New
#520
Repair Install
-
-
New #521
Helllo AJ,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.
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
-
New #522
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,
-
New #523
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.
-
New #524
Hi Brink, Thank you for responding. I only tried the methods presented in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) - Uninstall (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. :)
-
-
New #526
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).
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?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.
-
New #527
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.
-
New #528
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.Last edited by seekermeister; 20 Apr 2011 at 14:54.
-
New #529
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?
Quote
Related Discussions