Restore from External Backup Drive gave all files the same file date - HELP!

I’m using N360 ver 3 (with regular updates) and backing up on a regular basis to an external hard drive.  The backups were from a Windows Vista x32 laptop.  That machine stopped working, and I replaced it with a Windows Vista x64 laptop, and reinstalled the N360 v 3 software.  After restoring the files, I found that every one of the files restored had the date of restoration, the original file dates were gone.  Chat support has said everything from this is normal to we’ll get back to you, but so far no help.  Can anyone help - did I do something wrong, can I get my file dates back?  This can’t be “normal” - file dates are too important.