Repair Install

ommadawn · 15 Nov 2014

Thank you for the quick response!
(just to put things straight, I have been a passive reader in these forums for years, and learned a lot! but never had anything to contribute, or ask until today...)

But lets get back to the issue at hand. I am not quite sure I am following what you wrote about windows.old. Suppose I don't like the result of what this "repair" did to my system (My system settings has not changed a bit, and I did not lose even a single file, but still I would like to go back to what I had before the repair), do I just delete c:\windows and rename windows.old to windows?

Edit:
There is no windows.old, there's $WINDOWS.~Q and $INPLACE.~TR and they are both hidden folders

Brink · 15 Nov 2014

Sorry, but no. The only way to undo an installation is to restore a system image.

However, a repair install basically only set's Windows system files back to default without affecting most of your user settings.

ommadawn · 15 Nov 2014

It seems you just answered while I was deleting my post.
All is fine, thanks

Brink · 15 Nov 2014

Perfect. :)

ICIT2LOL · 15 Nov 2014

ommadawn said:

Thank you for this very detailed tutorial.

However, I believe something crucial is missing!

It should be stated VERY CLEARLY that this process cannot be undone, that once you went on ahead and executed this "repair install", there's no going back to what you had before!

(It's true that one could have made a system image before he started this process, but it is not mentioned anywhere in this extremely detailed tutorial, that one should!)

I agree with Brink mate and as matter of routine i have five machines that back up using Macrium
Imaging with free Macrium takes about 8-9 minutes to run and it does it in the background if you like and I set mine for when I am having a watch of the TV or dinner. (I set it to weekly when themachine is on)It has other functions too see my pic

JohnT87 · 20 Nov 2014

Hi, Just tried to do a repair install with the same disc I installed Win 7 in the first place, but I am getting the error that the installed version of Windows is newer than the upgrade, so I cannot perform the upgrade installation. Is there anything I can do? Any service packs I can/have to delete somehow? I think doing a repair install is the only way to solve my issues, as I would not be happy to have to do a complete reinstall. Thanks!

Brink · 20 Nov 2014

Hello John, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Windows Updates will cause the current installation to be newer than the old original installation media.

What issue are you having? Perhaps there may be another way to sort it for you. :)

JohnT87 · 20 Nov 2014

Hi Brink,

Thanks for your post.

It seems that one or more .dll files (in the system32 folder) is corrupted. The one I know of, which is causing heaps of issues, is netutils.dll. Many programs will no longer start (only popping up an error that there is an issue with the aforementioned dll file). Also Windows Update seems to be dead, as I cannot install updates, and the PC will not recognize new hardware/install their drivers, such as the logitech wireless receiver I tried plugging in.

I have done some googling and tried the following:
a) sfc /scannow using different user profiles (regular / admin / after a restart / safemode). The system confirms errors, but is unable to fix them.
b) I tried a dism command, but that gave me an Error 87
c) I tried taking ownership of the .dll file, and copy/pasting a different model of this file (that I took from a different PC that has an identical hardware configuration with the exception of the graphics card). This did not work. I managed to take ownership. I managed to set it into edit mode, but when I tried copying using the command prompt I always get the message that the file is in use, so cannot be overwritten (even after a reboot). Now it seems that the repair install might also not work.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Brink · 20 Nov 2014

In that case, it looks like you may be looking at a clean install instead.

ICIT2LOL · 20 Nov 2014

Hello Shawn looks like a clean install mate the repair didn't fix the problem I was having with posting in here. I suppose it was worth a try. But the thought of having to install everything apart from the OS is just mind bogglingly abhorrent.

I have uninstalled speckie for the moment just in case it was the culprit as it was losing replies / posts and see how it goes so far after deliberately typing wrong spellings something is underlining them and I correct it but so far nor vanishing of the post.

The actual repair was not that bad and it saved a heap of the drivers obviously I shall just check the main ones but I am not going to hold my breath but the fact this reply has not vanished so far is promising.