Repair Install

How to Do a Repair Install to Fix Windows 7​

   Information

This will show you how to do a repair install (aka: in-place upgrade install) to fix your currently installed Windows 7 and preserve your user accounts, data, programs, and system drivers.

   Note

Do a Repair installation if:

• A System Restore did not help fix your Windows 7.
• There is no other easier option left that can fix your Windows 7.
• You DO NOT want to do a Clean reinstall of Windows 7.
• You DO want to preserve your user accounts, data, programs, and system drivers.

   Tip

ITEMS THAT WILL BE RESET TO DEFAULT OR AFFECTED:

• Sounds
• Services
• Visual Effects Settings
• Device Drivers - Be sure to have these handy to reinstall. They do not always remain after the repair (upgrade) install.
• You may lose the ability to sign on to MSN Messenger, to solve this problem have a look at this thread Unable to sign in to WLM.
• You may lose your custom themes due to not having permisions set on the old themes. Go to the hidden themes folder at C:/Users/(User-Name)/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Themes, then Take Ownership of the themes folder and you will now have all your themes back.
• It has been reported that you may also lose your Media Center gadget after doing the repair install.
• Windows Updates will need to be checked and reinstalled again.

   Warning

• You can only do a repair install with the same edition Windows 7 installation disc for the same edition of Windows 7 that you have installed.
• You cannot use a OEM Windows 7 "Factory" Restore/Recovery type of installation disc that came with or created from a store bought computer to do a repair install with. These can only be used do a clean install instead.
• You can do a repair install on a factory OEM installation with the latest official Windows 7 with SP1 ISO file here: Microsoft: Windows 7 Direct Download Links, and use Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool to create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive with the ISO to do the repair install from within Windows 7.
• You can use a retail OEM Windows 7 installation disc to do a repair install with.
• You can use a retail (full or upgrade) Windows 7 installation disc to do a repair install with.
• You cannot do a repair install with a System Repair Disc. A System Repair Disc is not a installation disc, and will only boot to the System Recovery Options screen.
• If you have a 32-bit (x86) Windows 7 currently installed, then you must use a 32-bit Windows 7 installation disc to be able to do a repair install with.
• If you have a 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 currently installed, then you must use a 64-bit Windows 7 installation disc to be able to do a repair install with.
• You can use a retail Windows 7 SP1 installation disc (ex: Technet (available), MSDN (available), or retail (when available)) to do a repair install with on a currently installed Windows 7 SP1.
• You can use a Windows 7 SP1 installation disc (ex: Technet (available), MSDN (available), or retail (when available)) to do a repair install with on a currently installed slipstream Windows 7 SP1.
• You cannot use a slipstream Windows 7 installation disc to do a repair install with on a currently installed Windows 7 SP1.
• You cannot use a slipstream Windows 7 installation disc to do a repair install with on a currently installed slipstream Windows 7 SP1.
• You can only do a repair install from within Windows 7.
• You cannot do a repair install at boot or in Safe Mode.
• You must be logged into Windows 7 in a administrator account to be able to do a repair install.
• You must have at least 8.87 GB + what is currently being used of free space (more if you have a larger installation) on the hard drive/partition Windows 7 is installed on to do a repair install.
• If you changed the default location of a user account's profile folder, then you will need to change it back to the default C:\Users location first.
• If you moved the default location of a user folder, then you will need to change it back to the default C:\Users\(user-name) location first.

Here's How:
NOTE: Be sure to back up anything that you do not want to lose first to be extra safe.1. Start Windows 7, and log on to an administrator account.

2. Disable any 3rd party firewall, antivirus, or other security program to avoid it from possibly preventing the repair in-place upgrade installation of Windows 7.

3. Do either step 4, step 5, or step 6 below depending if your retail Windows 7 installation ISO/DVD/USB has SP1 or not, and if your currently installed Windows 7 has SP1 installed or not.

4. Repair Installed Windows 7 SP1 using Windows 7 with SP1 ISO

   Note

If you do not have a Windows 7 with SP1 ISO, then you can download an official ISO with your retail product key from Microsoft at the link below.

:ar: Microsoft Software Recovery

You can also download the latest official Windows 7 SP1 Media Refresh (SP1 U) ISO file at the link below, but this link is not always available for download.

:ar: Microsoft: Windows 7 Direct Download Links

A) If you have not already, you will need to install a program like 7-Zip that supports extracting a ISO to a folder.

B) Using the program (ex: 7-Zip) from step 1, extract the Windows 7 SP1 ISO file to a folder on a partition or HDD other than the current Windows 7 partition. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: For example with 7-Zip, right click on ISO, click on 7-Zip, Extract files, browse button, select where you want to extract to, and click on OK twice.
C) While in Windows 7 SP1, open the folder that you extracted the ISO into, and run the setup.exe file.

D) Go to step 7 below.
5. Repair Installed Windows 7 SP1 using Windows 7 with SP1 DVD/USB

   Note

If you do not have a Windows 7 with SP1 ISO, then you can download an official ISO with your retail product key from Microsoft at the link below.

:ar: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery

You can also download the latest official Windows 7 SP1 Media Refresh (SP1 U) ISO file at the link below, but this link is not always available for download.

:ar: Microsoft: Windows 7 Direct Download Links

Afterwards, you can use Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool to create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive with the ISO to do the repair install from within Windows 7 using this step.

A) While in Windows 7 SP1, insert your retail Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD into the DVD drive, or connect your Windows 7 with SP1 installation USB thumb drive, and click on the Run setup.exe option in AutoPlay. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If the AutoPlay window does not open, then open the drive folder in Computer and run the setup.exe file.
B) Go to Go to step 7 below.
6. Repair Installed Windows 7 without SP1 using Windows 7 without SP1 DVD/USB

   Note

If you do not have a Windows 7 without SP1 installation DVD/USB, then you can download the latest official Windows 7 Professional or Home Premium without SP1 ISO file here: Microsoft: Windows 7 Direct Download Links, and use Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool to create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive with the ISO to do the repair install from within Windows 7 using this step.

It is preferred to have SP1 installed on your PC and to use step 4 or step 5 above to do a repair install with instead though.

A) While in Windows 7 SP1 installed, insert your retail Windows 7 installation DVD into the DVD drive, or connect your Windows 7 installation USB thumb drive, and click on the Run setup.exe option in AutoPlay. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If the AutoPlay window does not open, then open the drive folder in Computer and run the setup.exe file.
B) Go to Go to step 7 below.
7. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

8. Click on the Install Now button to start the installation. (see screenshot below)
9. If prompted, uncheck the I want to help make Windows installation better box (unless you would like to ), and click on the Go online to get the latest updates for installation option. (see screenshot below)
A) Windows 7 will now check online for and install any available installation updates. (see screenshots below)



10. Check the I accept the license terms box, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
11. Click on the Upgrade option. (see screenshot below)
12. Windows will now check for any compatibility issues. If any are found like in the example below, click on the red X to cancel the repair install and close this "Install Windows" window, take care of any found issues (ex: uninstall any incompatible program), then restart the repair install process over again.
13. The installation of Windows 7 will now begin. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: During the installation process, your screen may flash and computer will restart a few times.
14. After the final restart, you will see this screen for a moment. (see screenshot below)
15. Type in your Windows 7 product key number. (see screenshot below step 16)

16. Uncheck the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box unchecked, then click on the Next button. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You can activate Windows 7 later after you make sure it is running properly. (see step 23 below)
If you chose to automatically activate Windows online when you set up your computer, automatic activation begins trying to activate your copy of Windows three days after you log on for the first time.
17. Click on Use recommended settings. (see screenshot below)

:note: You will always be able to change your Windows Update settings at anytime in Windows 7.


18. Select your time zone and set your time and date settings, then click on the Next button. (see screenshot below)
19. Click on the option for your computer's location to select the correct network location type settings to be applied for that location. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: It is best to select Public location for the best security.
20. Windows 7 will now prepare your desktop to startup. (see screenshots below)



21. If you used a DVD or USB to do the repair install with, then you can remove the DVD or USB when the repair install has successfully completed and you are logged in to Windows 7.

22. Check to see if you are missing any user files. If you are, then you can copy them from the C:\Windows.old or the hidden protected operating system C:\$INPLACE.~TR and C:\WINDOWS.~Q backup folders. (see screenshot below)
23. If everything checks out in step 21, then you can run Disk Cleanup (step 5 at this link). You will need to click on the Clean up system files button first, and then could check the Files discarded by Windows upgrade, Previous Windows installations, and Windows upgrade log files boxes. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This will delete the C:\Windows.old, C:\$INPLACE.~TR and C:\WINDOWS.~Q folders from step 21 above.
24. Refresh your Windows Experience Index (WEI) score.

25. When finished, activate Windows 7, and make sure that your 3rd party security programs (if applicable) are enabled again.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Do an Upgrade Installation with Windows 7
• How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7
• How to Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version
• How to Activate Windows 7 Online
• How to Run a Startup Repair in Windows 7
• How to Do a System Restore in Windows 7
• How to Repair Windows 7 System Files with System File Checker
• How to Extract Files from the Windows 7 Installation DVD
• How to Boot to the Advanced Boot Options in Windows 7
• How to Boot to the System Recovery Options in Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc
• How to Run Disk Check in Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 Installation USB Key
• How to Install Windows 7 FAST without a DVD or USB Device
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Windows 7
• How to Create a System Recovery Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Slipstream Windows 7 SP1 to Create a Installation DVD or ISO File
• Fix "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded." Error in Windows 7

 

[Brink]

I think I found the answer:
Windows 7 Universal Installation Disc – Create
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html
Please confirm that such a disc can be used for the repair/install procedure described in the tutorial.
Thanks,
P.S. SevenForums.com is AWESOME!

I haven't tried to do a repair install with a universal installation disc, so I'm not 100%. However, I believe that you will only be able to do a clean install with it since you have a OEM copy currently installed.

 

[Brink]

I'm just going to re-post my question in case someone missed it.
Here it goes:

I'm kinda having trouble performing a repair install.
I did every steps carefully until after the "upgrade" for which a dialog box appeared and said "You already have the latest... etc etc etc. You cannot upgrade etc etc etc..."
So I figured this was because of my SP1, so I tried to uninstall it (using both the uninstall prog in Control panel and through elevated cmd), but my SP1 simply refuses to be removed (darn stubborn thing).

I wanted to do a repair install because my sfc scan log showed errors that cannot be repaired. I also tried replacing the files with the originals extracted from my installation disc, but there is this one corrupted file that just can't get fixed namely "pkeyconfig".

I'm a little frustrated now to go and try uninstalling SP1 and performing another repair install. So, uhm, can I just ignore the pkeyconfig and go and live a happy computing life? Or is it a critical file that it would cost me crashes and freezes in the future if I leave it unfixed?

Thank you to whoever has time to respond.

Helllo AJ,

I'm sorry that I missed your earlier post for this.

If you used the SP1 Disk Cleanup Tool, then you will not be able to uninstall SP1 and will only be able to do a clean or custom install of Windows 7.

pkeyconfig is a Office 2010 file. If you are not having any issue from it, then I would worry about it. If you are, then you might see if uninstalling and reinstalling Office 2010 may fix it instead of reinstalling Windows 7.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[drdigital1]

I haven't tried to do a repair install with a universal installation disc, so I'm not 100%. However, I believe that you will only be able to do a clean install with it since you have a OEM copy currently installed.

I purchased the computer (with Win 7 installed) from HP. I am surprised that a repair install using (universal) installation disc will not work. Aren't 99% of the users buying their computers with Win 7 installed by the PC vendor? And, if this is the case, is there any way for me to avoid a clean install?
Thanks,

 

[Brink]

Drdigital,

You can give a repair install a try with a universal installation disc. It will either work or not, and will not harm anything if not.

Unfortunately, this is part of the cost break between a OEM copy and retail copy if Windows 7, and what you are able to do with them. The retail copy costs more, but you have more options and features with it as well.

 

[ajfudge]

Hi Brink, Thank you for responding. I only tried the methods presented in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/99064-windows-7-service-pack-1-sp1-uninstall.html (which is a great tut written by you, btw). I did not use SP1 Disk Cleanup Tool. But I remember I installed "Windows update standalone 6.1-KB947821-v8-x64.msu" Is this relevantly connected somehow? ~~~ Ah, yes. I installed Office 2010 Beta before, but I uninstalled it immediately when it consumed 15GB of disc space (I'm still wondering why it did that). I can't remember if i used the built-in Uninstaller program in Control or if used a third-party uninstaller. I will try re-installing and uninstalling Office 2010 and see what happens. The thing is, I think I might be able to leave "pkeyconfig" alone. But I can't help getting paranoid when the ever reliable sfc scan cannot repair all errors. Thank you for your tips, sir. I will try to post back the result if I think it will be relevant to the topic.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome AJ. I hope it goes well.

 

[drdigital1]

Drdigital,

You can give a repair install a try with a universal installation disc. It will either work or not, and will not harm anything if not.

Unfortunately, I just realized that in order to create an universal installation disk with the tutorial mentioned, I need an installation disk anyway! Since all I have is the OEM recovery disks, it looks like there is no way for me to do a repair install (true?); a clean install will be soo painful (because I have installed quite a few programs).

Unfortunately, this is part of the cost break between a OEM copy and retail copy if Windows 7, and what you are able to do with them. The retail copy costs more, but you have more options and features with it as well.

Since HP (or other manufacturers) do not sell computers without the OS does it mean that if I want to buy a retail copy of the OS, I should not buy in future from HP, but only from vendors that sell barebones computers?

 

[Brink]

Q1) Unfortunately no. It's going to have to be a clean install.

Q2) You could buy a retail copy to use on either the HP, barebones, or self built system.


However, to save yourself the expense of buying a retail copy (unless you just wanted to), you could create system image backups to use to do a system image recovery to restore your system quickly with instead.

 

[seekermeister]

I started out to do a repair install, because of some problems my system was having, and I wanted a "non-destructive" means of fixing them. Unfortunately, it appears that something went very awry.

After a couple of hours, the repair installation displayed an error, saying that some required driver could not be installed, and the installation aborted. When I restarted, there was a boot menu, which opted for rolling back the installation, booting to W7 or to XP x64. However, before I was able to make a choice, it automatically went to the rollback option.

This displayed what appeared to be a CMD screen, which said that a winpeshl.ini was present, but had not been launched, and to check documentation, with a path of X:\Windows\System32. Since I didn't understand what I should look for, or how to use it, even if I found it, I rebooted and chose the second option to boot to W7. When I reached desktop, it appears that everything from my previous installation had disappeared, including all programs, drivers and settings. Basically, it is somewhat like as though I had done a clean install.

I guess that nothing can be done about spilt milk, but I regret ever trying this "repair". Not that it matters much, but I was particularly surprised to see XP x64 as a boot option, because I had installed XP without the W7 drive connected, therefore, W7 had not created a boot loader, and since the XP drive had recently failed, it was no longer connected to the system. I would have expected that the repair installation would not even have been aware of the previous XP drive.

For future reference, how would a person possibly know what driver failed, causing the aborted repair? I would think that a native driver would not have failed. The only thing in Programs And Features is the Nvidia driver, but there is no control panel on the desktop context menu, and the screen resolution is off, because the the desktop is windowed by black borders.

If this is an indication that the Nvidia driver was the cause of the abort, I'm surprised, because I would have figured that the installation would have used the native driver, rather than the driver that I had installed.

 

[Brink]

Hello SM,

I'm not sure. The only thing that I can think of is something with the XP may have thrown a monkey wrench in there.

Did you look to see if you may have the C:\Windows.old or the hidden protected operating system C:\$INPLACE.~TR and C:\WINDOWS.~Q backup folders with anything from your previous installation in them?

 

[seekermeister]

Yes, there are folders labeled $Inplace.~TR, $Upgrade.~OS, $Windows..~LS and $Windows.~Q. But unless there is some fairly easy method to use these to restore the OS, I will probably just try using a backup image. The thing that has kept me from doing so, is that I'm not certain that any of the 4 images that I have would predate the issues that I'm hoping to resolve.

Considering all factors, I have a hunch that the problem was with the Nvidia driver, because I felt that the crashes were graphically related. If that is true, I'm not sure that it is a hardware or software problem. Does the existence of those folders suggest a feasible solution to you?

 

[Brink]

No. The folders are only good if you needed to backup any files in them that you wanted to keep and help prevent losing.

 

[seekermeister]

Okay, then I will just copy them to another partition and try a backup image. I really hope that I don't have to go the clean install route, it would take me an eternity to get it back to where I want it.

 

[ameykelkar]

About Repair Duration

Hey Hello Everyone,

I have just done a Complete Upgrade from Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate to the same.

The think I would like to mention to all and also to Brink is that the upgrade can take upto several hours.
I had Windows Drive with 66 GB of space and 20 GB of free space.... and the upgrade took 5 hours for me...
Just want to say to worried users, that dont worry... Let the windows setup do its thing... do not turn off in desperation
Eventually it will upgrade (Repair)

I request Brink to mention how many hours it can take to repair in his post.
I feel 2 - 7 hours

Thanks Brink for this wonderful post

 

[sygnus21]

I had Windows Drive with 66 GB of space and 20 GB of free space.... and the upgrade took 5 hours for me...

I feel 2 - 7 hours

Thanks Brink for this wonderful post

Sorry but it is not noraml for an upgrade to take 5 hours. On avarage it should take about 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours at most. In most instances less than 90 minutes.

I've done a number of upgrades from Windows 98 to Windows 7 and have never had a 5 hour upgrade/install.

Again, if it took you 5 hours something went wrong. Not saying this didn't happen to you, just saying it isn't normal.

 

[ameykelkar]

I dunno

I don't know... But it took me 5 hours....
And my PC is perfectly normal, non - infected
I forgot to mention

CPU - Intel Dual Core 1.6 GHz
RAM - 1.5 GB

 

[Brink]

Hello Amey, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

Yes, I agree with Sygngus21. That is an unusually long time to take. If you had a large amount of data, say way over 50GB on your Windows 7 partition, then it will take longer to work with that much. In addition, you do only have a small amount of RAM installed with a moderate CPU that would have made it take longer as well.

 

[appyface]

I believe if Win7's (or other party's) encryption is involved the system has to decrypt/encrypt on the fly while performing the upgrade, that will at least double the time depending on speed of disk, CPU, RAM, amount of data blah blah. I use TrueCrypt on my netbook and laptops and that is the case for me. Just my $0.02 USD in case it applies...

 

[Brink]

Nice addition Appyface. Thank you.

 

[ameykelkar]

Cheers

Cheers Brink.