Reset vs fresh Reinstall from Media

leegold · 01 May 2017

Hi,

What is the difference of doing a reset vs. wiping all partitions and reinstalling from media? Assume it's the reset that does not preserve user files. Of course the user has backed-up important files.

Is there a difference in action, or qualifiers to the answer to question posed above if the user upgrade from 7 to 10 vs. the had 10 from the start?

It seems to me that a PC performs "better" after wiping everything and doing a fresh install from media (after adding missing drivers etc...), but maybe I'm imagining it. And reset can sometimes freeze-up(?)

When would you do one vs. the other?

Thanks.

FerchogtX · 01 May 2017

I've tested both methods... honestly, I don't see any difference, refresh actually reinstalls windows, and you can even wipe partitions or not...
A good thing from MS I must say, unless the instalation gets completely corrupted, refreshing is such a time saver...

NavyLCDR · 01 May 2017

Quite a few people have posted on here about resets failing to complete and having to do a clean install to fix it, so I have never bothered doing a reset.

Ztruker · 06 May 2017

I've done several resets, saving nothing, and they worked but I ended up doing a Clean Install on both after awhile. Don't remember why but something must not have been working right.

Stevekir · 06 May 2017

An alternative could be to restore from a Macrium image. If the offending Windows installation is working, albeit faulty, running Macrium will offer a choice of images (dates) which you have made, to restore from. If Windows will not run, using a Macrium Rescue disk will run Macrium and also give access to the choice of images (above).

Unless the date of the latest Macrium image is very recent, as soon after restoring the Macrium image, Microsoft will detect that you need an update of Windows and it will be installed.

Josey Wales · 06 May 2017

My favorite is an in place upgrade repair if you have a DVD or other install media of the build. It basically reinstalls Windows and you lose no programs.

sn00ker · 06 May 2017

I could be wrong but this is what I believe . I would assume when one does a reset it just format the drive, formatting a drive does not erase all the data on the drive. Were by if one does a fresh install meaning deleting the drive and reformatting it should wipe all the data .

SoFine409 · 06 May 2017

sn00ker said:

I could be wrong but this is what I believe . I would assume when one does a reset it just format the drive, formatting a drive does not erase all the data on the drive. Were by if one does a fresh install meaning deleting the drive and reformatting it should wipe all the data .

Hi sn00ker. Formatting a drive erases everything on the drive.

Josey Wales · 06 May 2017

sn00ker said:

I could be wrong but this is what I believe . I would assume when one does a reset it just format the drive, formatting a drive does not erase all the data on the drive. Were by if one does a fresh install meaning deleting the drive and reformatting it should wipe all the data .

Nothing that consumers have erases every piece of data. As posted I prefer the in place update repair method. When I use Macrium Reflect to restore a backup, it wipes the drive then restores the backup.

DooGie · 06 May 2017

Josey Wales said:

My favorite is an in place upgrade repair if you have a DVD or other install media of the build. It basically reinstalls Windows and you lose no programs.

My preferred method unless I need to do a completely clean install.