Is repair install availble?

"Chad Harris" <vistaneedsmuchowork.net> wrote in message
news:e7AO9zsgHHA.2432@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Rock--
>
> Thanks. This is helpful information. I haven't had any no boot
> situations with Vista RTM yet, but I did have a few with different Betas.
> I'm glad this is an option. The next time I have one or someone I know
> does, I will give it a try.
>
> I have seen no boot situations I couldn't fix with Startup Repair that
> didn't fit the situation for some of the other components of Win RE--that
> I was able to fix with System Restore (from the Win RE recovery link on
> the DVD--and some I fixed with one of the F8 options--a safe mode to
> system restore). A repair install would have been a good option for
> those.
>
> I read where Gary VanderMolen raised the question of preserving existing
> data and 3rd party programs, and
>
> 1) It has always preserved them when used in XP
> 2) I have not had an instance in no boot XP situations not caused by
> purely hardware situations (like for example a loose memory stick or
> incompatible memory stick) where a repair install has not been successful.
> I have had two out of over a couple hundred where I had to do a repair
> install more than once to have success --i.e. the first one didn't work so
> I tried a repair install a second time.
>
> MSFT usually qualifies those KBs with a caveat (which I imagine their
> legal people ask them to add when they are talking about fixing
> catastropic situations) but I fell a repair install in XP is a real ace in
> the hole and a valuable high success tool. You have to have the CD (and
> in Vista you'd of course need the DVD).
>
> As time with Vista extends a few more months, I suspect there will be more
> reports of repair installs--and maybe MSFT will address this in some
> future KBs.
>
> CH
>
> "Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> wrote in message
> news:%23BwSP$XgHHA.3372@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> "Chad Harris" <vistaneedsmuchowork.net> wrote
>>> Churin--
>>>
>>> I should have made clear (and I'll modify my links)--the best that I can
>>> find out right now is that a repair install won't work for a number of
>>> people in Vista the way it does in XP, (I included the links for it
>>> because you don't have any downside to trying if it fails and in XP it's
>>> a great help and in my hands 100% reliable). The other day on a thread
>>> Rock had said he would contact Darrell Gorter at MSFT who is in the
>>> setup area and get his view on this.
>>>
>>> I haven't seen anything from any of MSFT's sites that says Vista
>>> supports a repair install, and if I had access to a lab environment I'd
>>> break Vista a significant number of times and ways to try the efficacy
>>> of a Repair Install.
>>>
>>> In XP this a Repair Install was alternately called an inplace upgrade in
>>> some of the MSKBs.
>>
>>> "churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote
>>>> Is a repair install as with Windows XP available with Windows Vista?
>>>> The purpose here is to change the CD Key.
>>
>> Chad, several people have now said they have successfully done an upgrade
>> of Vista over itself, in essence a repair install, to fix a problem
>> installation. I think it was JimR who gave details on two systems he
>> fixed this way.
>>
>> Darrell Gorter replied to my query. He said is should be a viable
>> option.
>>
>> Of course with all this, there is no information on how successful this
>> process is / will be overall.


I think in the two scenarios JimR described both systems could boot, but
there were other problems with it that system restore didn't help.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]