Pros and Cons of Restoring from the Product Recovery CD versus Reinstalling from the Diagnostics and Utilities CD

As a general rule whenever possible I always recommend REINSTALLING a deleted application from the IBMBUILD directory of the Diagnostics and Utilities CD for the following reason:
Reinstalling a program in this way will replace *all* the files belonging to a given application (those belonging in \Windows, \Windows\System and elsewhere) wherein Restoring a program using RESTORE.EXE will only replace the files in the program directory itself.
The exception to this of course is Microsoft software. As IBM's contract with Microsoft that brings us Windows95 specifies that Windows can ONLY be reinstalled as a part of the complete software preload bundle IBM could not Include \Windows, \Mskids and much of \Program Files in the IBMBUILD directory. As far as reinstalling Windows and other the best that can usually be accomplished is a restore of these files.

To REINSTALL an application from the D&U; CD:

Click Start > Point to Programs > Click the MS-DOS Prompt
Insert your blue Aptiva Diagnostic and Utility CD
Type: CD\
Tap [ENTER]
Type: XCOPY G:\IBMBUILD\directoryname\*.* C:\ /S
Tap [Enter]
Type EXIT
Tap [ENTER]

Spacing is critical...thats:
XCOPY_G:\IBMBUILD\directoryname\*.*_C:\_/S
where "_" is a space.
Examples:

XCOPY G:\IBMBUILD\AIW\*.* C:\ /S
will reinstall Aptiva Installer
XCOPY G:\IBMBUILD\IBMAV\*.* C:\ /S
will reinstall IBM AntiVirus
XCOPY G:\IBMBUILD\RRESUME\*.* C:\ /S
will reinstall Rapid Resume
XCOPY G:\IBMBUILD\APTDESK\*.* C:\ /S
will reinstall Aptiva Desktop Customization.
NOTE: Check your IBMBUILD directory for EXACT subdirectory names as these vary from model to model.