System Restore or not

worried_jim

I've had my pc for 3 years now and it is a bit slow. I have an external 1tb drive which backs everything up once a week, would doing a system restore help speed things up like they used to be or do I risk damage and data loss?
Or am I just barking up the wrong tree?

closed

If you mean a system restore to factory settings, that will speed it up, whether you lose data depends on how good your backup is. 2 Backups to different media (DVD + HD) are more resilient than one.

The alternative is to post a hijackthis log, and specs (ram + commit charge from task manager) for your machine, and details of what's slow, also do a full scan with malwarebytes and fix anything found.

aliEnRIK

worried_jim wrote: »

I've had my pc for 3 years now and it is a bit slow. I have an external 1tb drive which backs everything up once a week, would doing a system restore help speed things up like they used to be or do I risk damage and data loss?
Or am I just barking up the wrong tree?

When you say system restore, you mean a clone of your hardrive from the external drive? Whats the furthest back you can go and for how long has your system been slow?
Can you do a complete system reset (Back to how it was when first bought) like closed said?

JJ_Egan

System restore as in Windows own system restore may help but it is not the solution .
Three year old PC full of junk files and registry entries only one cure .
Wipe the lot and start with a clean install of Windows .

jje

worried_jim

I don't have a windows disk (its a vista machine purchased when it first launched). I really wanted to get it back to box fresh if possible, everything is pretty secure on my external I am thinking that the only hassle would be setting up Windows mail again.

closed

If it's branded, it should either have a method of creating the disc, or have a system recovery partition

worried_jim

its branded acer and I know the hard drive is partitioned.

closed

erecovery is ALT F10 at boot, make sure your backup is readable first, as there is no going back

worried_jim

closed wrote: »

erecovery is ALT F10 at boot, make sure your backup is readable first, as there is no going back

and this will take it back to how it left the factory?

and how would know if my backup is readable, you mean the data I have stored externally?

closed

yes.

Read the manual, erecovery section for more details, or run it in windows

and yes, check you can read it, everything is there etc, including mail if you have been downloading to machine. The method and format of your backups may be relevant too.

If you want to be sure, use disk imaging to your external hard disk, then if anything is missing, you can be sure you can get it back to the way it was. Free tools to do it are - Seagate/Maxtor drive can use maxblast, western digital - acronis SE, the rest macrium reflect free.

worried_jim

Right all done and the system is back to the day I got it, which includes Norton, now I want to get rid of this and put avg on, can anyone recommend a good way or removal toll to do this ?