Repair install

[johnrobert]

Last week I got an HP and Acer desktop that loaded up to Windows 7 halfway they had many specialized programs not easy to reinstall

No matter what I did
Using Windows Dart (system restore, stopping services, drivers etc.) they would not fully load
The only option left was for a repair install (or nuke and pave) could I use any OEM win7, 64 bit disk
The ones I tried did not give me the option for repair install
When you buy a new computer store built computer is it same disk as an HP build one
Are they both same OEM DISKS?
One uses serial number other see’ bios slic and activates

 

[NYJimbo]

If these are two totally different machines (one is a HP and the other is a Acer) I think you/we would need more of a back story on how they got this way. If both of them suddenly stopped booting I would not be using DART. Did you use any other tools ? Safe mode does what ? Virus scans ? I would be leaning towards some software update that failed, either an app or windows update or even towards a network spread infection.

 

[johnrobert]

This was a general question when Windows won’t load as a last resort
Just figuring out how to do a repair install next time
If computer won’t load windows because of corruption there are lots you can do with Dart but I was interested in a repair install as a last resort for those
Computer where install software is not availably or very difficult to setup
I got 2 last week I have done it many times with XP but not with Win7
I know you must have the exact disk

 

[mraikes]

You can only do a repair install if you can boot into Win 7. If Windows won't load, you can't do a repair install. Unlike XP where you could launch a repair from the boot disk when Windows is broken.

So basically, repair install doesn't exist anymore.

 

[johnrobert]

Thanks thought so
If you could get into Windows you would'nt need to do a repair.

I thought there might be a way of tricking it by doing an upgrade

 

[Larry Sabo]

You could try an offline SFC as a last resort.