How do I Reinstall/Repair install Win7?

H

haggggler

Gawd
Joined
Nov 17, 2005
Messages
667
This seems to be easy if you can boot to windows, but damned if I can find a way to do it when I can't get to windows. You could pull this off with XP and all you had to do was a ton of updates afterwards, but your personal data was maintained. Now I can't get around system repair, which repairs nothing.

Thanks for any help.
 
The best fix is to attach the drive to a separate computer, pull off your user data, then wipe the drive and reinstall.
 
You can download Win 7 Repair Disc 32- or 64-bit ISO at http://www.proposedsolution.com/downloads/download-windows-7-vista-bootable-disc-cd-dvd-iso-image/. I also thought whenever you installed Windows, if it found a Windows folder already on the drive, it gave you the option of renaming it so that it gets saved on the drive during the new install of Windows.

You also have the option of just installing the hard drive to another desktop computer, making it the D drive and copying any files you need to save. Or use something like Hiren's BootCD to boot the computer with, then taking whatever files you want off the hard drive, then re-install Win 7.
 
Thank you for all the quick replies. I guess I should explain in a bit more detail. A fresh install isn't an option I'd like to look at unless absolutely necessary. This is a friend's machine that is setup using Chinese as the primary language option, although there appears to be an account for limited English. I've attempted the down loadable repair discs and they work fine, but do not give any option to perform a repair install. After booting and allowing the disc to do it's little repair scan I'm at the base options for repair. Not sure why, but system restore had been turned off so that was not a option. When choosing the install/upgrade option, it identifies the install and states that this repair install can only be done from windows.

I hope this helps clarify the screwy situation I'm in and find it crazy they removed this "repair option" that was so easily done in XP.

Thanks again.
 
Repair install hasn't been an option in Windows setup since Vista, though there are some workarounds like the in-place upgrade approach. You can also do a custom install without formatting disks. That way Windows pretty much installs on top of itself while moving documents and user profiles into the Windows.old folder, however you will have to reinstall all of your old programs and reconfigure other settings.
 
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