Repair Install

how should i do if i lost my serial number for my cd?

When I click on the UPGRADE option this message appears: " Your current version of Windows is more recent than the version you are trying to upgrade to Windows cannot complete the upgrade". The disc is "Reinstallation DVD" and came with the DELL computer with the OS already installed. Suggestions please I would like to repair witout losing data,apps,etc.

It sounds like you have a "recovery" type disc provided by Dell. From the Warning box on the first page of the tutorial:

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.

What if you have no disk? My Computer came with Win 7 already on it.

BlackDinomite said:

What if you have no disk? My Computer came with Win 7 already on it.

If you want to do a repair install you could borrow a disc from a friend as long as the disc is exactly the same as what's installed on your computer. The same version (Home Premium, Pro, etc) and the same bitness (32-bit or 64-bit.) Or you could find an authorized website that has officially released versions of Windows 7 as authorized by Microsoft. These websites offer ISO versions of Windows 7 that would have to be downloaded and then burned to a DVD to create the install media.

Or, to start out with a completely fresh version of Windows 7, your computer might have a hidden recovery partition that would allow you to return the computer to factory specs (the same as it was the day your brought it home from the store.) You would then reinstall everything else and once everything was set up to your liking you could create a system image on an external hard drive and update that system image maybe once a week. If anything ever happened to your machine you could use the image and be up and running in about 30 minutes or less. Your machine would be restored exactly as it was the day you made the last system image.

I have found that you can do a repair/install using a slipstreamed DVD. The only thing that is required is to change the properties of setup.exe identified in Step 3 to run in Vista SP2 Compatability Mode. This must be done prior to running the setup.exe prog. This does work...I have done it.

John Switzer

Hello, I am trying to run a windows repair install, and the installation stops working at step 9 right after it finishes copying windows files.

I already posted this issue once before, but here is the exact error message that comes up:
"Setup cannot continue. Restart the computer and restart setup. When prompted, try getting the latest updates"

I have done this several times, and each time it comes up with the same error message. What do I do? Any thoughts?

hi there,
my dell 1555 studio laptop recently got this error "windows explorer has stopped working" looping problem. my friend have recommend me to do a repair install but whenever i choose the upgrade version. it doesn't let me coz it says that i have a more up to date version on. is there a way that i could go about doing this?

thanks in advance