Windows 10: Windows Image Backup versus Reset This PC

Newbie question: If I want to reset my computer, is it easier to go to Settings/Updates & Security/Recovery/Reset this PC. Or, should I make a Windows Image Backup? I recently asked about what was done in place of the old "Full Restore." People answered me but I feel out of my depth making a Windows Image Backup. I don't want to mess up my new computer now that it's working. I regularly back up my files on an external hard drive so I don't need a program that backs up my files. I just need to know what to do if someone happens to hack me and I need erase everything on my system and start from scratch.

:)

 

[HELP]Image recovery issues

Guys i am trying to fix my cousins Asus Eee netbook. It has a backup image file that is partitioned on the hard drive but when I go to use it the app will run through a few steps and stop. It is running Vista . Any suggestions?

 

Using network hard drive for backup

It depends what sort of backup you want to do. If you're happy just backing up regular files, then there are a bazillion (really, that many!) different bits of freeware to do that. There is a good list here:

Download Back Up Tools for Windows - MajorGeeks

and pretty much all of them can do network backups. Some even have fancy options like encryption. Really, the most useful thing is just being able to schedule them and know they ran OK.

You may also want to make a system image backup too, and you'll find that software in the very same list.

I don't have Windows 8 as yet, so I'm afraid I can't suggest any for that platform. Personally, I use Clonezilla for image backups.

 

Windows 7 Backup Image Question

Hey guys I was wondering if anyone with knowledge of the Windows 7 backup image can help me out. I make regular, monthly backup images of my harddrive and last night I messed something up with an AVG update. I updated, was having problems with CPU usage after the update and I tried a system restore to the previous day to fix things. Well this did not fix it. So I was forced to use the backup image.

This was my first time doing so, so I wasn't entirely sure on how to do it, but it was actually pretty darn easy. I've got the computer back up and running like it used to. Have my old AVG version back and no more high CPU usage. I've run ccleaner to fix any registry errors there might be, everything is checking out just fine.

Here's my question though. At the beginning of the process, there is an option to "format the PC's hard drive and repartition disks to match the layout of the system image." This is unchecked by default and I left it unchecked. A friend of mine suggests that I redo the process and reformat. Is this necessary for my situation? I could see maybe if I had a bad virus or something of that nature. Could I have messed up the registry by not formatting? Thanks guys.