How do I wipe clean and reinstall Windows from the recovery drive?

Oh, so that's why it was a "tough call"...

Glad I dodged that one. Enough PC troubleshooting for me, there always seems to be something that begs for immediate attention... Still, I managed to accidentally uninstall PowerDirector... Grrr...
Should've done a backup restore point first, eh.

Yesss. Thanks, Windows indeed had saved a backup. So I rolled it back to a certain restore point (glad I didn't clean them up). And after a few unlucky attempts I had to uninstall the antivirus and a firewall, and only then the recovery worked. All good.
(Lesson to take home: don't be too quick to clean old restore points.)

A little follow-up...

OK, so it wasn't all good after all, because although the recovery did work, it's pretty much useless as there are files missing, like the .exe files, I guess defeats the purpose... *facepalm*


I had AVG and ZA firewall.
Now instead of ZA (had some issues) I downloaded GlassWire.
So you're saying I don't need them?

Kinda feels a little unsafe... Are MSE and MBAM (got it) really sufficient?

Qukis said:

A little follow-up...

OK, so it wasn't all good after all, because although the recovery did work, it's pretty much useless as there are files missing, like the .exe files, I guess defeats the purpose... *facepalm*

I'm guessing by "recovery" you mean using the restore point you referred to in post #13.

I've seen many threads and problems where Restore Points don't work correctly, or at all.
That's why many folks here use System Image backups.

A System Image backup is a COMPLETE snapshot/backup of the system - [C] drive.
Restore Points are NOT a complete backup of the system.
Also, Restore Points can be deleted at any time without your control for various reasons.
And, they are always online, stored in the [C] drive, and can be corrupted by malware.
If the HD crashes for a hardware fail, all recovery options that depend on that HD are gone.

I use Macrium Reflect free for System Image backups, and that is recommended by many others here.
When you get a stable system, consider creating System Image backups and storing backup images on an offline storage device.
That way you can recover to the point in time you created the System Image backup.

And, create a System Image backup periodically, as often as you want to.
How much you change your system and how much you are willing to lose and redo is up to you to decide how often to create a System Image backup.

The latest Macrium Reflect free version also has Differentials.
These just save changes since the last FULL backup, are smaller, and run quicker.

You can read about Macrium Reflect (free) here:
Macrium Reflect Free
I prefer to download from MajorGeeks rather than the site Macrium uses for downloading.
Download Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - MajorGeeks

I wish I had known of this before, thanks, saving that.


After these unsuccessful attempts at restore operation, Advanced Uninstaller cleaned up a hell lot of registry errors and bits of files...


Anyway, I'm starting to think about upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10...
7 just doesn't run smoothly on this machine, always something eating up CPU - up to 100%; either update installers or .NET processes, etc.

I wonder if Win 10 is worth all the fuss.

It's actually good to have options.

Thanks again, saving that too. If I run into further issues, I'll most likely do exactly that before upgrading.
I'm gonna wait till all the necessary Windows updates are installed on what I have now; sometimes it solves the hiccups.