Hi
rftech,
I am going to do a reinstall and a clean install on the other machine that I have.
Do you mean a
Repair Install?
NOTE: The
light blue text below are links to the relevant websites and programs, just
click them!
Repair Install - Overview
A
repair install differs from a
clean install in the fact that it
ONLY replaces the corrupted OS with a new fresh copy. This means that
ALL your User Accounts, Folders, Files, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Data Files, Icons, and any installed programs are left
intact. It does however,
delete ALL the Window updates, and can affect, sounds, services, visual effect settings and device drivers by re-setting them to default. You
cannot do a repair install at boot, in Safe Mode, using a system repair disk, or using an integrated Windows update disk. Basically, this process can
ONLY be performed from within the
LIVE OS.
IMPORTANT: You must have
MORE than the currently
used HDD space available
BEFORE you
start the
repair install process. This is because during this process, a
C:\Windows.old backup folder gets created which is a
FULL copy of the current OS.
NOTE: This backup folder can either be used to restore the OS back to the pre-repair install version, or to restore individual files etc that weren’t properly copied. Once you are happy, you can delete this folder.
IMPORTANT: REMOVE any connected drives
BEFORE you start the repair install.
SUGGESTION: It is advisable that you run an
Extended Disk Cleanup [
click My Batch Scripts in my signature] with
ALL the options checked and
defragment the HDD [NOT SSD]
BEFORE you start the repair installation. This gets rid of all the superfluous files and will reduce the size of the original OS, the install processing time, and the size of the
C:\Windows.old backup folder.
You will need your
Product Key for the version of Windows that you are re-installing. This is the
ONLY version that you will be able to
activate. On a laptop, it will either be on a sticker on the bottom, or in the battery compartment. If the sticker is too worn to read, or there isn't one, then you can retrieve it by either using
Belarc Advisor or
Magic Jelly Bean. Write this
Product Key down and keep it in a
safe place.
There are further steps invilved [available] if you go down this route!
I hope this helps!