Bob,
So we're clear; you had an external hard drive that Recovery was using to backup, correct?  If so, then yes that is possible.  You just need to reinstall the Local Recovery Agent using the /reinstall switch which should allow you to select the old backup partition on the external drive.  We actually don't use the Local Recovery option here (and all the limited testing we did with it was using local partitions on the laptop/desktop) so I'm not sure on the exact process.  You can check the documentation here:
Local Recovery Help
Local Recovery User Guide

Also, was the Recovery Solution installed on your computer when you bought it, or are you a business user and your IT group installed it?  In either case you may need to contact support for assistance.

Kyle,

Thanks for your response.  Yes, I have an external hard drive that an image and snapshots were being saved to.  I have installed the recovery agent on my new PC, but it wants to create a new partition and image before letting me access any of the software options (i.e. any recovery options).  Altiris was installed on my laptop by our IT group years ago, but they have since claimed to no longer support this product.  Is there anyone there that you could recommend I get in contact with to work out the details.

Thanks again.

Bob Davis 

Nice.  If we tried telling one of our users "We don't support that software anymore, even though it would allow you to recover all your files if we even tried, so sorry you lost everything", that person would be out the door...

I would try removing the RS Agent again and reinstall it.  The easiest way to do this is to go to the location of the AgentSetup.exe, then open a "Run" box (click Start/Run).  Delete everything in the Run box, then drag and drop the AgentSetup.exe to the Run box.  After the .exe, add a space then /Reinstall and /LocalOnly.  So it would look like this (be sure to put "  and  " around the first part if there are spaces in the path):
"C:\Altiris Installation\AgentSetup.exe" /Reinstall /LocalOnly

 Is the installer file called "AeXLRPLocalAgent.exe" or something else?  Does it seem to recognize the existing partition if you point it to the external drive after installing?

Did you try with just /Reinstall?  I would try that next.  Sorry I can't provide exact details, like I said we don't use Local Recovery here and I just don't have any experience with it... :-\

Hi
Did you ever get it working as I am in the same situation today
My laptop drive broke, got a new one install, now I need to restore some of the files.
But I cannot get it to look for the existing partition