Backing up plugin presets and stuff

Hey guys I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but I have to ask. So I've had Reaper installed on one computer since I began using it as my DAW a long time ago. I've backed up all my settings and preferences, export, etc. Now concerning my saved plug-in presets. How do they work with restoring Reaper and importing configurations? You see, I recently reinstalled Windows, and of course Reaper, but before I re-imported all my saved settings and preferences and plugin presets, I wanted to test out the machine and make sure Windows was OK. Well, during the brief time playing around testing Reaper, I stumbled upon some new sounds and so I made a few random presets with a few of my plug-ins. I couldn't resist :) Killer sounds. But, now I didn't want to lose them so I resaved a NEW set of config files. Ok so now. My question is, concerning plugin presets (and any other settings that are NOT either one way or another) are they saved those as separate configuration files from light previous back my question is will these config files overwrite each other when I go to re-import back into reaper and bring my system to where it was before I install Windows again? - or will they merge together. Perhaps I will lose either presets too? ::( Basically my question is if I have several different reaper configuration files other than the obvious Windows overwriting of them, can I merge them somehow in Reaper or do I have to lose either set of great presets cuz I can't have both? Cumulative or not?

Are those files editable so I can maybe use Notepad++ and copy and paste to merge them manually?

Do you mean Reaper presets? (or VST fxp/fxb files?) If so, then yes they can be merged in a text editor. Just make sure you change the number of presets and the preset numbers suitably). Or, if you have now created some new ones you should be able to Import the old ones (presuming that you Exported them as a Reaper Preset Library previously). Otherwise: -- Export the new ones as a Library, -- load the old ones, from wherever, -- Import the new ones. I've never done this so make back-up copies of the files before you start.

Reaper presets, yes I believe. Like I don't save presets in the plugin itself, I use Reaper's container box. Is that what you mean? If I save presets in that fashion, will they overwrite or can I merge them if I have more than one "file" configuration saved? Copy and paste? Thank you for this. I don't know how to begin.

^^^^ Click the [+] on the FX Chain window, for the menu. You'll need to do that each plug-in. [Options] > Preferences > Export exports Reaper's configuration, not plug-in presets.

Yes, it's the + button on the FX window from where the export/import features can be accessed. But the configuration package will also include a folder called Presets, which does have the fx presets as well. Haven't finished testing all the differences yet, but so far it seems to be safer to save as .rpl presets separately, so in the possible case where imported configuration would overwrite something, it's still available in that format too.

If you still have all your presets, no, you're not screwed at all I hope. I think RPL stands for Reaper Preset Library (?), that's how it seems to behave at least. The RPL file will contain all the user presets you have there in the fx combo box. For the Reaper JS effects this is the only way to export/import presets from the fx window. For VST/VSTi there are also the FXP/FXB formats you can use to export/import your presets. What seems to happen when you save a preset is that the preset data is written into .ini file named by the given FX. Those ini-files reside in a folder named presets. This folder in turn is included in the saved configuration package, unless purposely left out of course. So there are many ways to export/import your presets (for the JS only rpl) and they are also saved when you back-up if you so decide (configuration export). I remember reading that there are limits to how many presets a rpl file can contain (128?), but I haven't touched that limit yet and I do use the FXP/FXB also where I can. The reason I mentioned just rpl earlier is that I've been a bit concerned about imported configuration files possibly overwriting some JS presets, VST/VSTi I have safe/saved in FXP/FXB into different locations anyway. Or put the other way, while saving VST presets has been the habit for a long time already, it's easy to forget the ones (JS) which just always seem to hang in there...until they are lost for some reason.