My computer dies during vista upgrade

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Guest

So I got myself a vista ultimate and tried to install, everything went smooth
until the computer had to restart. Vista appears to load, and is followed by
a blue screen basically saying that I've hardware change. I have an HP Media
Centre PC (Which should be more than up for the task) With 2 usable SATA
HD's. Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE. A dual-core Intel Processor @ 2.13 Ghz. And 2
Gig Ram. I don't know what the problem is, but m drivers/bios is updated. I
can't do a system recovery (it just takes me to another screen) and I can't
use another version of windows (alas takes me to the recovery console
instead). All types of safe mode end up in a restart as well and last known
good configuration too. Nothing works, and I don't even know why Vista not
only fails to complete installation but brings down my computer instead. My
Vista was started virtually via deamon tools and the vista upgrade advisor
told me everything was good to go (and my hp computer has a sticker which
reads "Vista Upgradable"). I have baught recovery disks and when they come
I'll have to renew my computer (which means I lost all my pictures,
documents, and music). At this point I'm afraid to upgrade again, but if
anyone can tell me what to do I'll give it another shot.

Thanks, Tom
 
Tom said:
So I got myself a vista ultimate and tried to install, everything went
smooth
until the computer had to restart. Vista appears to load, and is followed
by
a blue screen basically saying that I've hardware change. I have an HP
Media
Centre PC (Which should be more than up for the task) With 2 usable SATA
HD's. Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE. A dual-core Intel Processor @ 2.13 Ghz. And
2
Gig Ram. I don't know what the problem is, but m drivers/bios is updated.
I
can't do a system recovery (it just takes me to another screen) and I
can't
use another version of windows (alas takes me to the recovery console
instead). All types of safe mode end up in a restart as well and last
known
good configuration too. Nothing works, and I don't even know why Vista not
only fails to complete installation but brings down my computer instead.
My
Vista was started virtually via deamon tools and the vista upgrade advisor
told me everything was good to go (and my hp computer has a sticker which
reads "Vista Upgradable"). I have baught recovery disks and when they come
I'll have to renew my computer (which means I lost all my pictures,
documents, and music). At this point I'm afraid to upgrade again, but if
anyone can tell me what to do I'll give it another shot.

Thanks, Tom
Click to expand...

Assuming the PC is in warranty period.I would call HP tech support.
 
Since you can get into recovery console, if you know the commands, you can
copy off your pictures, documents and music to your cd before you do the
restore. You may have to find out where Vista put them, or you could be
lucky and they are where they were in XP
 
Hey Tom,

I think I'm having a similar problem while trying to upgrade to Vista
Ultimate.
During the first reboot I'm receiving a "disk read error" - in other words
there is no real boot sector any more.

Though I don't have a solution to get Vista working I might have one to get
your Windows XP back running.

Insert your WIN XP disk into your drive and start the repair function.
Within the repair function you have to select the system you want to repair
(normally it's option 1 - C:/Windows).
After you did that you enter "fixboot". This option should repair the boot
section of XP and then - after a reboot from harddisk - your good old XP
should be working again.
Then you can remove the temporary (not working) bootfiles Vista put on your
disk.

I have the impression that the "expand"-part during installation failed to
complete. In my case after around 20% during the expand-section the computer
told me he had to reboot. Same with you???

By the way - so much for the upgrade-advisor. It gave the green light for me
as well. And I also had new drivers, patches, updates etc., so everything
should have worked.

Hope this could help you to get your machine working again.

Regards

Mike
 
Well my Hp came with windows pre-installed, which is a fancy way to say they
give you everything but the cd, which is probably the most important part. I
just ordered the recovery disks to get back to XP and I do believe I can
recover my PC from there. Life without a computer is really tough!! But no, I
still believe PC's are better than Mac's. It seems Micha and me have a
similar problem, I'd like to see Microsoft tackle this responisbly, it seems
they just rushed the whole Vista thing enitrely.

John B: If I find my files, how do I get to burn them onto a DVD from the
recovery console?

I still don't think I'm going o try to re-install Vista until I can get
support at HP to tell me exactly what I have to do and if there's been other
problems with my model. So much for the Vista hype...

Thanks,
Tom.
 
Hey Tom, it's Micha (changed my nickname),

that really sucks!
I had my Windows XP pre-installed as well, but at least they gave me
recovery-discs. In addition I copied my harddisc to an external drive so I
would have been able to just copy it back in case XP-recovery failed.

Lots of people seem to have difficulties installing Vista (just like we do)
because Vista has problems with certain memory sticks. Take one out and it
works and the like.
But I'm not going to play around with that until I know for sure what the
problem is.
I'd like Microsoft to publish some sort of upgrade-advisor that really works
....

Hope you'll get your system running again pretty soon. Computers can make
your life miserable, but without them ....

Greetings from Germany

Micha
 
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