I would also like to add something because the original poster appears to be a little new to computers. You need to be very aware of what the term "backup" really means. You can "back up " files, which makes a copy of the files. You can't "back up" a program by copying the folder from the hard drive to a backup device. There are supporting files in other directories that are necessary to run a program.

For example, if you install "Bob's Program" onto your hard drive, Bob's Program will install to C:\Program Files\Bob's Program, as well as create Windows registry entries that are not exactly the same on every computer. Also it will call up something known as .dll files that are located in the C:\Windows\system32 folder. (That means "dynamic link library".) If you were to copy C:\Program Files\Bob's Program to an external device, reformat your computer, copy Bob's Program to C:\Program Files\Bob's Program on the newly loaded hard drive, Bob's Program will not run because the supporting files and registry entries are not there.

DATA (files that a program reads and interprets) can be copied. PROGRAMS (the executable program that reads and interprets data) must be installed.

As an analogy, if you have a photo of you called mypicture.jpg, that is a DATA file and will not do anything by itself. A PROGRAM like Irfanview, Paint, Photoshop, Windows Image Viewer.... will INTERPRET that data and display the image. However it is important to understand that the PROGRAM is what runs and just reads and interpret data. I see a lot of customers who don't understand the difference between an executable program and a data file. Note, one is a program, the other is a file.

Hope this was not interpreted as speaking down to you, but as i said, I see a lot of people who don't understand the difference.