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windows 7 upgrade and rollback both failed, no access to desktop
I attempted to do an in place upgrade. After the upgrade was apparently complete the screen went black and there was no activity. I waited a bit, but no change; so I decided to force reboot my computer. I entered safemode and received a message about the upgrade not being successful and rollback process taking place--but then I received additional bad news: the rollback was not successful.
Now when I attempt to boot into Windows 7 I cannot access the desktop, only the following command prompt:
X:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Windows\system32
If I boot from my Windows 7 DVD, the first thing that comes up is a screen that says "Windows Boot Manager" It then tells me to choose which operating system to start, but only one is listed:
Windows Setup [EMS Enabled]
If I choose this I get the usual "Windows is loading files..." screen and am taken to the main Windows Install. I tried all the repair options; none has any effect.
I have been able to find very little information on this problem on the web, and no solution; the few threads I have found on the subject have led me to the conclusion that my best option right now is just to do a clean install.
I have two partitions on my disc, my main system partition (C) and a data partition (D). It looks like the Windows Installer took the letter D for itself and has created its own partition, called "Windows Setup Rollback."
One complication is that, although the upgrade failed, it used a sizable amount of space on my system partition while it was working and my system partition now just barely misses the cutoff for GB required in order to do a clean install, so I would need to install the system onto my data partition, not onto the C partition. I thought about using the commandline to move files from C to my data partition and make space. But I can't do it. All of my folders in the user directory show up as empty, and I cannot find my data partition at all via the commandline, only the new D Rollback partition the installer created.
If I do a clean install to my Data partition, will there be some way for me to access my user data afterwards?
I am guessing that all of my User data is now held within the "Windows Setup Rollback" partition. It is not being held in the usual 'Windows.old' folder; I can't find any folder with such a name in the directory; and I don't know how to access this special Rollback partition or extract data from it.
I am also concerned about what will happen to the Rollback partition if I do a clean install on my Data partition rather than the C partition. (Because the data partition was using D before the Rollback partition claimed that letter.)
Does anyone know if it will be possible for me to access the rollback data if I do a clean install on my second partition? Will Windows preserve this partition as letter D and assign my new Windows 7 partition a new letter?
Any suggestions for the best way to go about this, so that I can get my system back up and running without losing the rollback data, would be greatly appreciated!
Last edited by sevre; 31 Oct 2012 at 06:37.