05-01-2010, 11:51 AM
Just to let you know ebay:
Reformat: This completely wipes your hard drive and then you will reinstall your OS from there, so unless you get a backup of your files and put them on another hard/flash drive temporarily you will lose everything.
System Restore: This restores your computer to an earlier time. It won't change all settings to factory default UNLESS you create a restore point right after you do a fresh install of Windows. You can create restore points yourself but Windows also creates them automatically. Using a restore point does not delete your files or change them, but it does affect your programs. For example, if you installed Itunes after a system restore point, then once you go back it will be deleted and you will have to install it again, but if you put new music in your "My Music" folder it will still be there.
Hope that cleared things up.
Reformat: This completely wipes your hard drive and then you will reinstall your OS from there, so unless you get a backup of your files and put them on another hard/flash drive temporarily you will lose everything.
System Restore: This restores your computer to an earlier time. It won't change all settings to factory default UNLESS you create a restore point right after you do a fresh install of Windows. You can create restore points yourself but Windows also creates them automatically. Using a restore point does not delete your files or change them, but it does affect your programs. For example, if you installed Itunes after a system restore point, then once you go back it will be deleted and you will have to install it again, but if you put new music in your "My Music" folder it will still be there.
Hope that cleared things up.