Repair Install

[churin]

I did "Repair Install" often with Windows XP but I never been able to do
that with Windows Vista. With Vista, there is "Repair" option and if
that is not applicable then there is option for "Restore". But very
often the latter option is said to be not available.

My question is that when Vista becomes unbootable I want to carry out
Windows XP style repair installation. Is this possible to do with Vista?

 

[richk]

I will

thanks

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Churin.

For Vista, select Upgrade. As you probably know, "Repair Install" is also
known as "In-place Upgrade". In Vista, we just "upgrade" from Vista to
Vista.

I had to do it once, about 6 weeks ago. It was only moderately painful: it
took about 6 hours, much of the time I spent looking at a blank screen with
little or no feedback, or watching it reboot - again. But it finally
finished and only minor re-tweaking was needed. All my hardware still
worked and all my applications worked and my data was safe.

As I said, I did it only once, so I can't say if my experience was typical.
But I would not be afraid to try it again if sfc /scannow didn't work and I
felt there was no better solution. But I would try the simpler "Repair"
first, to see if just fixing the boot-up configuration is sufficient,
without redoing the whole operating system.

Let us know what you decide to do, and how well it works.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta 2 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 beta v.275)

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

A Microsoft employee talked about this in an earlier post about the same
method of rapairing system still involves booting from the Windows Vista
DVD, selecting System Recovery Option > on the setup screen select Repair
Computer > select your installation of Windows > choose the 'Startup Repair'
option, follow instructions.

Although its labeled Startup Repair, its actually misleading and does repair
issues beyond starting up the system.

 

[churin]

R.C. White and Andrea DA Costa, thanks for your responses.
I forgot to mention but "Upgrade" option, so far in my experience,
always is shown as "Unavailable". sfc /scannow is not an available
option since the OS does not boot. Maybe I overlooked something, so next
time I want to do it I will do it with what are suggested in mind.
Thanks again.

 

[Greg]

R.C. White and Andrea DA Costa, thanks for your responses.
I forgot to mention but "Upgrade" option, so far in my experience, always
is shown as "Unavailable". sfc /scannow is not an available option since
the OS does not boot. Maybe I overlooked something, so next time I want to
do it I will do it with what are suggested in mind.
Thanks again.

I just have time to read only paqrt of your post but if you cannot get the
system to boot then just use a bootable CD and install XP. Then complete
that install from which you can upgragde. I do hope this small bit of info
is helpful because I am in a rush and cannot spare the time to go beyond the
rudimentry instructions

 

[churin]

I just have time to read only paqrt of your post but if you cannot get
the system to boot then just use a bootable CD and install XP. Then
complete that install from which you can upgragde. I do hope this small
bit of info is helpful because I am in a rush and cannot spare the time
to go beyond the rudimentry instructions

I would suggest that you read the post before you spend your time
writing reply.

 

[Chad Harris]

Churin--

Andre makes a good point that Startup Repair can be used to repair things
beyond no boot situations, and it should always be tried. From that same
link though, you could run SFC--it likely won't help your no boot situation
by selecting "command prompt" and running sfc /scannow.

An inplace upgrade (Repair Install) is somewhat different. Consider it an
"uber SFC" and it replaces damaged files, extracting files from the Vista
DVD. You can give it a try and you also have a number of other options to
try like the F8 Safe Modes and LKG @ F8:

The repair install distinugished from Startup Repair would be done the same
way as it is done in XP in the link below:

You could also try a Repair Install with Vista which is done exactly the
same way as in XP:

***Repair Install Steps*** (can be used for Vista) MVP Doug Knox
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx


***Using the F8 Environment***

***Taking Full Advantage of the F8 Options (Windows Advanced Options Menu)
by starting the PC and tapping F8 once per second when the firmware screen
with the pc manufacturer's name shows a few seconds after restarting***:

The F8 options in Vista are the same as XP, and the link for Safe Mode Boot
options is labled XP by MSFT but they are the same for Vista (they haven't
updated to add Vista to the title as they have with several MSKBs that apply
to both).

Again, pressing F8 repeatedly when you seem the firmware screen may be is a
generic way to launch Windows RE on some OEM Vista computers.

You could also:

Think: I have 4 different ways to get back my XP at F8 and try 'em in order.
1) Safe Mode 2) Safe Mode with Cmd to Sys Restore which is simply a cmd
prompt in safe mode 3) Safe Mode with Neworking 4) LKG or Last Known Good
Configuration


Try to F8 to the Windows Adv Options Menu>try 3 safe modes there (I don't
use WGA) and Last Known Good>then I go to Win RE in Vista. That gives you a
choice of Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,and Safe Mode with Command
Prompt.

These methods are outlined in

A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP/and Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding System Restore from MSFT:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/faqsrwxp.mspx

System Restore can be run from the Win RE recovery environment from the same
link as Startup Repair, and sometimes it will work from one F8 safe mode
location or from the Win Recovery Environment when it won't work from other
locations.

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304449

Good luck,

CH

R.C. White and Andrea DA Costa, thanks for your responses.
I forgot to mention but "Upgrade" option, so far in my experience,
always is shown as "Unavailable". sfc /scannow is not an available
option since the OS does not boot. Maybe I overlooked something, so next
time I want to do it I will do it with what are suggested in mind.
Thanks again.

Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin] wrote:
A Microsoft employee talked about this in an earlier post about the
same method of rapairing system still involves booting from the Windows
Vista DVD, selecting System Recovery Option > on the setup screen
select Repair Computer > select your installation of Windows > choose
the 'Startup Repair' option, follow instructions.

Although its labeled Startup Repair, its actually misleading and does
repair issues beyond starting up the system.

I just have time to read only paqrt of your post but if you cannot get
the system to boot then just use a bootable CD and install XP. Then
complete that install from which you can upgragde. I do hope this small
bit of info is helpful because I am in a rush and cannot spare the time
to go beyond the rudimentry instructions

I would suggest that you read the post before you spend your time writing
reply.

 

[churin]

I did repair install or upgrade install only once before when I did
clean install by using Vista CDROM for upgrade version. Other than that
"Upgrade Install is not available" or something to that effect is
displayed for some reason.

By the way the circumstances under which I want to use repair install is
when I move HDD with OS installed to other machine or replace
motherboard so that any trouble shooting approach other than repair
install will work.

Churin--

Andre makes a good point that Startup Repair can be used to repair
things beyond no boot situations, and it should always be tried. From
that same link though, you could run SFC--it likely won't help your no
boot situation by selecting "command prompt" and running sfc /scannow.

An inplace upgrade (Repair Install) is somewhat different. Consider it
an "uber SFC" and it replaces damaged files, extracting files from the
Vista DVD. You can give it a try and you also have a number of other
options to try like the F8 Safe Modes and LKG @ F8:

The repair install distinugished from Startup Repair would be done the
same way as it is done in XP in the link below:

You could also try a Repair Install with Vista which is done exactly the
same way as in XP:

***Repair Install Steps*** (can be used for Vista) MVP Doug Knox
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx



***Using the F8 Environment***

***Taking Full Advantage of the F8 Options (Windows Advanced Options Menu)
by starting the PC and tapping F8 once per second when the firmware screen
with the pc manufacturer's name shows a few seconds after restarting***:

The F8 options in Vista are the same as XP, and the link for Safe Mode Boot
options is labled XP by MSFT but they are the same for Vista (they haven't
updated to add Vista to the title as they have with several MSKBs that
apply
to both).

Again, pressing F8 repeatedly when you seem the firmware screen may be is a
generic way to launch Windows RE on some OEM Vista computers.

You could also:

Think: I have 4 different ways to get back my XP at F8 and try 'em in
order.
1) Safe Mode 2) Safe Mode with Cmd to Sys Restore which is simply a cmd
prompt in safe mode 3) Safe Mode with Neworking 4) LKG or Last Known Good
Configuration


Try to F8 to the Windows Adv Options Menu>try 3 safe modes there (I don't
use WGA) and Last Known Good>then I go to Win RE in Vista. That gives
you a
choice of Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,and Safe Mode with Command
Prompt.

These methods are outlined in

A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP/and Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding System Restore from MSFT:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/faqsrwxp.mspx

System Restore can be run from the Win RE recovery environment from the
same
link as Startup Repair, and sometimes it will work from one F8 safe mode
location or from the Win Recovery Environment when it won't work from other
locations.

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304449

Good luck,

CH

R.C. White and Andrea DA Costa, thanks for your responses.
I forgot to mention but "Upgrade" option, so far in my experience,
always is shown as "Unavailable". sfc /scannow is not an available
option since the OS does not boot. Maybe I overlooked something, so
next time I want to do it I will do it with what are suggested in mind.
Thanks again.

Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin] wrote:
A Microsoft employee talked about this in an earlier post about the
same method of rapairing system still involves booting from the
Windows Vista DVD, selecting System Recovery Option > on the setup
screen select Repair Computer > select your installation of Windows
choose the 'Startup Repair' option, follow instructions.

Although its labeled Startup Repair, its actually misleading and
does repair issues beyond starting up the system.

I just have time to read only paqrt of your post but if you cannot
get the system to boot then just use a bootable CD and install XP.
Then complete that install from which you can upgragde. I do hope
this small bit of info is helpful because I am in a rush and cannot
spare the time to go beyond the rudimentry instructions

I would suggest that you read the post before you spend your time
writing reply.