I am using Acronis Trueimage to backup my hard drive (well just the Program Files tree because music and templates etc can be cut and pasted), but I have been told that some, if any, programs will not work at all because I will not have the accompanying registry settings for the applications in my Program Files folder.

I will be replacing my HD with a new one, and installing Win Server with XP MCE (my original OS) as a dual boot before I install any major apps (Visual Studio, SQL Server, etc).

However, Acronis True Image has not informed me about registry settings or asked me to back them up. Can I backup my registry and merge the settings with those of Win Server?

Question is, if I restore my images to my new OS, will they work? This is the first time I have run a backup using an app so I lack the experience to know.