programs I had loaded were lost. As there are many it takes me ages to re-instate them. Is there an easy way to save the contents of the Programme files (x86) and re-instate it?
I believe there are facilities where you can create a 'ghost' or 'clone' copy of the drive. Whether it will get around reinstalling programs, I don't know, but someone will.... :)
Have you any idea what's causing the issues in the first place? Obviously, to address that might save future problems from occurring.
No idea whatsoever Simon
Once you get windows up and running and everything installed that you need/want.
Create a "image" of the drive, you can use Macrium Reflect for this.. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
That way, you can just restore the drive with the image when something goes wrong, remember to backup personal files though (E.g. documents, pics etc)
Any OS is very stable these days, you shouldn't lose the system unless you've got a hardware issue,malicious or accidental file deletion or malware/trojan activity.
An imaged drive will restore to the previous state provided any faults have not been carried over to the image.