Solved System Restoring and Formatting

W

Wandering Flame

Banned
I was wondering, since a system restore is basically restoring your system to a state it was at before, does it have anything to do with files you have deleted/moved etc. (will a system restore undo file deletions?), or does it have only to do with things like the registry? (restoring key entries in the registry) What does it have to do with and not to do with?

Secondly let's say you purchased a dell, it's going to be at factory condition, meaning it has windows and a bunch of other stuff on it. You install a fresh copy of windows via a windows cd, thereby deleting every driver and utility on there and have only a seemingly useless thing.

1. Will a system restore bring your computer back to factory condition? (the way it was when you bought it)

2. I also guess you can do a system restore if and only if you have a system restore point. How do you make one and how can you tell you've made one before? (in other words how can you tell you made one at a certain point and how it is like? Or, if someone else made one for you, how can you check this and what the restore point is like?)

Thanks a bunch.
 

My Computer

System One

Hello Wandering Flame,

You can read more indepth details about System Restore in this tutorial. It basically restores only your system files, registry, and installed programs back to how they were for the date of the restore point. Files in your user folders will not be affected by a system restore.

A system restore is not the same as a OEM factory recovery. Unlike a system restore described above, only a OEM factory recovery will format and restore Vista back to factory condition like the day you first turned it on.

Correct. You can only do a system restore if it is turned on and you have a restore point available. When on, Vista will automatically create restore points before certain changes (ex: some Windows Updates, driver installations, some program installations, etc....) are made to the system. You can also manually create restore points when you like. You can read more about creating restore points at the links below.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76332-system-restore-point-create.html

and

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72805-system-restore-point-shortcut.html

and

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76256-system-restore-undo.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Thanks a lot, man. Oh you're the admin! I thought you were some important guy after making all of those articles.

Ok so, say I booted my pc from a vista cd, and installed a fresh copy of vista. With your computer knowledge does this alone say that I can't in any way restore my pc back to ANY point before the re-installation of a fresh windows vista? Just wondering, because this is what I did and I was kinda hoping I can bring my computer back to the way it was before I did a "custom" installation of windows vista (they call it custom but it is nothing but a fresh new copy of vista).

I also read recently it has no effect on files and folders, and only affects system files and registry, etc.

Ok, so files and key entries are different. I guess these are the only two things on a computer...right? I admit I am not so computer savvy, despite what some people say (they are just computer tards actually) and I thought before I was going to be a pc genius when I grow up. Ehhhh, wrong.

You know how everything on a computer ends with ".something"? like .doc and .exe...mp3, and so on. I guess these are called file extensions, codecs, or both.

I recently added registry keys (for folder options and other stuff) on my XP which got infected, after hearing some computer viruses actually ADD registry entries in your registry thereby screwing you up...

Well, when I added entries (for folder options, that is, the option to see file extensions in folders) I realized I pretty much had to open up notepad, paste something in it and save it as a ".reg" file. Well, this is a file right? I double click it and my computer says it added it to the registry. Is it adding a file to the registry or a key (which I guess is the other thing that computers have)? Thanks a bunch.
 

My Computer

System One

When you do a custom install (not formating) , it places all of your files from your previous installation in the "C:\Windows.old" folder, then wipes everything out and reinstalls Vista fresh. You can restore the computer back to the Windows.old, but it is not recommended and may not always work properly.

When you do a clean install (formated), everything is wiped out and there is no going back to the previous installation.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
I booted the laptop from the vista CD and ran an installation that way, and I deleted my main drive, C as well as my E recovery drive, and installed vista on what was left, which was "unallocated disk".

Is this a clean install?
 

My Computer

System One

Um lol yes. Anything that was factory default, is now gone. When you use a operating system disc like the Vista cd you used, it wipes out the hard drive; this is formating the drive. By formating the drive, you erase all data on the drive and then install a new fresh/clean install. So anything "Factory" like is now gone, forever.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway/Acer NV5214u
    CPU
    AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 QL-64 Dual-Core Processor (2.1GHz, 667MHz
    Memory
    4096MB Dual-Channel DDR2 sDRAM Support
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon® HD 3200
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic pnp
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    320GB SATA hard drive
    Mouse
    alps pointing device touchpad
    Internet Speed
    comcast broadband plus
Wandering Flame,

As Matt posted, yes this is a clean install. Everything you had on the hard prior to doing a clean install of Vista is permanently gone.

Unless you have created a set of OEM recovery discs, you will not be able to a factory restore anymore. You will have to use the disc that you installed Vista with instead from now on.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
My machine came with the vista CD as well as the dell software that was installed on it, which are the only things other than vista that was on the computer.

My laptop is back to normal except without the the E recovery drive, which is not important unless I want to format my computer from an undeletable virus, but I can also do that with the vista cd (if my disc drive works by then) or maybe there's a nother way of doing a format from the control panel, I don't know, Anyway the difference between the two is that the E recovery will reinstall windows (I guess) and all the other stuff you had on your computer, whereas without it you would have to manually download drivers from Dell's site, which takes like 5 minutes.
 

My Computer

System One

I'm happy to hear that you got it all reinstalled. :)
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
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