Vista or Windows 7

[pmstewart]

Is it Vista or Windows 7?

Machine: eMachines T5254 Windows Vista Home Premium 32 Bit
Upgrade: Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade 32 Bit (purchased at best buy)

1. Ran Upgrade advisior - all systems go!
2. Ran upgrade as administrator -upgrade completes successfully with no errors.
3. When system reboots it comes up with the Windows Vista Repair Tool
showing Windows 7 as being the OS Installed on the C: partition and
the C: partition is active - running repair bring me back to same Repair Tool.
System refuses to boot past the repair tool.

OK, so lets try the Windows 7 disk to boot, choosing the repair windows option -
it launches the Windows Vista Repair Tool!......showing the partition to repair is
windows 7.

Either way the repair function will not boot into the newly upgraded windows 7.
Cannot find instructions to change out vista bootloader for win 7 bootloader

There is a recovery partition at the beginning of the disk. Windows finds it as D: -
it is formatted NTFS and is NOT the active partition. The recovery partition is 10GB
and the C: partition is 297GB.....

There are some very smart people on this forum ......two days of searching the net
has brought not a single piece of info on this matter that I can find!.....can any of you really intelligent people advise where to go from here? TIA

(Done hundreds of these upgrades - since upgrade advisor showed no problems I did
not back up the users system - will be extracting user's data off computer momentarily)

 

[TheGag96]

NONONO. What you need to do is NOT TO DO REPAIR, but go into the regular installation process. At one point, it'll prompt you if you want to upgrade, I'm sure. Also, make sure the upgrade itself FOR VISTA.

 

[yowanvista]

Upgrading from vista to 7 is not recommended, you might end up with BSODs and other problems later.
A clean install is better

 

[madtownidiot]

Most of my business involves reselling computers that originally came with vista or XP. If you want a suggestion for how to set up your system, here's a pretty foolproof method you could use to set up your computer so that you can do a system image restore to the state it was the day you installed windows 7 without losing any of your personal files, whenever you need to.

1: zero the entire HDD using diskpart from the command line before installing windows (shift+F10) diskpart > list disk > sel disk 0 > clean all > exit > exit
2: On laptops and desktops that only have a single HDD, I install windows to a 100GB partition, setting aside the rest of the HDD in a 2nd partition for the image backup and the users' personal files and media, otherwise I use one HDD for windows and programs and the other for media and personal files
3: Create a system image after everything is working and all installed programs are set to by default to save files to the 2nd HDD or partition, then turn off backup and disable it
4: Replace all user folders with shortcuts to folders with the same name on the 2nd partition or the other HDD
5: I also include the windows install disk, an ISO of the windows install disk, plus a bootable usb flash drive that can be used to restore from the system image or reinstall windows altogether

maybe a little redundant.. but I get very few complaints

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello pmstewart, welcome to Seven Forums!


Before we make any specific recommendations will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map with a full description as to which drive/partition is which, so we can see what you have going on as there may be a fairly simple way to resolve the situation.

In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that.


How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

 

[pmstewart]

You guys are effecient!....Thank you very much for your prompt reply.

Out of the office doing jobs today but will get back to this tonight when I get home.

Again, Thanks!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

We'll be here mate, be sure and post back.

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Upgrading from vista to 7 is not recommended, you might end up with BSODs and other problems later.
A clean install is better

I upgraded from Vista Home Premium 32bit to Win 7 Home Premium 32bit with no problems or BSOD's!
I got one BSOD when I decided to go and change from 7 Home Premium 32 bit to 64 bit.
A member helped me correct that and haven't any problems since then.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you back up your files?

If not, you can copy them out of the failed Upgrade using this method: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

Did you make your Vista Recovery disks off the Recov partition? It may be best to wipe the entire HD if so. But let us see the Disk Management screenshot.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Here's the wipe Greg referred to in the info below.

Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

   Information

After you have made backups of everything you care to save and you want to do a real wipe "secure erase" to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) have a look at this tutorial at the link below, it over-writes everything, all the old Windows code including the old Windows drivers, everything all data, giving you the best possible space to install Windows 7 to; it goes hand-in-hand with a clean install.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

​

 

[pmstewart]

As bizarre as this may sound.....I find it hard to understand how this happened.

After looking over all of your comments ...and many years of experience tell me to do a fresh install.

Backed all the info up from the HD and have installed Windows 7 UE 32bit and downloaded all drivers -
things seem to be happy for the moment......time will tell. It's been a solid machine for 18 months except
for being a little doggy. I believe it's not meant to have vista on it.....but 7 (as usual) seems to be much
happier!

Thank you for all your input.....most helpful in making the decision to simply DNR!......(Delete -N- Reinstall) LOL

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Glad you found a solution that works for you and thanks for the update.