Windows 7: Restore backup or fresh install?

Hello,
I currently have Windows 7 64 HE installed on a OCZ Vertex Gen 1 SSD. Lately it has been acting very sluggish and restarts take 3-4 minutes from the "shutting down" screen to the "welcome" screen. My question is should I do a quick format and reinstall from a system backup image or just do a complete fresh reinstall? Thanks

Clean install. Restoring from backup imports whatever problems existed when the back up was done.

Hello scar69, welcome to Seven Forums!



If you really want the best space to reinstall Windows 7 to then do a wipe (secure erase) the the SSD, a format removes nothing; have a look at this tutorial at the link below and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

   Note

Contrary to popular belief, formatting does not remove any data at all, it just checks for sector errors and marks the space to be over-written as needed, all the data is still there including all the code from previous/failed installation attempts.

I do a fresh install then restore from a pristine image.
(game saves, drivers, programs, user settings, win updates,etc...)

Wow, you guys are fast. So if I go ahead with the fresh reinstall how do I save my programs and data (music, pics, etc)? Is there a way to back up certain files without doing a system image backup? Thanks

How do you make a pristine image?

I call this the "baseline image" made right after setup while everything is running great but no time for corruption to creep in. This creeping corruption is what you want to avoid by saving a baseline - even it you save newer images and choose those first to see how they pan out.

When trying to save multiple images it is best to put the older image in a new folder titled "baseline image" etc, so that it doesnt' get overwritten by the newer image. Later if you want to reimage from baseline, it will have to be put back into the root of the HD named exactly WindowsImageBackup to be detected.

I just found where I can choose which files and folders I want to backup. If I select Program Files, Program Files (x86) and Program Data would I be able to restore all my programs to their current states? Or will I still have to reinstall them all along with activation codes?

With a Backup Image, everything is reimaged exactly as it was the moment the image was taken.

To reinstall you must reinstall programs, as they write Registry Keys which integrate them into the OS. There is no need to backup the Programs files or Data, and I would not import AppData settings as it is a corruption path into a fresh new install.

I would really like to back up my profiles for firefox and thunderbird. Is it alright to save those, I believe they are located in the appdata folder?