Reinstalling Vista without deleting all my programs

[Hogulus]

So, here's the thing - I bought my Dell XPS M1330 laptop with Vista already
installed on it, but Dell sent the original DVD along with it, so I still
have it. I've looked this up, and apparently I should be doing the "Upgrade"
install, but when I try to do so I get a message that the upgrade install
mode is disabled. Is there anything I can do without deleting all my
programs / files / what-have-you? (I don't mind getting rid of my Vista
settings, though.)

Oh, and if anyone's wondering what the problem that's making me reinstall
is, about 30 seconds after I boot up in normal mode, everything stops
responding at once, and after a while the screen sometimes turns black. It
runs fine in safe mode, though - and, yes, I suppose I could manually go
through the list of services disabled in safe mode, reenable them one by one,
and find the conflict, but I'd really rather reinstall Vista than do that.

 

[John Inzer]

So, here's the thing - I bought my Dell XPS M1330 laptop with Vista
already installed on it, but Dell sent the original DVD along with
it, so I still have it. I've looked this up, and apparently I should
be doing the "Upgrade" install, but when I try to do so I get a
message that the upgrade install mode is disabled. Is there anything
I can do without deleting all my programs / files / what-have-you?
(I don't mind getting rid of my Vista settings, though.)

Oh, and if anyone's wondering what the problem that's making me
reinstall is, about 30 seconds after I boot up in normal mode,
everything stops responding at once, and after a while the screen
sometimes turns black. It runs fine in safe mode, though - and, yes,
I suppose I could manually go through the list of services disabled
in safe mode, reenable them one by one, and find the conflict, but
I'd really rather reinstall Vista than do that.

=======================================
Before you begin...it would be best to backup your
important/personal files.

Maybe the following articles will offer some ideas:

How to automatically repair Windows Vista using Startup Repair
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html

Windows Vista Repair Options
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/windows_vista_repair_options.htm

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://support.microsoft.com/ph/695

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[peter]

I would and have done so in the past reinstall into the same directory...if
you have a full version of Vista
I did it with an "upgrade" version
peter

 

[Mick Murphy]

By the sound of it, you are trying to do an "Upgrade" by booting from your
CD/DVD Drive?
That is why Upgrade would be unavailable.

You do an upgrade from within a running version of Windows Vista.

Start Vista Normally, insert disk quickly, and hopefully you have time to do
it properly.

You can not do it in Safe Mode.

One thing you could try in Safe Mode is> go to a command
PromptStart>programs>accessories>command, right click "Run as Admin"))>
type in: sfc /scannow
hit "Enter"