Clean vista install can't update

[ell]

I have spent 3 hrs installing vista on a new hd (because there was no coa sticker and all he had was 21 restore cd's!!) It finally got done and I went to update, and the update had the ol big red X, defender wouldn't update either, tried stopping & restarting the service, it did, but still can't update, if I try to run msft update fixit, fails can't install the powershell, agh I don't want to spend 3 hrs reinstalling help!

 

[DCGPX]

Whats on the CDs? A backup he did?

I take it it has all his programmes on there?

 

[ell]

Whats on the CDs? A backup he did?

Its just the recovery set he burned with all the original prgms and vista sp1, yes I am suspecting a bug, but I could install & run malwarebytes no problem, and it found nothing. This thing had norton 360 on it too along with all the hp garbage. I used a norton uninstall utility thinking that might help, then attempted to install MSE, that failed with an error too. I ran sfc from erd too and start up repair, they were both clean.

 

[DCGPX]

Its just the recovery set, yes I am suspecting a bug, but I could install & run malwarebytes no problem, and it found nothing. This thing had norton 360 on it too along with all the hp garbage. I used a norton uninstall utility thinking that might help, then attempted to install MSE, that failed with an error too. I ran sfc from erd too and start up repair, they were both clean.

If its just the basic recovery set, I'd, and others will disagree no doubt, just pull the xms cert and key from his recovery install, format and load a basic Vista and inject the cert and key. Update drivers and say here you go, your BU is faulty so a base install is all I can give you. Unless you can get some installation programs from vendor. I wouldnt spend too much time on it anymore than necessary

 

[DCGPX]

You could try SFC and WSUS offline to see if that fixes it?

 

[ell]

If its just the basic recovery set, I'd, and others will disagree no doubt, just pull the xms cert and key from his recovery install, format and load a basic Vista and inject the cert and key. Update drivers and say here you go, your BU is faulty so a base install is all I can give you. Unless you can get some installation programs from vendor. I wouldnt spend too much time on it anymore than necessary

How do I pull the activation stuff from vista?

 

[DCGPX]

Something along these lines

http://directedge.us/content/abr-activation-backup-and-restore

Google helps here

 

[ell]

Something along these lines

http://directedge.us/content/abr-activation-backup-and-restore

Google helps here

Awesome! Thanks! I did this once before many moons ago manually, and don't want to screw it up and too frickin tired to google again.

 

[ell]

You could try SFC and WSUS offline to see if that fixes it?

good idea, already ran sfc, but I'm running wsus, but I have my doubts it will fix the installer, if it fails I'm going to backup[ with activation stuff and slap on one of my sp2 images and be done with this.

 

[PCX]

good idea, already ran sfc, but I'm running wsus, but I have my doubts it will fix the installer, if it fails I'm going to backup[ with activation stuff and slap on one of my sp2 images and be done with this.

What is the error you are getting?
What other things have you tried? Troubleshooting, tools, ect.
What is the new hard drive that you are using?

 

[gazza]

Something along these lines

http://directedge.us/content/abr-activation-backup-and-restore

Google helps here

+1 this and also use http://recover-keys.com/ or get them to purchase Windows 7 and dump Vista.

 

[ell]

+1 this and also use http://recover-keys.com/ or get them to purchase Windows 7 and dump Vista.

Well, I'm making 3 dvd recovery disks for my customer now (funny hes a neurosurgeon and could buy whatever, I did suggest just a new system) so if my own recovery goes haywire, I won't have to fall back on 21 cds, I'm going to try out DCGPX tool suggestion with one of my sp2 images.

 

[ell]

Just thought I'd follow-up, I used the tool DCGPX suggested, it worked perfectly, backed up and restored the activation files, I used a universal vista image I had, just had to install a couple updates from hp, thanks everybody.

 

[DCGPX]

Glad you sorted it. It's amazing how some clients just hand a bunch of CDs and ask you to do it, does make you wonder in hindsight why they didn't just do it themselves and say they'd had problems

 

[ell]

Glad you sorted it. It's amazing how some clients just hand a bunch of CDs and ask you to do it, does make you wonder in hindsight why they didn't just do it themselves and say they'd had problems

yes, and his excuse was dvd's weren't around in 2007??? And he's a neurosurgeon?? LOL Anyways amazingly I still had trouble with windows updates with my own image restore (??) I have always used the windows repair tool from tweaking.com, but it failed me in both installs, but then I updated it to 1.7 and it worked! I wish that activation backup program had a PE plugin version I could add to my ubcd4win for the drives that won't boot to windows.

 

[StableSolutions]

Did you correctly register the copy of windows after the fresh installation? I know that if you don't activate, or activate with a "pirated" serial number it will refuse to update.

Woops, realized there was a 2nd page of replies including that you solved the problem after posting this. Haha.

 

[ReclaiMe]

Just in case someone will come here later, I have once solved a similar issue by manually installing the latest Internet Explorer, whatever version was latest at the time.

 

[16k_zx81]

Try this

may or may not provide result, but is quick and easy to apply and may solve the problem.

 

[colonydata]

Try this

may or may not provide result, but is quick and easy to apply and may solve the problem.

that!

i have seen this problem before and was racking my brain on what i finally did to fix it. and i am pretty sure that was it.

and on another note i really need to keep better notes.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

I think D7 may be able to reset Windows Update too