After a full powerdown, Vista reboots into the inital Setup routine instead of logging in as normal. I getthe screens asking me for timezone, language etc, followed by "Create User ID" i.e Vista is reinstalling itself.

Any suggestions as to a) why this is happening and b) how to fix it would be very gratefully received!

Thanks....

OK, should have explained better....

Machine has been running perfectly for the last year, but after a powerdown earlier today it has lost all record of the installation and boots into the final part of the Setup program, asking for user IDs etc. It's as if the system has reinstalled itself, although how this could have occurred I have no idea!
Very confused....

OK, further research has identified that the system is displaying all the characteristics of a fresh install because that's what's happened!

Machine was powered down properly and without apparent problems. But it seems that my son (who's PC it is) has somehow been presented on startup with some sort of "Reinstall WIndows?" option and must have selected Yes, Unattended. Being autistic, he's not able enough to understand what this means, nor regrettably able to explain things clearly, and it looks like he has now obliterated all trace of the previous installation. Including all the Restore points.

So my hope now is that I can finish the reinstall, then try to recover some of the data files. Looks like I'm going to be busy.

Any ideas what might have caused the option for an unattended reinstall to appear? I've got a lovely big logfile in the \Windows\Panther directory that shows what happened, but not why.

Heigh-ho

Once I've finished the reinstall I'll check and see what controls can be implemented. Thanks for the responses, much appreciated.

Hi purbeck,

Since I at least am not even certain I know what happened much less why, please attach a copy of that logfile (zipped if necessary) to your next reply as knowing what may help explain why. For example, I don't quite understand how any log file survived the re-installation process - it should have been wiped with everything else. There are several reasons the option could have appeared - some through manual means (like pushing a button during bootup) and some automatic (like some type of system-related problem where the boot process didn't connect properly with the system partition on your hard drive). Maybe the log will tell us. Maybe we will never fully understand. A BIOS password may help prevent it from happening again (or it may not help at all - but it probably won't hurt except to add more time and effort to the boot procedure).

Here are some free recovery programs which might help. Files aren't actually deleted until they are overwritten (though they're no longer available through conventional methods). If you decide to try these recovery programs, you should stop using your hard drive immediately (before even re-installing unless it's too late for that) so you don't overwrite the data you are trying to recover. Slave it to another PC and run the recovery from that PC. Even now you may have permanently lost some of them if you're using that same PC or you have completed the re-installation. If you can't do that (slave to another PC), you run the risk of overwriting the data with every action you do on the PC (but you still may be able to recover some or many of the files - it's a matter of luck).

http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/system/fwdatarecovery.html(try Recuva ONLY - do not purchase any products that aren’t free – here or in any of the other links – I’m just suggesting the FREE options and have had problems with some of the commercial ones)

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/diskdigger.html(try this second - if it doesn’t work either chances of recovery are very slim but you can try the other options if you wish)

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/easusdfr.html

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

http://www.snapfiles.com/downloads/recuva/dlrecuva.html

http://www.softperfect.com/products/filerecovery/

http://techpaul.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/how-to-recover-your-lost-files/

Only you can decide if the data is important enough to take the PC to a data recovery expert to recover the files (they will have better programs and equipment to do so than any of us do and than I provided above). Do NOT go to Geek Squad or any of those big store centers - they mostly don't know what they're doing - take it to a data recovery expert. It will cost quite a bit (I mean, a LOT) and they usually offer no guarantees – you typically pay the same price if they recover everything or if they recover nothing. Even for them, recovering data from a clean re-installation is difficult. The decision is yours.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Sometimes if a computer does not start correctly, the factory reset will appear on Advanced Startup Options, depending on what computer manufacterer you have. Has all of the manufacterer junk re-appeared? It will get us closer (restore to factory settings, or re-install)