Restoring Vista to a Windows 7 laptop

Great - thanks for the update, Jerry.

Si, do you think this would work for other makes besides Dell to restore Recovery to F8?

Hi gregrocker
I cant say for sure because the computers i have are Dells.
I have no clue how the other computers have there recovery partitions setup
so it would only be a guess if it will work for the other computers.

It should work if winre.wim is directly on the target partition.

Jerryw said:

Hi SIW2
Yes the{{ zipped file}} you have posted does work good news !!!

I used a linux live cd and booted to it then went and deleted the c:\ win 7 boot manager and all boot files for win 7
as you guesed it win 7 would not boot i did a 7 dvd f12 boot repair got win 7 booting again and made sure it booted into 7 several times !
Then went to check to see if the F8 repair my computer was there it was not there just the normal F8 options .
So i went back to win 7 and ran the command >

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>setautofailover.cmd /target D: partition 1
The entry {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d} was successfully created.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: HOME-OFFICE-1
Disk 0 is now the selected disk.
Partition 1 is now the selected partition.
There is no volume selected.
Please select a volume and try again.
C:\Windows\system32> EXIT

Then i went back to F8 then to repair my computer and there was the Dell factory restore image icon at the bottom of the page .
I did not do the factory restore this time so i could post all of this !!!

Yes this does work for the 64 bit windows 7 i have used it a few times and can tell you for a fact it does work for win 7 64 bit ONLY!!!
My factory.wim file is 13.8 gibs in size in a 90.00 gib recovery partition !
But i do have several factory.wim files to fall back on in there also !
the one i have now has all of my {{extra software installed and all windows updates}} and i do build a new factory.wim file once a month !
And a complete image of my harddrive using win backup and restore .

For the win 7 32 bit version this has never worked at all so i gave up on 32 bit all the way .
If you have the Vista 32 bit Dell recovery partition it will fix the 32 bit version of vista .

I hope if someone trys this it does the same for you as it did for me !
Good Luck

JerryW

Hello Jerry,

I did as you told. But when i try to recover, comes up this msg:
"This is not a Dell computer system. This application can only be installed and run on a Dell computer."

I have a Vostron 1520. It came with a win vista 32bit, but i updated to win 7 32bit.

I have the Dell Support Center installed. And it recognizes my laptop as a Dell.

Do you have any idea ow to fix or by pass this error?

Thank you.

For the win 7 32 bit version this has never worked at all so i gave up on {32 bit} .

Hi andrealvarez
If you read the statement above you will see that i have said that this does not work for
{Vista 32 bit} i never could get it to work for Vista 32 bit so i had to give up on fixing Vista.
It allways gave me some kind error it does not work SORRY !
Good Luck