Fixing a laptop, "windows.old" folder

Customer dropped off a laptop telling me that his Windows upgrade had failed.

It's a new HP DV6 that had Vista pre-installed on it.

I've taken a look at it, and there's a "Windows.old" folder on the root of C:, which is of course a back up of all his data.

There's also a batch file inside the folder with the following inside of it:
"REM Dummy file for NTVDM"

I'm wondering if there's a way to "continue" the upgrade / merging process? He has asked me to re-install all of his software the way he had it... So i'm hoping there's an easier way to continue where he left off.

I know Win7 creates a "Windows.old" folder when upgrading from XP... Not sure why one was created for a Vista to Win7 upgrade though.

How to restore a Windows 7-based computer to a previous Windows installation by using the Windows.old folder

Reverting back / deleting wasn't my intention.

All i wanted to do was continue the merging process of Vista into Win7.

EG, copying over program files to Windows 7, creating old start up items, merging regisry keys, etc.

To my knowledge, if a windows.old folder was created it means that a Custom clean install was chosen when running installer from Vista.

I have yet to hear about a failed in-place Upgrade having a windows.old folder. How were you able to access it as it shouldn't even start up? What did it start up to?

MS may be able to troubleshoot salvaging an in-place Upgrade if it was a retail copy.

If the windows.old folder is complete, then rolling back might be your only choice if you want to salvage programs, settings and files in order to try in-place again. Be sure to run the compatibility wizard to preclude problems. This time, make them a system image backup first.

Ramzy said:

Reverting back / deleting wasn't my intention.

All i wanted to do was continue the merging process of Vista.

EG, copying over program files to Windows 7, creating old start up items, merging regisry keys, etc.

You could try booting with the 7 Install DVD and doing a "Repair Install"?

System Recovery Options

Cheers!
Robert

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You might check the Windows\Panther folder to see if the setupact.log shows a problem during the install.

Have you tried starting the computer and selecting F8. Maybe there is an option you can use. It seems some problem was encountered that stopped the installed and rolled back to Vista, so hopefully the Vista install is working normally.

Do you know which version of Vista he was trying to upgrade to what version of Windows 7?