Which Retail DVD Will Perform Repair (Upgrade) Install?
Feb 8, 2008
Couldn't really tell from the Repair Install tutorial, so which retail version of Vista do I need to purchase, so that I can perform a repair install, via "upgrade" of Vista? As I look at my OEM Home Premium disk, it has the options to install ALL versions of Vista, so does that mean I could buy the cheapest retail version, use it and perform a repair install of my OEM version, by simply selecting the correct OS as per your "Repair Install" tutorial, and then go from there?
Basically, I would like to have a "God" mode DVD, that allows me to a)perform a repair install of existing Vista installs, and/or b)perform a clean install, and to be able to do a) or b) simply by telling the installation process which version I have (Home Basic, Ultimate, etc.), and whether the copy is retail or OEM. I thought this is why Microsoft WENT to the DVD that would allow all installs, simply by selecting the right OS and OEM or Retail.
My daughter's ASUS Vista Home Premium (64 bit) laptop has the dreaded empty list in "Turn Windows options on or off". I have tried everything to fix it including:
-running SFC /scannow -setting an earlier restore point (unfortunatley the oldest is 5 days, as Windows Update keeps creating restore points when before it fails to install updates) -running KB931712 standalone -remove the reg key HKLMCOMPONENTS /v StoreDirty (not present).......
I know that retail versions of Vista Ultimate come with media for both 32-bit and 64-bit installation and that the same product will work for either. Machines that are purchased with Vista pre-installed come with either 32-bit or 64-bit versions, but there is no way to change from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version, ever if you have 64-bit hardware. The COA on the bottom of the machine says Vista Ultimate, but does not say 32-bit or 64-bit. I have been told that you can reinstall Vista onto machines that originally came with OEM versions of Vista using retail media and activate using the OEM-supplied product key. (This is different from XP, where retail disks will not activate using OEM product keys). My question is whether I can install Vista Ultimate from a retail 64-bit DVD (that is licensed onto a different machine) and activate using the OEM key and whether or not Microsoft thinks this is a legal use of their product.
I'm running Vista Business x86 and thinking of upgrading my single core CPU to a dual core CPU. Will this be transparent to the operating system or will a repair be necessary?
I have a question about Vista. I currently have XP installed however it seems to be a corrupted install as software, i.e. Internet Explorer, downloaded software, etc, gets uninstalled and won't work everytime I turn off the PC. I was wondering do I need to purchase the full version of Vista Basic or can I use the upgrade. I have read on one website that the upgrade won't work but on another website it states that corruptions will be repaired with the upgrade. Which is correct?
I have an HP notebook with Vista Home Premium and after running SFC I have a few corrupted files.
Question is there a way to bring in the original files when the OEM didn't send an install DVD or will offer one at all?
All I have is the recovery partition with the option to "repair to original factory condition" which from what I gather means erasing all my settings and personal files.
I have made a recovery disc (from the partition) and I have the "Anytime Upgrade DVD," and I'm curious is there any way to access the upgrade DVD to get to those files or even do a real repair of Vista without losing settings and personal files?
In wanting to do a repair install (keeping existing programs etc), on running Recovery CD, I get the message.
"Upgrade has been disabled vand cannot be started. To upgrade, cancel the installation and then choose to upgrade to a version of windows that is more recent than the versiopn you are currently running"
I'm running Vista Home Premium (fully updated) but suspecting that I may have a problem, I thought I could do a repair install but it seems all I can do is either a clean install and thus lose everything or upgrade to I assume Business or Ultimate Editions of Vista. Why can't I do a repair install from Vista Recovery CD?
I am running Vista Home Premium and want to do a "repair install." I have an OEM DVD with Vista. I have performed the repair process in the past (I think it was called Upgrade), but now that I have installed SP1, it won't work. I slipstreamed a DVD with SP1 according to the tutorial, but it still indicates that the existing version of Vista is newer than the one on the slipstreamed DVD and says that the upgrade functionality is disabled.
I noticed on the tutorial that you need a Retail version of Vista to slipstream with SP1. Is the OEM version different than the Retail version? Is that why I cannot do a Repair Install?
Having found out I need to remove SP1 before I can do a repair install, is it possible to slipstream SP1 with the recovery CD to create a new one in case I need or to do a repair install in the future
I had to install a new Motherboard. The CPU, Hard drive and all the other hardware are the same. Is there a way to get Vista working again without doing a totally new installation of Vista and all other programs?
I accidentally put vista into sleep mode. The video was all garbled and it was clear there was an issue. So, I hit the reset button on my tower to stop the mess. My next boot I got the error.
File: Boot/BCD
Status: 0x0000001
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data. It says to put in the windows installation disk and "click repair your computer." The issue is when booting to the DVD, on the page with the moving green bar and it says Windows Vista under, it hangs. I even left it there for 2 hrs. The HDD LED on my computer is solid the whole time too. All my hard drives are SATA and they are in AHCI which is turned on in the BIOS. Perhaps changing the drives to IDE would help?
Anyways, Id like to get into that repair CD so I can fix my boot sector so I dont have to reformat. This has happened before and Ive had to reformat. Im sick of it, I dont want to reformat Vista again. Incase you didnt already know Im using Vista Ultimate x64.
I would like to try a system repair but when I put my windows vista premium disk into the dvd player it only gives me the option to install and not repair. How do I go about getting the repair option?
a lot of the free partition managers get you to the point of "next time you boot you will get this error, just put in your Vista install CD and do a repair" yadda yadda. What about the millions that don't get a CD when they buy a PC? Got to be some way to fix the bootup stuff without restoring an entire image.
I have Vista Home Premium 32-bit, on Dell Inspiron 6400. After a repair install, I now have two problems: - Although there are 75 Windows Updates in the list, I have tried several times over the last two days to install these. So far, only a few are marked "Successful". The great majority are marked "Failed". - There is no SP1 available in the list of updates.
Here is the history:
- My laptop was pre-loaded with Vista (no SP1). The OEM DVD was also SP0. - I installed SP1 when it became available. - A few days ago, I neede to do a repair install. So I uninstalled SP1, and did a repair install as specified in Brink's tutorial: Repair Install For Vista - As far as I know, the repair completed successfully. There were no "Files discarded by Windows Upgrade" (Maybe this is important!). I was not asked for my product key, or asked to activate Vista. - Immediately after the repair, I launched Windows Update, and found the two problems noted above.
BTW: To the best of my knowledge, my laptop is working fine. The minor glitches that prompted the repair install have disappeare.
I have a Dell Inspirion E1505. 1.73ghz core duo, 2 gb Ram, 80gb hdd. I had been running Linux on my laptop. It ran fine. I decided to sell the laptop and realized I'd have to re-install the Vista OS that came with the computer. After a successful install and the downloading of all updates, including SP1, I noticed a problem when I attempted to change my power options. When I clicked on the drop down menu, it showed me all the options, I chose what I wanted and when it retracted, it went through every option and then settled on the one at the top of the list. It did this numerous times. I then clicked on set to default and that worked. I had downloaded spybot search and destroy and attempted to install it. When it came to the select language portion, it was on Afrikaans (top of the list), I attempted to change it to english and it would quickly rotate through all the languages and stop on Afrikaans, again, numerous times. I googled the problem to no avail. I then figured that one of the updates had a corrupted file or something and restored the syatem to the very first point, again to no avail. I then decided to do a repair install, that didn't work. I then decided to do a complete re-install, when I get to the set the time and date,I choose Eastern Standard Time and it then rotates through all the choices in seconds and stops at the very top one. I am Lost and could sure
I installed a game that had the starforce driver as a requirement. Afterward my computer became unbootable as Vista x64 requires all signed drivers and this starforce driver wasn't. So following the advice of both Windows Vista's error message and some documentation online I did a Repair from the Vista DVD.
After the repair the computer booted but now my profile is severly messed up. I already had to reinstall my antivirus, firefox reverted back to a previous version and lost my profile. and now the buttons that link to my profiles folders (i.e. Documents, Pictures, etc...) on the start menu won't work at all............
Recently I bought a new laptop, a Sony Vaio VGN-NS11Z/S. But I've already bumped into some problems. It bought it with Vista 32bit (x86) preinstalled and today I tried to install Vista x64 which I got through Microsoft Bizspark. I simply downloaded the ISO and burnt it onto a DVD, everything seemt fine and I was prompted for my serial number which I entered and it started installing. All of a sudden the install encounters a problem and the installation terminates.
When I try to start my computer after this event Startup Repair pops up and after a while it says "Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically". Instead I'm left with a couple of options like restore from a system restore point, open Command prompt etc. None of the options does anything for me since I've been stupid and never made any restore points or backups of any kind. Is there any known fix to this problem or am I basically stuck with a 1000$ paper weight?
I'm having issues with various programs on my 32 bit Home Premium Vista OS. It seems like a virus to me. When I try and open EXPLORER the infamous CLASS NOT REGISTERED error shows up. For many other applications I get the "WININET.dll NOT FOUND" error. I have tried REGISTRY MECHANIC and also tried to do a STARTUP REPAIR using the VISTA DVD. The Startup Repair utility does not seem to find any problems when I run it at startup.
I wanted to get opinions if all this was leading to a clean install or a repair install of Vista. I'm not sure if I have SP1 or SP2. I can't seem to get to any program that would give me that info because of aforementioned errors.Also if it is a clean install that I need to do, can I save my documents and music somehow first? Any ideas? Is it possible to use DOS Command Shell and try the COPY command to copy these folders to my portable hard drive, which is L: drive on my computer. I do have a few programs that run without the errors. One is Mozilla Firefox. I can see all my important files by typing "C:" in the Firefox browser (for eg. "//c:/Users/admin/Music"). Any way to copy them to "L:"? Or any way to back them up before OS installation?
I partitioned a new hard drive and formatted it using my Windows XP Home Ed. SP2 Install CD. I then installed Win XP. I then installed Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit on the other partition. ( I have two partitions on a single drive, C: and D This has been working great for me for the last 5 months. Today I have a reason to perform a repair install on just the Windows XP partition. I have performed a Win XP repair install successfully in the past using the XP SP2 install CD but never when my system was set up as dual boot. If I perform a repair install using my WinXP install disk to repair the Windows XP installation, will this leave my Vista partition untouched? Will it at all interfere with the system's ability to multi boot? I'm not very concerned about not being able to boot up into Windows XP but it's extremely critical that my system's ability to boot up into Vista is not compromised.
I could do a repair install, install new motherboard drivers and possibly have to validate all over again the same as you always did with XP but no good. I cannot get into Windows at all so cant run repair from WITHIN windows and no option from the boot DVD works. So, do you have to lose everything each time you upgrade hardware or some part of it dies meaning you are forced to upgrade hardware?
I installed from Vista Business pre SP1 and installed SP1 before the motherboard died.
yesterday i created a new vista dvd with vLite, because my windows folder was too big. after that i tried to do a "repair/upgrade install", like explained in this tutorial - Repair Install For Vista
as it turned out, it went completly wrong. i reinstalled vista on C: and the old version was moved to the folder Windows.old. obviously not that, what i want to accomplish. so now im online with a new user account - "lost" the user settings from my old user account, the programs are not "installed" anymore.
here is a small comparison of my situation:
- on C: i got now a new fresh windows and the old version in the folder in Windows.old
- Windows.old contains:
-- my old user settings
-- my old programms installed on C: (not a big deal, because i installed almost all programms on E: ---> other problem, see below)
-- the old windows folder himself
- as mentioned above i installed almost all programms on E: - obviously they are still there, but they are not "installed" anymore
so here are my key questions:
1. is there an easy was to transfer my old user settings to the new one?
2. is there an easy was to "install" all the programms on E:, without reinstall all per hand? eg. about registry import or something like that...
i hope it is clear, what my problems are - english is not my native language...
I am using Win Vista, 32bit. I have a upgrade disc to vista 32bit. Can I possibly use that to re-install my OS. I have a virus Or I want Win 7 too, so can i upgrade to that by paying less? If not i will stick with vista.
Vista isn't booting on a friends laptop. I'm trying to fix it but have tried everything I can think of. See below
Startup Repair cannot repair automatically (lists the following details)
Problem signature: Problem Event Name: StartupRepairV2 Problem Signature 01: AutoFailover Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6001.18000.6.0.6001.18000 Problem Signature 03: 6 Problem Signature 04: 1310740 Problem Signature 05: 0xf4 Problem Signature 06: 0xf4 Problem Signature 07: 0 Problem Signature 08: 2 Problem Signature 09: WrpRepair Problem Signature 10: 267 OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1 Local ID: 1033
With the release of Windows Vista comes a surprising change to the way the upgrade version works.
Unlike previous version of Windows, you can no longer wipe out your existing Windows installation and install a fresh install of Vista with the upgrade DVD. Instead, your upgrade version on top of the previous version of Windows you have.
This change will help cut down on the number of people buying the wrong version of Windows Vista but creates a huge annoyance for any power user that wants to start fresh with a new Windows operating system. Users that already wiped their previous Windows installation with the Windows Vista install disk while installing the upgrade version are in for a surprise when they try to active Windows. It won’t activate! Why? Windows is looking for a full version product key because the user did not install the upgrade version of Windows Vista from within a previous version of Windows.
Users that want to perform a fresh Windows Vista install the traditional method are not going to be able to active their upgrade copy. If you still want to do a clean install with Windows Vista so that your XP settings and junk does not get ported over, there is a new method that will allow you to do a clean install and activate your upgrade version.
Fresh Windows install with the upgrade version of Windows Vista
Use your Windows Vista DVD to wipe out your previous Windows installation and install Vista without a product key as shown here. After you have Vista installed, use your Windows Vista DVD again and perform an upgrade using your upgrade product key. Yes, upgrading Windows Vista to Vista works.
Your upgrade key will now activate Windows and you will have a clean install of Windows Vista.
I have an Alienware m17x laptop that came with 32-bit Ultimate installed on it. I have tried using the 64-bit upgrade, but it says I cannot upgrade and must do an install. So I install and get to the Where do you want to install Windows" screen. My hard drive is the only one listed (Disk 0 Partition 1) but the "Next" button does not open up. I have pulled all the X64 drivers I can find on my support CD (since it gives an option to load drivers) but nothing seems to work.
I am having a problem with the install of sp2 on my girlfriends laptop error code (0x80070490). The only fix if have found is to do a repair installation. This laptop was shipped with the os installed. I have a reinstallation dvd. My question is will this dvd give the option for repair install? I know it is a stupid question but i do not want to screw up her laptop.
I have XP Home on my computer, and it works great. Should i do a clean install for best results? The only problem would be reinstalling many programs. I am unsure about the back-up and reinstalling method, and getting the programs to work as they did in XP.
I bought a Vista upgrade pack and formatted the hard disk for a clean install. Then the Vista upgrade disk told me it couldn't install because XP wasn't there. So I got out my XP disk and tried to reinstall that, but it won't install (apparently it's a bug that is known with this computer and many others, it needs SP2 to install, but it's a pre-SP2 XP disk). Why do Microsoft have to make it so difficult for genuine purchasers of their products?! how I can fix this? I don't need XP any more, I just want to install Vista, it should be simple...
