Before reinstalling Win7 on my computer
I made a complete backup on a 16G thumb drive.
Question: If I instruct the thumb drive to re-install the files, what will happen to the newer files sitting on my hard drive since the reinstallation? Will they be overwritten? Will all my space be clogged up on the hard drive now? I'd imagined that when I inserted the thumb drive with the entire backup of the original hard drive stuff, I'd be able to just click and open any files from the thumb drive instead of reinstalling them, specifically to the hard drive.
Would reinstalling that backup from the thumb drive alter the settings currently on the hard drive?
IS THERE A WAY to view the files on the thumb drive w/o reinstalling them to the hard drive?
= new reply since forum marked as read
I still don't know what will happen if the computer's hard drive gets too full and I'm unable to reload the files I actually want.
Will I get a chance to choose where the backup files are downloaded? I do have an external hard drive that I could plug in temporarily. This was a whole system backup in case my reinstallation of Win7 failed. And since I'm happy with the new, slimmer reinstallation, I wouldn't mind doing a different whole system backup on the thumb drive to replace the first one.
Does it show that I've never done this before? 
Which program did you use to make the backup?
Go to an Explorer window, click on Organize at the top left, select Folder and Search options. Under the View tab untick the box for "Hide extensions for known file types" and hit the OK button. Then go to your thumb drive's letter and see what files it lists. What is the three/dour letter extension at the end of the (one?) large file(s)? See where I have a .json file that is the extension.
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You probably used Windows Backup. I'm not familiar with it because I have always used other programs like True Image, Macrium Reflect and Todo Backup. Of those I think Macrium is the only one that is still free and very reliable. Something to think about for the future.
Anyway, I made a Windows backup to see how it works. Once you have file extensions showing you should see a large .vhd file which would be your backup. ( I can't say for sure if that .vhd file is a hidden file. I may have had to tick the circle for "Show hidden files" and/or untick the box for "Hide Operating System Files" under the View tab in my previous post in order to find it. I did have several windows that asked me to click continue to get permanent access to the folder so you may see those.) This is what my backup folder looks like:
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I'm a little concerned that your backup fits on a 16gb flash drive because the Windows backup doesn't seem to compress much and I would expect your backup to be slightly larger but if you can find the large .vhd file and give its size we can go from there. Your flash drive should have a WindowsImageBackup folder which should have a folder with your computer name and then a folder with a long name that includes the backup date. You can see my folder list in the address bar of the above screenshot.
It definitely looks like you can extract specific files from an image file (.vhd) if you have one. You may want to read through these two step by steps to get an idea of the process to see if you have any questions. Both are very reliable sources and if you choose a guide you prefer I can test it out to see if there is anything not mentioned.
I'd read Brink's post first since he is very thorough: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/24771-system-image-extract-files-using-disk-management.html
You may find this post easier to understand if Brink's sounds too complicated but Brink provides a bit more understanding if you are interested. http://www.howtogeek.com/125704/how-to-extract-individual-files-from-a-windows-7-system-image-backup/
So, see if you can find a large file with the .vhd extension and tell me its size. Then we can go from there. If you are confident ot go forward just pay attention to the warning in Brink's post on the sevenforums under Option 2, Step 5. You do not want to delete your image file while unmounting the virtual disk.
Both those guides are good. I love SevenForums and Brink's post because they just work and give a bit of an explanation and caution when necessary. They seem complicated with all the screenshots making it seem more convoluted than it really is but they actually are useful in going step by step.
Read both posts when you get time and ask any questions. As long as you have a relatively full 16gb flash drive the files you need will probably be there to be recovered. I only noticed that my rather large win7 installation which takes up 40gb was imaged by Windows Backup at 31gb so only a 25% reduction. A small Win7 installation would be 24gb so it should need 18gb to be fully backed up using that program. I'm hoping you have everything backed up and perhaps I have more files than usual that can't be compressed more than they are but your backup seems a bit small. I hope I can help you keep your backup complete so we can figure out what is what. 
