Help! Need to do repair, what are the consequences?

GoodGuy729 · 09 Jun 2010

I have an unresolveable issue involving an endless loop type of problem whereby upon every boot, the computer tries and fails to do a chkdsk because a sw install failed, and I can't do a restore because the PC want to do a chkdsk first (shoot me now, please). A couple of critical programs are not running properly now, and rather than mess with it further, I want to get it fixed for good. No, I foolishly did not make a rescue disk (won't make that mistake again).

My best, least painful alternative seems to be a repair install. I have a Win7 Home Premium x64 upgrade disk, I had upgraded from Vista 64 last winter.

Questions:
1) Will this even work, or will it want me to use my original Vista disk and take me back to square one?

2) If I do a repair install, will it wipe out my third party programs and user data, or will it simply attempt to repair the issues?

3) Is this going to be a big waste of time, and I'd be better off simply doing a complete new install of Win 7 with a new, full Win 7 (not and upgrade)?

Many thanks!!!

richc46 · 09 Jun 2010

Welcome

You do realize that your question is very subjective; better to repair or fresh install.
A fresh install is always the best way to get a nice, clean running OS, but you have to reinstall all the programs. A repair is fast and dirty, but rarely does it fix all the problems. The choice of what is best is yours.

If it were me, I think I would do the install. Use windows easy transfer to move all the settings, favorites, cookies, desktop, accounts etc to the new OS and just reinstall the programs. You can reinstall them as you need them, to make it easier.

gregrocker · 09 Jun 2010

Clean Install Windows 7

When you boot the Win7 DVD, it will scan the HD to see another OS which is enough to pass a flag allowing use of the Upgrade version key - even if you then go on to use Drive Options to Delete all, Create New partition(s) as you wish, then format before install.