Clean reformat vs. restoring factory settings

For the purposes of cleaning up any lingering effects of trojans and other malware that my system contracted, I'd like to either reformat the hard disk or restore the factory settings. Which of these methods would be sufficient in repairing and Windows issues and cleaning out any virus-related occurances?

Also, I've got 2x 45GB partitions, one of which only contains Acer restoring files (~100 MB). Would it be sufficient to reformat/restore factory settings for just the main partition? Or would I have to clean both partitions in order to be safe?

Thanks!

 

if all you're worried about it getting rid of malware, then either option will work.

 

Like drumfu said, both will work. You just need to decide whether you want the junkware which comes with a restore or clean install.

I would clean both partitions just to be safe.

 

Clean reformat will be flexible for me. After a flesh installation of Windows, and application, i will make an image in 2nd partition. In the future, if the windows is corrupted, then i will use the image to recover the original partition. Of course, i have to backup or move all the data to 2nd partition first.

 

At least once a year and all my machines I use to

1. Backup up data / user files (some machines more regular than others )
2. Pop in the Windows CD
3. Remove existing partitions
4. Format NTFS
5. Re-install OS / Patches / Applications
6. Restore data / user files

A pain for sure but I get wiser as I get older (or lazier) now I add step 7 to the above - Image Hard driver so now it is

1. Backup most recent data / user files
2. Recover Image
3. Restore data / user files
4. Apply latest patches / updates

Steps 2 - 3 shaves hours off the reinstall process - well worth the $50 - $100 for image software (I use Arconis)