Long story short (or not):
My main c:/ drive crashed and burned on me causing me to lose everything I had on that drive (software programs, the 'my documents' folder, 'my pictures', etc etc). I took my computer in to a specialist and they weren't able to recover anything from my hard drive because it was totally corrupt. I literally broke down in tears in front of the guy, because while I did have some things backed up to an external drive, there was a ton of stuff that wasn't (important files/documents/photos that I completely forgot to backup).
The good news is I have up-to-date backup copies of all of my graphics, psd files, fonts, most of my brushes, styles, actions, other important files and documents, etc etc... due to those things being on my secondary hard drives. So thank god for some small mercies!
I have 3 hard drives on my computer:
1) my main c:/ drive I use to install all of my important utility programs like anti-virus software, microsoft office, photoshop, illustrator, etc etc.
2) my secondary hard drive (e:/) I use to keep all of my graphics related files and folders, artwork, home business stuff, etc.
3) my third hard drive (f:/) I use to install all of my games (I'm a big gamer geek), since most games take up a lot of hdd space, I like to have them all installed on their own drive to free up room from my main and secondary drives.
4) I also have a humongous external hard drive that I save backup copies of the most important documents, files, folders. I apparently don't backup often enough (as I've learned the hard way) and I've realized that there's a ton of other stuff on my computer that I also need to backup too.... mainly that all-important "my documents" folder that most software programs, game programs, and the Windows O/S usually defaults to for things like save files, operating files, etc.
Needless to say, I've been spending the past couple of weeks reinstalling programs, drivers, codecs, script languages, internet/email, configuring things, setting up my computer, and basically trying to get my computer back to the way it was before the crash.
But Photoshop has been the biggest setup nightmare of them all... (brushes, brush groupings, gradients, styles, actions, fonts, workspace layout, file preferences and settings, etc etc)... you all know what I'm talking about. 
All those years of hard work getting photoshop set up and running and looking just the way I need it to be, is now all flushed down the tubes and I have to start from scratch.
I honestly have no idea when or how long it will be before I can get back to designing scrapbooking graphics or whether or not I'll even be able to participate in the October blog train (which is only a couple of months away)... although I do have my mini kit ready for September's blog train (yay!). But there's no way I can get back to making stuff until my Photoshop program is completely up and running with everything installed properly.
So here's my question:
Is there any way to backup the actual full Photoshop program itself (as well as Illustrator) so that the program saves and keeps all of its settings, preferences, workspace layout, installed brushes, styles, etc ? Is there a way to backup photoshop completely as a whole entire entity that I can copy/paste the program files (.dll files, etc) back into the program folders to easily recover the program back to my original setup if my computer ever crashes again and I need to reinstall photoshop (yet again)?
Any help or advice from anyone who's computer savvy with this kind of stuff would be greatly appreciated... the thought of having to go through this with Photoshop once again sometime in the future turns my stomach into knots.
I'm crossing my fingers and hoping there's a solution to never having to go through the long tedious horror of setting up photoshop from scratch again?
Help?
When you go to C:/Program Files/Adobe there is a folder for every version of PS (and ID) you have on your computer.
Have you tried copying that folder to an external HD?
Maybe this way you also copy your preferences? I really don't know... but I know the preferences are saved somewhere, because when I had to reinstall, the program asked if I wanted to keep my preferences...
If you want to make sure you keep your (selfmade or installed) brushes, actions, etc. you must also copy them to the subfolders in the presets folder (C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019/Presets). That way they stay there and will show up in the list for easy loading (same as the default brushes or actions). Then it will be easy to find them again when you have to reinstall. Don't forget to add new brushes, actions etc. to your back-up as well!
Hope this helps...
I save all my brushes etc to an EHD .... once I lead photoshop to them it finds them and they are backed up on another EHD ... it also keeps the software clean so it runs more efficiently ... the only thing on my main drive besides the software itself is the current project I'm working on.
Thanks for the tips ladies.
I have backup copies of my brushes, actions, styles, etc. That's not the problem. The problem is the entire setup of photoshop.
For example:
- reinstalling all of the dozens upon dozens of brushes and then reorganizing all of those brushes in the preset manager into cohesive groupings (to easily find what I'm looking for).
- reinstalling the dozens of styles and actions and then reorganizing all of those things in the preset manager into cohesive groupings.
- reinstalling the dozens of custom shapes and then reorganizing all of those things in the preset manager into cohesive groupings.
And so on and so forth.
As per what you mentioned Patricia, yes I will for sure be copying the entire program folder and subfolders to an external hard drive once I have everything set up again. Thanks for the great idea, that's a big help! I just wish I knew whether or not any of those folders contain the actual needed files where PS saves the settings, preferences, workspace, organized brushes previews, etc. Or if photoshop actually saves that info in some other folder somewhere else on the computer, like maybe in a Windows system file folder somewhere?
Photoshop definitely saves your settings somewhere on your computer, otherwise every time you open the program it would look completely different than the last time you used the program (it would go back to the default setup). As an example: If you go into your preset manager and move a bunch of brushes around (let's say you want to group all of your watercolor brushes together in a certain order), photoshop will save your new setup and your watercolor brushes will always be in that particular order in the brushes preview every time you open up the program. So photoshop is definitely saving your setup somewhere in your computer system.... it's just a matter of figuring out exactly where those settings are being saved to (are those settings being saved in one of the program folders? Or are they being saved somewhere else in your computer system?).
I just want to make sure that I'm truly backing up the entire program, as is.
This way if there's ever another hard drive crash, I can reinstall photoshop and then simply copy/paste any one (or all) of those backup program folders/files (over-riding the newly installed program files) to easily put photoshop back to exactly the way it was before the crash... without the need to spend days/weeks reinstalling and reorganizing each individual brush/style/action/swatch/palette/gradient/custom shape, etc etc.
I'll be curious if you find anything out Brenda. I know sometimes my Photoshop crashes and everything gets reset and it's so annoying. Also, sometimes when it updates everything gets reset.
Check under C:/Users/<your_username>/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop <version>/Presets/...
You'll probably need to set your computer up to show hidden files and folders in order to see the AppData folder.
Personally, I'd recommend backing up the whole AppData folder so you can copy over whatever files you need, but know that it's HUGE if you're doing lots with graphics and gaming.
On my computer I keep one drive for the OS and my programs, and then a second larger drive as storage (and have an external drive I do backups on). All my custom/downloaded brushes, styles, patterns, presets, etc. are saved on that second drive rather than the OS drive.
I know with CS2 (the version I currently use) allows me to save my custom workspace (palette locations, keyboard shortcuts, and menus if desired), and I can then go to the Adobe folder and find that saved workspace to back up if need be.
Ooooh the AppData folder! I never thought of that, thanks Holly!
Yup, I can see everything in there.... workspace files, keyboard shortcuts, custom document sizes, all the program .psp files for brushes, actions, tool presets, preferences, etc etc. Sweet!
Checking the current size of my AppData folder, it's only 6GB thus far. I still have about 500GB left of free space on my EHD, so I can easily copy over the whole shabang for a while yet before it fills up.
Now the next time there's a crash, I can simply copy the old files over the new install and presto, Bob's your uncle!
Happy dance!
Thanks for the tip Holly!
Glad you got it figured out. Thanks for the tip! I save all of my brushes and styles, etc on an external hard drive as well as the zip files of all of my scrapbooking kits and my personal photos and documents.