Konata said:
Hi,
I purchased vista today.
I want to install it on my computer WITHOUT losing the files currently on
the computer. I get to the "which type of installation do you want?" screen
and am given two options: upgrade lets me keep my old files, and custom
deletes them all. Except, "upgrade" is greyed out!! Underneath is a note
saying upgrade is disabled and that to select the upgrade option, I'd need to
"start the installation from Windows." What does that mean?! How do I do
that???
Please help
PS: The computer I am installing vista on is broken and will not let me on
even in safe mode, so I cannot move my files to an external drive or
anything. Thanks.
By "broken" I take it you don't mean physically broken. Back up your
data *first*. Here are some suggested ways to do that even if you can't
get into Windows:
1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install
of XP. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a
drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A
usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the
working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard
drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd.
2. Often XP will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file
system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE
or a Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here
is general information on using Knoppix for this:
You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw
OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an
external usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get
Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your
bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows
files. If you are using the usb thumb drive or the external hard drive,
right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and
uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note
that the default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix
(KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows'
double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn the files
to cd/dvd-r's.
http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder
As for the upgrade question, you need to start the Vista installation
process from within a working XP. Since you don't have a working XP,
you'll need to boot with the Vista DVD and do a clean install. You can
do a clean install with an upgrade version although it is not supported.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS252&q=clean+install+Vista+upgrade&btnG=Search
Malke
