Windows restore

Excuse my ignorance - I'm new.
If I save the partition in which Windows is located can I depend on the ability to restore Windows?
I have a computer which did NOT give me any installation or repair disks, so if I cannot restore using this software I will have to buy Windows. I am running Vista Home Premium
Thanks for any help
DB

 

If you care for your nerves,get yourself immediately a good imaging program,make an image of the windows partition to an external USB drive,verify if the image is good or restore the image,then disable system restore(flush restore points) and your good to go.

System restore is wacky bad,don't rely upon it and over time it occupy too much space.

 

Yes get a imaging program, I have ATI. Windows Restore is dependent on the Windows .dll cashe. I seem to run sfc/scannow a lot, just so I can run system restore (sometimes a program goes on the blink and for some reason I can't re install it ). I even upped the size of the .dll cashe(so I wont have to run sfc/scannow as offen). But a better answer is a imaging program, I find it is not the total answer for me through.

 

get macrium reflect (it's free) and make a backup of your c: partition (where windows is located) save this backup on an external drive.

If you ever have your windows crash, you can restore this backup on a new hard drive or same hard drive and it will bootup your computer. This backup will be very similar to the recovery backups computer mfg include with there computers.

I've use macrium reflect several times to perform restores and it has worked everytime. Just make sure you test the boot cd, that it will bootup your computer so you can perform the recovery. This is a very reliable and inexpensive way to perform a full restore of your computer.

 

Normally most OEM machines have the option to create recovery discs. That should be the very first thing you do when you power up the system for the first time and most of the time it only lets you create one set. Have a look in your manual for creating recovery discs. You may also be able to purchase them from you computer manufacturer.

An imaging program and a place to store regular images is still a good idea as recovery discs only recover your system like it was when you bought it.

 

I've been using Paragon HDM for the past couple of years. I've got a clean image on my second HD, with the software I normally use included. It's saved me a couple of times when I've done something incredibly stupid and couldn't even get into Safe Mode.

 

Yes when it come to essentials in computing you can't deny that imaging comes first place,stuff like FDISR,Rollback Rx and his clones can also save you if needed.
Yesterday i did a test with the Erunt registry backup : made a registry backup with it,install the program (Notebook hardware Control),uninstall it with add/remove then i did restore the registry with Erunt and on next boot,yes unexpected hmmm...'' NTDRL is missing,use ctrl and alt and delete to leave. '' Maybe its an extreme case not related to Erunt and it could be the uninstalled software screw the MBR in one way or another.
A copy/update from archive with FDISR solved the problem.If FDISR could't help my in this situation,then i would restore an image.