Vista - Restoring old installation from c:\windows.old

A bit of confusion had occured during a repair of windows to fix the "Black
Screen of Death (KSOD)" issue. I was told to use a Vista installation disk
to repair a Dell laptop, as we no longer have the original disks.

There was a question as to which version of windows was already on the hard
drive and I chose the wrong one. (Not my fault, Dell gave me the wrong
info).

The result was that, apparently, the old Windows (Vista Home Premium) was
moved to c:\windows.old and the new version (Vista Home Basic) was installed
into c:\windows. Therefore, all of his applications are no longer available.

Is is possible to restore the old windows by booting to a command prompt and
renaming the directories? The oringinal installation disks did not use a
license key and I fear that, eventually, Genuine Advantage will ask for a
license key.

This is his only machine and I really want to help the kid out.

Julian

Hello Julian,

Yes, you can. This will help show you how to. Be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose first though.

Windows.old folder - Restore into a new installation

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thank You so much. It would seem that I am back to the damaged Windows. This
is good (I hope). I had backed up his data anyway.

Now, I would like to install the right operating system, keeping my files
and settings, but the installer says that the upgrade is disabled. Only the
option for a clean install is available from my install disk. Can this be
forced?

Is there a way that I can do the operating system re-install (or repair it),
so that I may keep his settings and programs?

Remember, this seems to be due to the troublesome KSOD (I do not have a
Vista logo ot login screen after the green loading and Microsoft copyright
bar). Nobody should have to go through this. He is a licensed user.

Note:
The original Dell disks (which replacements have not been ordered yet), do
not require an installation key.
His office suite disks are in on the other coast.

I have googled, yahooed, probed, scoped and palpated the internet trying to
find a solution to this issue.

Any ideas?

Julian (Desperately Seeking Login)


"Brink" <guest@newsgroup-email.com> wrote in message
news:af5626d91e63d6ad2590fa990b0335cb@newsgroup-gateway.com...

Julian,

All Vista installations require a product key number, but it is just already entered as part of the image the OEM installation uses to restore Vista with. That's all. His product key number should be on a sticker on the bottom of a laptop or back of a desktop case.

Using step 1 and 4 in the instructions below from Dell, you can do a factory restore and still keep your current user files and settings. I would recommend to back them up to be safe though.

Dell - Technical Support

You can retrieve files, certain folders, data and documents - most
important you can retrieve applications settings -but not applications
themselves. accomplishment is via the USMT (User State Migration Tool).
The Windows Easy Transfer wizard and USMT can be utilized to save the
information prior to installing a new OS and then loading into new
installation.

Again applications settings can be migrated not the applications proper -
reinstallation will be required.

I need help I did a horrible thing by accident also due to the advice of a
Dell Rep.

I was running my Dell XPS 1340 on Windows 7 Ultimate. The computer had a
partitioned hard drive - 60 for program files, 240 for everything else.

The rep told me to do an installation of Windows Vista on the 240 hard
drive. To allow my computer to start to fix a minor program error. As a
result when the computer restarted it gave me two options to start with
Windows 7 or Windows Vista (black screen). Windows 7 would not start it would
do a blinking cursor on the dos screen and Windows Vista started as though it
was a new computer. However it had no programs installed since it ran an OS
off a hard drive that was empty. All my programs have now been put into a
windows.old folder.

Can anyone help guide me. The computer is a huge paper weight right now but
I don't want to do anything to screw it up more.

Thank you!

"Al" wrote:

It appears that you did a clean replacement install of Vista onto the hard
drive that had Win7 Ultimate on it and you will have to reinstall your
applications since you can't run the version contained in the Windows.old
folder.

"scott" <scott@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:38B9FAF8-F551-4B87-B3DD-02D9CA4C1F0E@newsgroup

"scott" <scott@newsgroup> wrote in message
news62C7494-9EB6-41E0-8944-F011BDF94B83@newsgroup
You need to learn how to post. You hijacked 2 existing threads & Xposted.
--


"Don't pick a fight with an old man.
If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."

Hi,

You have now posted the same thiing six times. You need to have patience.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933168

The above article describes how to restore an installation from a
windows.old folder.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"scott" <scott@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:38B9FAF8-F551-4B87-B3DD-02D9CA4C1F0E@newsgroup

I don't know why you didn't install Vista Home Premium when did the
re-install from the Vista installation DVD since the product key on the
sticker on the bottom of the laptop should be a Vista Home Premium key.
Yes you will probably have to use phone activation with new install but you
just tell them why you are re-installing.
When you install applications critical application information is placed in
the new OS installation's Registry and you can not use the registry from the
old installation that is in the Windows.Old folder in the new installation.
You can copy data files etc from the Windows.old folder so that when you
re-install a application you can get all of its data. For example all of
the Word and Excel documents and e-mail etc.

"Kevin John Panzke" <kevin.panzke@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:193dfe25-2711-438a-a864-e4832b0144ec@newsgroup