Expatriate Forums in Malaysia

_tech_guru_papa_

Hi Folks!

Windows vista is also causing lots of boot problems, so I often get questions like this:

I have a Dell Dimension, which won’t boot to Windows (Vista), and none the repair variants work:

Startup repair: Reports fix fail due to problem with registry

System Restore: Reports no restore points available

Windows Complete PC Restore: Reports no backups available

Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool: No memory problems

Command Prompt.
Can’t think of any appropriate command to use here.

So I booted with the system DVD (as one would with XP) but the upgrade
option has been greyed don’t want to do a clean install. I want to fix existing
installation.

What should I do?

------------------------------------------------------------

So here is the answer:

You can't do a 'repair install' because you need to launch the Vista DVD
from within Windows, not, as you have been doing, booting straight from the
DVD; that is why the 'upgrade' is greyed out.

If you cannot launch Vista and none of the repair variants will work a clean
install is the only other variant.

To save problems in future it is actually a good idea to image the hard
drive, using program like True Image. What I do is install operating system, download all updates, check system I working okay for a day or two, activate system, then image the drive/partition. Any time I get a problem I can re-image the drive/partition quickly and be up and running without much inconvenience. And minor fixes are done by using any registry fix software, there are plenty of them on the market today.

Regards,
Carl

Shardy · Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:43 am Post subject:

Simple solution - run Linux instead Laughing