Restore Applications and Settings from a Drag-and-Drop Backup?

[Euki]

The hard drive on my late 2009 27" iMac slowly spun its way to death last week. While it was dying, I was UNable to do a Time Machine backup (the dying drive couldn't handle it), but I WAS able to manually drag-and-drop my photos, music, documents, etc. safely to an external drive.

At the same time, I also drag-and-dropped the contents of my Applications folder, as well as everything from my system Library in order to try and save my application settings, etc. (Wishful thinking, but hey, you never know...)

My question is: Now that I've had my hard drive replaced by Apple, can I repopulate my Applications folder and system Library folders and regain my old settings without having to reinstall all of my programs manually? (i.e., CS5, 3D programs, etc.)

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Zach Schible]

Some of them should be able to work if you do that, however I think a lot of apps rely on your User folder Library to work.

 

[Euki]

Some of them should be able to work if you do that, however I think a lot of apps rely on your User folder Library to work.

Thanks for the response Zach. I did copy my User Library folder as well. If I populate the folders appropriately, do you think I have a chance?

 

[Zach Schible]

Thanks for the response Zach. I did copy my User Library folder as well. If I populate the folders appropriately, do you think I have a chance?

I would think you have a pretty good chance and think it is worth the try. I can't guarantee it will work so definitely make a backup of what you have before you proceed. Make sure you replace both the system and user library folders. Best of luck!