Vista - SP1 won't install - constant BSOD

Hi Sciz,

You mean a bit like this ?



You might like to make images of your partitions, so you can restore those instead of a reinstall.

All your apps. and settings, etc will be in the image , and it only takes a few minutes.

I make new images and delete the old ones every now and again so they are reasonably up to date.

You could keep your backup images on another partition, although it is better still to keep them on external media - e.g. in case of HD failure.

There is a great free imaging app. available from here - it's very efficient. It prompts you to run off a boot cd - a mini version of itself, which you can use to restore your o/s partitions if you can't boot in.

Macrium Reflect Free Edition - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

Hope it helps

SIW2

Awesome, now is there an free good program that I can get that will help me make automated scheduled backups like once a month? I am searching right now but nothing I find is free. It ranges from $30 - $50.


Edit: Also, could you explain that image a bit more. I am confused on exactly what it shows. Thanks!

Hi ,

Yes Macrium free can schedule






The Disk Management screenshot posted earlier shows :



First partition ( on the left ) with Vista, The second with Win7 64 bit, the third with Win7 32 bit.

The fourth and fifth partitions do not contain operating systems - they are for documents, data, etc.

Your proposed setup would have the first partition containing your operating system and installed apps.

Then all your games , music and other stuff can on a second, or even second , third etc. partition - if you want to keep your games separate from your music, for example.

Hope it helps

SIW2

Yes it does thank you. That program looks to be very easy to use and efficient. I like that . Anyways, I made about a 65.8gb partition to put my Vista 64bit on and then the rest which is 400gb even is going to be all my programs games and music. However I have an external harddrive. I am wondering how specific I can get when it comes to backing up. Is it simply a drive at a time or can you choose specific folders and such. BTW, I am resinstalling Vista as we speak on my desktop, first thing I am doing is getting the update and installing SP1 then I will put back my old files that I backed up. I will keep you up to date and thanks!

Hi Sciz,

The free Macrium only lets you image partitions/ drives, not individual files.

However, it is very quick, so doing scheduled images of the whole partition is no problem.

It does let you mount a partition image , so you can copy & paste back any files you like at any time - so you don't need to restore the partition if you just need a file back.

SIW2

Ok, that's the main feature I wanted to do. You know, being able to copy a certain file or folder back from the backup. Being able to mount it like that is ingenious. Thanks.

I keep getting this internal error while trying to install Vista Service Pack 1. I have Ad-Watch running and Eset Smart Security.I was wondering if it has to do with my antivirus software, but Im not sure.

I am almost 90% sure I got that a few times also. What happened was I tried installing it, and then I stopped it and tried installing it again. Restart your computer and see if you can install it without that error. If that doesn't work, I suggest going to the site it gives you and see what that says. Let us know if it fixes it or not.

Just wanted to let everyone know. After backing up my files I am officially on my PC instead of my laptop running Vista 64 SP1 !!! However, I only have 2gb running but I will create a restore point and restart and put in my other 2gb to see if it works. It should because it didn't work due to the bios in the beginning and I didn't do anything to the bios...wish me luck! BTW, it's good to be back.

Great! I am sure you will now be able to get your RAM back too.