Repair Install

Brink · 02 Jan 2012

Diogones said:

I think you may be right, Brink. I was going to do a clean install anyway, just because I have an SSD that I want to install. I just have a couple of questions before I begin:

1.) Will SP1 include USB 3.0 support? The reason I ask is because I recently bought a USB 3.0 PCIe card, and it isn't working in my current installation, even with the drivers installed. I'm thinking it could be because I don't have SP1 installed, which might add USB 3.0 drivers of its own.

2.) Should I put the pagefile on the SSD, or on my second, larger mechanical drive? I've heard it's bad to completely disable it, so I'm thinking that if I at least move it to my mechanical drive, it won't consume precious read and writes on the SSD.

Diogones,

Q1) You'll most likely need to go to the PCIe card manufacturer's website and download and install any drivers for it.

Q2) It's best to have a pagefile. Some programs may not function properly without a pagefile no matter how much RAM you have installed. If you have enough space on the SSD, then you would have much better performance with the pagefile on the SSD. If not, then you could move the pagefile to be on another HDD if you like. However, any HDD that you have the pagefile on will also be included in a system image backup if created since it's now a system drive with the pagefile on it.

zrtom · 04 Jan 2012

Diogones said:

I seem to be having a problem with the repair install operation. I tried using my retail Win 7 Pro non-SP1 disc, but after I clicked the "Upgrade" option, I received a dialogue which stated that, "Windows Professional cannot be upgraded to Windows Professional." I thought I was just doing a repair install? But for some reason, when I select Upgrade instead of Custom, the installer will not let me proceed. Very strange!

I never did install SP1 on my system, and I'm trying to use the repair install so I can put that in Windows, as I can't install SP1 right now. It gives me an error message that certain system components are missing.

I followed the instructions in the tutorial to the letter, but I still get the aforementioned error message. Any advice would be appreciated!

It's a long shot but I had a couple systems that where SP1 would not install and in those cases it turns out Microsoft Security Essentials was an earlier/outdated version and that turned out to be the culprit. Not just out-of-date virus definitions but an older/superseded Antimalware Client. I've read it has to do with the way the first version of MSE handles protected system files. You might say it over-protects them, preventing them from being properly accessed even during a Service Pack upgrade. On one I uninstalled MSE and SP1 proceeded and on the other one I updated MSE and SP1 proceeded.

Again, it's a long shot and I don't know whether you're even using MSE but if you are and it's an early version, you might want to try uninstalling it before running SP1. This same issue may have something to do with not being able to run the Upgrade/Repair Install.
Tom

Diogones · 05 Jan 2012

Thank you both for the helpful replies!

Right, I thought I'd need a pagefile, I was just worried about extra write operations it would take up. But I don't think it will be that bad.

As luck would have it, I do have MSE installed, zrtom! I'll uninstall it and give a the SP1 installation another shot. I have nothing to lose; if it doesn't work, I'll just continue with my system reinstall anyway.

Brink · 05 Jan 2012

You're welcome Diogones. Please let us know how it went. :)

thebladeroden · 07 Jan 2012

Why does the repair install take so long? I'm about 8 hours into it, and it's still at "Gathering Files, settings, and programs (86%)"

Brink · 07 Jan 2012

Hello thebladeroden,

Could be corruption slowing it down. Is the percentage still increasing any? If so, then let it do it's thing until complete.

thebladeroden · 10 Jan 2012

It seems removing all hard drives except C: sped things up.

But when the comp restarted I got an error message

winpeshl.exe - Application Error
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application.

Then it restarts and takes me to a new W7-type login screen. Except the profile picture is blank, and there's a username and password field. But no matter what I put in them, I get an error saying "The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted." and it takes me back.

Brink · 10 Jan 2012

May be time for a clean install then.

Diogones · 22 Jan 2012

Well bad news! I uninstalled MSE, but it didn't work. Then I went ahead and tried to replace the original system files on the C: drive with files from the install disc. The replacement worked, and SP1 started to install! However, it reported that it failed after the operation had completed, and I was advised to restart and try again. After restarting, Windows failed to boot. I tried Startup Repair, restoring from a registry backup, and so forth, but nothing worked.

Thus, I have determined that I really will not be able to install SP1 on my computer, and I am going to reinstall Windows, and get it done right.

Brink · 22 Jan 2012

Diogones,

Sorry to hear that. I hope the clean install will do the trick.