Vista Repair Install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom
  • Start date Start date
So from that article I would take it that the answer to the question Tom
asked is no.
Such as if you replace the motherboard and cpu do you have to do a complete
reinstall? In Windows XP you could do a repair install but it looks like in
Vista you have to do a complete install. Maybe an upgrade install would
work?
 
Dan said:
So from that article I would take it that the answer to the question Tom
asked is no.
Such as if you replace the motherboard and cpu do you have to do a
complete reinstall? In Windows XP you could do a repair install but it
looks like in Vista you have to do a complete install. Maybe an upgrade
install would work?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say the answer is "no" since a Repair Install in XP is not
only used when changing hardware. While it is certainly used when one
changes a motherboard, it is most often used when some parts of the
operating system have been damaged. Tom asked:

"Does the Vista DVD have the equivalent of a Windows XP "Repair Install"
so I said "yes" meaning that repair of the operating system was possible
from the Vista DVD.

It is probably more accurate to say the answer is "yes, no, maybe
depending on what you are trying to do". I have no idea if doing an
upgrade install would work in the situation you posit but perhaps
someone else has tried to do this and will know the answer. Or perhaps
you have a testbed machine and you could try it for us and report back.


Malke
 
Malke it is possible to do an 'upgrade' over the original installation of
Vista. I have tried it and it did work. A bit of a pain in the backside
when, after the upgrade had completed, and Vista nicely told me that I was
running an illegal copy (that's a laugh). But it was easy enough to sort
out. I haven't had time to update my website with the instructions for an
upgrade over the original, but i'm hoping to get it done soon.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
John said:
Malke it is possible to do an 'upgrade' over the original installation
of Vista. I have tried it and it did work. A bit of a pain in the
backside when, after the upgrade had completed, and Vista nicely told me
that I was running an illegal copy (that's a laugh). But it was easy
enough to sort out. I haven't had time to update my website with the
instructions for an upgrade over the original, but i'm hoping to get it
done soon.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much, John. Since I haven't had to do a repair of my own
Vista install and since not that many of my clients have gone to Vista
(only people buying new laptops), I don't have any hands-on experience
with Vista repair installs yet.

It will be a learning experience for all of us! ;-)

Thanks again and I'll keep an eye on your excellent site.


Malke
 
I believe, but have not done a statistical comparison, that the repair
install in XP is far more reliable and pretty much guaranteed to fix a
broken XP than any of the Win RE tools.

It would be very interesting to me to do a statistical study with enough
numbers comparing a repair install of Vista and the Win RE tools like but
not excluded to Start up repair.

You can sometimes fix Vista using one of the F8 options also, and
anecdotally but with no statistical comparison a system restorer from the
DVD recovery option (Win RE) seems to be more reliable than a system restore
from F7 on Vista.

CH
 
Hi Guys, Joe from Oz here a newbie. Customer brought a new laptop with Vista
basic, tried to install XP as dual boot, then deleted the XP partition in XP.
Thought Vista will still boot. Obvious it doesn't and no recovery disc, have
Vista serial, what do I do? Thank you in anticipation!
 
If he has no recovery disk then the vista operating system should be on a
hidden partition on the hard drive. Check the user manual to see how this is
accessed. With some it can be access prior to windows actually booting, i.e.
in the old dos type environment. You may need to reimage the drive from that
hidden image.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
Joe, as an addition to my last post you may find that the laptop
manufacturer has included either the original Vista repair options or a set
of repair options of their own. You really will need to study the
instructions that came with the laptop for this.

If there are recovery option available (it will probably be a case of
hitting one of the F buttons when the machine is booting (but again check
the user manual)) then you could posssibly 'repair' the problem by selecting
the startup repair options. The repair option will then check the laptop to
see what operating system is on it and, as it is simply a case of the boot
manager files being removed, recreate the boot manager. If this can be done
then Vista should boot when you reboot the computer. If no repair options
are available then the only other option is to re-image as stated in my
previous post. If you still can't get to the hidden partition to re-image,
then you may have to contact the laptop manufacturer and, for a fee, the
should be able to supply a recovery dvd of some sort.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
With the 'upgrade' repair, Malke, my curiosity got the better of me. While i
regularly image my drives and, at the time, i had only minutes earlier
completed a full image of the system I began to wonder what would happen if
i simply put the DVD into the DVD-ROM and asked it to upgrade over my copy
of Vista ultimate that was already on the PC. The only thing i had got to
lose was the time it would take me to re-image if anything went wrong so, as
they say on TV, 'don't try this at home, children' - well not unless it is
absolutely necessary. Fortunately, even though it took the best part of 4
hours to complete the new upgrade repair, it did work, with the exception
of, as i stated in my last post, the software now being declared as illegal.
However, all the relevant details of what to do and how to handle the
'illegal' part will be uploaded to my website within the next few days. At
least it is 'another' repair option.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
John said:
With the 'upgrade' repair, Malke, my curiosity got the better of me.
While i regularly image my drives and, at the time, i had only minutes
earlier completed a full image of the system I began to wonder what
would happen if i simply put the DVD into the DVD-ROM and asked it to
upgrade over my copy of Vista ultimate that was already on the PC. The
only thing i had got to lose was the time it would take me to re-image
if anything went wrong so, as they say on TV, 'don't try this at home,
children' - well not unless it is absolutely necessary. Fortunately,
even though it took the best part of 4 hours to complete the new upgrade
repair, it did work, with the exception of, as i stated in my last post,
the software now being declared as illegal. However, all the relevant
details of what to do and how to handle the 'illegal' part will be
uploaded to my website within the next few days. At least it is
'another' repair option.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your sacrifice, John. Better you than me, Sweetie. ;-) I'll
keep checking your website.


Malke
 
Hi JOhn, Thanks for all the help. I posted the reply from Acer elsewhere on
here in fact what it says is: We not giving you disks, if u stuffed up you
try the image thing and if it doesn't work please part with $66-00 of your
hard earned and donate it to our bank account......read in between the lines
"u stuffed and u going to pay". LOL.
Well I found a friend who has Vista home basic, used his disk and my key and
now have illegal software' with the key legally registered in my name' on my
laptop. Will have to go read your problem solver for that on your website.
Thank you for your great site, help and for sharing your knowledge with half
litterates like me.
The lesson I have learned: My company will never buy a laptop from Acer or
any other manufacturer pre loaded with system.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND. THANKS AGAIN. JOE
 
FYI, several people have now confirmed that doing an upgrade on top of a
Vista install that is malfunctioning has worked. I believe JimR was one of
those. In addition I passed the question to Darrell Gorter who said this is
workable option.
 
FYI, several people have now confirmed that doing an upgrade on top of aVistainstallthat is malfunctioning has worked. I believe JimR was one of
those. In addition I passed the question to Darrell Gorter who said this is
workable option.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

"Chad Harris" <fixvistabugsnow.net> wrote




That should have read arepairinstall"from F8" onVista."
Click to expand...

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

How can one do an in-place upgrade from outside of Windows?
 
An upgrade relies upon you already having an operating system in place. You
then upgrade from 'within' that operating system. The only option you have
from outside the windows environment is a full install and you can only do
that with Vista Business, Ultimate. Unless I've missed something I haven't
come across a way of installing Vista Home or Home Premium etc outside the
windows environment.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..


pat o. said:
FYI, several people have now confirmed that doing an upgrade on top of
aVistainstallthat is malfunctioning has worked. I believe JimR was one
of
those. In addition I passed the question to Darrell Gorter who said this
is
workable option.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

"Chad Harris" <fixvistabugsnow.net> wrote




That should have read arepairinstall"from F8" onVista."

"Chad Harris" <fixvistabugsnow.net> wrote in message
I believe, but have not done a statistical comparison, that therepair
installin XP is far more reliable and pretty much guaranteed to fix a
broken XP than any of the Win RE tools.
Click to expand...
It would be very interesting to me to do a statistical study with
enough
numbers comparing arepairinstallofVistaand the Win RE tools like but
not excluded to Start uprepair.
Click to expand...
You can sometimes fixVistausing one of the F8 options also, and
anecdotally but with no statistical comparison a system restorer from
the
DVD recovery option (Win RE) seems to be more reliable than a system
restore from F7 onVista.

John Barnett MVP wrote:
Malke it is possible to do an 'upgrade' over the original
installation
ofVista. I have tried it and it did work. A bit of a pain in the
backside when, after the upgrade had completed, andVistanicely told
me that I was running an illegal copy (that's a laugh). But it was
easy
enough to sort out. I haven't had time to update my website with the
instructions for an upgrade over the original, but i'm hoping to get
it
done soon.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much, John. Since I haven't had to do arepairof my own
Vistainstalland since not that many of my clients have gone toVista
(only people buying new laptops), I don't have any hands-on
experience
withVistarepairinstalls yet.
Click to expand...
It will be a learning experience for all of us! ;-)
Click to expand...
Thanks again and I'll keep an eye on your excellent site.- Hide
quoted text -
Click to expand...

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

How can one do an in-place upgrade from outside of Windows?
Click to expand...
 
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Hi revoddball--

This thread is confusing because the only message I see here is yours though
I've tried to download all messages, and I see a reply to Malke from John
Barnett, but I don't see the message from Malke he's replying to nor do I
find it by searching Win Live Mail.

However, I see what you wrote and I'll try to give you every possible way
you can repair your Vista. Let me know if you have any questions.

Summarizing your problem with the only message I see you say you can't boot
the box. You talk about Safe Mode, but I can't tell what you did at the F8
Windows Advanced Options Menu where you can and should try at least 3 Safe
Mode Options listed below as well as Last Known Good Configuration. You
throw in the information about your Mobo and moving from one Mobo (or
Mainboard as you call it) to another, and that raises a worry for me that
your problem could be with chipsets, etc. and hardware. I still want to give
you an organized description of the full panoply of software fixes for Vista
in case it will help.

In other words, I can't be sure if your problem is hardware because you've
mentioned switching from one Mobo to the next or software. If it's
software, my 5 approaches to the tools to fix have a high likelihood to get
it done. I'm familiar with John Barnett's helpful site that's graphically
user friendly for fixing a number of Windows Vista and related problems as
well.

) First try 3 options from Startup Repair. If you have a Vista DVD then
restart with it in the drive>press any key to boot from it and run Startup
Repair. From Startup Repair you have 3 good tools with an excellent chance
of fixing your system. If you don't have a Vista DVD from which to boot to
Startup Repair, no problem, Download the .iso from the link below and
burn it, and you'll have the Microsoft Vista Repair Disk with Startup
Repair.

Download Vista Repair Disk
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

How to Use Startup Repair from the Vista DVD or the Repair Disk you make:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial142.html

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx

2) If Startup Repair does not get your Vista back, then use the 3 bootrec
commands from the command prompt available on the Statup Repair Menu:

The menu I refer to is in this set of directions with a grey background.

http://vistahomepremium.windowsreinstall.com/repairstartup/repairstartup.htm

Those are:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuild BCD

3) If my second option doesn't work, then try System restore from the
Startup Repair list.

4) If by rare chance you have an actual Vista DVD, you can put it in, boot
from it>choose the Upgrade Option>choose your current broken Vista Drive and
try to do a repair install with the Vista DVD.

5) If the above 3 tools don't work, then use the 4 tools available by
restarting your pc and tapping F8 once per second to get to the Windows
Advanced Options Menu.

From this menu click on 3 Safe Mode links to use System Restore. Make sure
you try all 3 if one doesn't work, because just one of them may work.
Tap F8 to Reach Windows Advanced Options Menu Pictured Below:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/...ank/techbliss/Vista-Advanced-Boot-Options.jpg

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command: At the prompt you would type the command to use for
system restore at the safe mode cmd prompt is:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

If these 3 tools don't work, you have one more you can try which is Last
Known Good Configuration.

John Barnett references an upgrade repair or inplace Install of Vista in a
message to Malke. I can't see the message John is replying to. John says it
took 4 hours but worked. I've done several upgrade installs using Vista SP1,
Vista SP2, and very late builds of Windows 7 and they all work. Mine took
about an hour and a half and I have a lot of files and folders accumulated
from several years, but the variables there are your CPU speed, your RAM,
and the granular nature of the files and settings and folder numbers and
size on the particular box you're upgrading so your milage is going to vary
there.

All I can say is that if you have the Vista DVD, or in Win 7 the Win 7
DVD, it remains a viable option. Most people don't have the DVD, (you say
you do) but we can give theman option to burn a startup repair disc. A
utility for doing just that was buried in System 32 in Vista in SP1 and I
believe Vista SP2, although I formatted those two guys from my boxes long
ago. However in Windows 7 it is where it should be on the All Programs Menu
as I've shown by the screenshot at the link below.

Good luck and let us know if you have questions and particularly with the
mention of chipsets and mobo moving, is your problem a hdw problem or a
software problem?

CH
 
None of the Safe mode options work, and what has been done was a
mainboard replacement, but i made an image of the install with acronis,
so its a full clone of the drive. basically vista does not like its new
home and the repair finds nothing wrong and does nothing (looking at the
log all tests report 0x0 fro the code)

all that really needs to happen is to have the vista core components
returned to day one so i can "clear" the drivers as it were. with XP
this is a simple repair install and reinstall of drivers. a fresh
install is not a problem, but there is so much that was installed and
set up i was hoping to not have to a complete reinstall.

there are no restore points to recover from and if i knew a way to get
windows to drop the drivers before i imaged the drive i would in a heart
beat.

It was an old message so the email thread of this may be long missing
in that case.
Click to expand...

Revoddball--

I'm not clear as to exactly what you've done at F8 or anywhere else.
The 3 safe mode options to try are

safe mode
safe mode with networking
safe mode with command and there you need to use the command for system
restore which is
%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

It's important to use 'em all because one might work and the others might
not.

What happened when you tried Last Known Good Configuration at F8's menu or
did you? Ifnot try it. It doesn't depend upon having a restore point--it
has its own registry snapshot.

If you imaged it with acronis or have some .tibs as a backup--what was your
result using the Acronis backup or image? You didn't say.

Let's be clear. A repair install or as it's also called an upgrade install
with a Vista DVD or an XP CD does not lose anything and it often works.
The only reason I don't get more people to use it is that 99% of people have
neither the XP CD for XP, the Vista DVD for Vista, or the Win7 DVD for Win 7
when it RTMs sometime between the fall or end of the year.

Should you want to go back to factory settings, you either use your OEM
recovery disc or partition. Do you have one of either, and if so, if that's
what you want, why haven't you done just that?

When you say "drop the drivers" you mean you think a driver may be corrupt
and you want to replace it. The way you probably correct this is to

1) Do a repair install--Do you have a Vista DVD? I'm going to guess no.
2) In that case did you do a Startup Repair using the links I gave you?
3) Did you run the bootrec.exe commands from Startup Repair's command prompt
booting off the startup repair disc? I gave you the link where you can
download the .iso and then burn it.
4) Have you tried a startup repair?
5) If you made an Acronis image what's up with using that?

Let me know if you've done these things.

Thanks,

CH
 
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