Which Recovery Method -- Confused

[Neal360]

Theses are questions about options for creating a bootable recovery scenario.  Primarily, I am concerned about recovery from malware.  I have read the relevant portions of the user manual, but am still confused.

I have been using this laptop for about 5 years with no problems.  It is W10, 64 bit,  250GB of solid state storage, with a Recovery partition.

1. Will any of the methods, below, recover the laptop to its last restore point or must I always recover to the factory configuration?

2. Can I restore using the HP Recovery Partition on the laptop storage ?

3. Can I create and use a bootable DVD (external via USB) using the HP Recovery Manager ?

4. Can I create and use  a bootable DVD (external via USB)  using the "Windows Tools" identified in the user manual ?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Neal

[WAWood]

@Neal360 

First, I need to explain what system restore does.  When a Windows Update is done, the system components being changed or deleted are copied to a hidden location.  That set of stuff is known as a Restore Point.  It does not include applications or personal data.  So, the common view of System Restore being a "time machine" is mostly wrong -- all it does is find the saved windows components and copy them over the existing ones.

Thus, there is basically no way to actually reset a PC back the state it was in when a Restore Point was created -- which I think is what you are asking to do.

The imaging methods you mention reset the PC back to where it was when it was first opened by erasing and rewriting the entire contents of the drive -- so nothing is retained in the process.

Which I why I personally object to these being called "Recovery" methods -- because that implies you get your system back and don't lost anything in the process, when in fact, you lose everything in the process.

[Neal360]

WAWood - Thanks for the reply.

If I understand you correctly,  none of the recovery methods described in the

computer's user manual, ie,  Recovery partition, HP Recovery media (DVD) and Windows recovery tools

will restore the W10 operating system to the state it was in before the computer became inoperative,

for whatever reason.  These "recovery" procedures simply restore the computer to the

state it was in when it arrived from the factory.  Not to mention, that those procedures

will not restore to useability any user installed software or user configuration settings.

Did I get that right ?

If so, what method or combination of methods do you think is best preparation for a malware infection ?

I do back up my files regularly -- that's the least of my worries, and I have never (50 years! I'm showing my age!)

had computer hardware fail completely.  These days, I'm more concerned about infections or ransomware.

Thanks for any further advice

Neal