Reinstall question

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I’m running W7 Home Premium, SP1. My original installation disk is non-SP1. Suppose for reasons I won’t bore you with I want to go back and reinstall W7 using the original disk.

My question is this: assume a 500GB disk broken into 2 partitions, 1 for the OS and 1 for data. Will the reinstallation confine itself to the OS partition only; or will it clear the whole disk, including the data partition?

Thanks,
Dick

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During installation you are given the option of where to install the O/S, it won’t format the full disk unless you tell it to do so by going into advanced options.

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Yes, if you select the installation partition, even if you use the optional Format during the installation, only the partition you have chosen will be formatted and the installation will only affect that disk. I have a separate Data partition (have since Win XP) and until I upgraded Win 8 to Win 8.1 have always used the Clean Install with Format and have never touched my data.

Once you are finished with the reinstall, you will have to change the pointers in the OS to again point to the Data folders.

As always, make an Image before proceeding.

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I take it that you were unable to extract the gpedit.dll from your own install disk ?

If you don’t have a Recovery partition to factory reset with then http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html will take you through a clean install, but you may want to back up your drivers folder which could make life a little easier and can be found in Windows/System32.

You could also use the SP1 ISO for the clean install but will need to use the generic product key if using an OEM built machine and Belarc Advisor will list that and other product keys for any other licensed software that you may have installed.

An alternative to a clean install is the Repair Install which may be a better option.

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Hi Sudo15:
Sorry I didn’t report back after securing my original install disk from by box.
I was able to extract gpedit.dll from that cd; but I still got the same results after running sfc.

I may be mistaken (what else is new) but I thought the Repair Install got hung up with the fact of my product key being for W7 and my now running W7 SP1.

I would love to be able to do a Repair Install instead of going back to square one.

Dick

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SP1 is just a Windows update for Win 7 and not a new OS unlike the 8/8.1 equivalent.

Are you using an OEM or Home built machine ?

Edit

Just been having a refresher of the Repair install article and remembered trying on my laptop with the SP1 ISO and the upgrade option was almost completed when it decided it couldn’t do it (twice) so I had to sit through it restoring the old OS, so either a factory reset or the clean install may be the only options.

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My desktop is a Dell OEM that came preinstalled with Windows 98. Along the way I purchased a W7 cd from Amazon and migrated to W7 Home Premium. Further along I upgraded to SP1.

Sounds like I should try the repair install – nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Does that sound right, Sudo15?

Thanks,
Dick

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Yes, at worst it can only fail and will auto roll back.

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One last reality check:
I should use the SP1 CD I created from the Digital River ISO download to do the Repair Install, right; and not the original W7 cd?

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Reading through the article it mentions that after loading the SP1 ISO, to insert your original non SP1 disk before clicking on the setup.exe – not sure why that is unless it’s to ensure that you are repairing with the same Edition as is installed.

Reading through the beginning of the article as to which disks can be used seems a little confusing, but read fully through the steps of the article and/or print them out before proceeding.

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Just had another look and yes, you can use the SP1 ISO.

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Thanks Sudo15. Off I go to do the Repair Install . . .

Later, I’ll be back with a report on how it went.

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Good Luck

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Thanks, I needed it. I solved the issue in a round-about way.
When I used the SP1 ISO it looked like things were going to go well.
It got to the last step, where it says: transferring files, setups, and programs.
Part way through, after getting the message: installing devices and setting up your system, the install failed:
“We could not configure 1 or more system components.”

After that install reverted back to my original system, I finally had a “brain storm.”
I remembered what started this whole adventure, and the 4 DLLs that couldn’t be fixed by SFC.
I put in my original non-SP1 CD, and looked for these 4; and they weren’t listed there.
So, because I had images of my OS and Data, I took a leap of faith and moved these DLLs from system32 to a holding file I set up.
I rebooted and ran SFC, which ran successfully to completion.
When I looked in the CBS log I saw that SFC pulled these 4 back into Windows from Winsxs.
So, I think I am good to go.

Thanks to all for your help; and especially Sudo15 who hung in with me all the way through.

Happy New Year to all,
Dick

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I think that was about as far as I got with the upgrade option which was annoying given how long it had taken, but glad to hear that you had found a workaround.

And a Happy New Year to you too.

Tom

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Dick,

Glad you got it sorted out. FWIW, is it possible one of the below was interfering with your reinstall?

For a successful reinstall, one needs to ensure that
a.) All libraries (reparse points) are pointing to the original locations on the C: drive, and
b.)The C: drive must have free space equal to the Windows partition size + 9 MB.

Zig

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The Repair Install is a different creature from the original install. An original install does not care where you have your data placed. It will just create new folders which you then change to point to your original data folders on the separate drive. I have never had to do a repair install, so I did not realize the Repair required the folders to be in their original locations. That is yet another reason why a good, up to date image works best for me.

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The Repair Install is a different creature from the original install. An original install does not care where you have your data placed. It will just create new folders which you then change to point to your original data folders on the separate drive. I have never had to do a repair install, so I did not realize the Repair required the folders to be in their original locations. That is yet another reason why a good, up to date image works best for me.

I agree that regular system images are the best fall back but in this case, an up to date image was no good because of the missing gpedit.dll.

At the time when I tried it, I didn’t need to do a Repair Install but thought I’d check out the procedure, as the tutorial seemed pretty straight forward but it’s not without its problems.

I thought its failure for me was because of having an OEM build, but as Dick encountered the same failure, then the clean install would probably be the better way to go.

I was locked out once and reinstalled using the ISO and then restored with a system image as I also make regular images.

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Thanks to all of you. Since I have the time and like to “play around” with my system to learn new things, I’m going to follow up on Zig’s suggestion. I have moved all my libraries to my data partition; and so I’ll move them back to their original locations.

I’ll wait a few days so as to enjoy this holiday time with my family, and then try a reinstall again.

I’ll report back when I’ve done so.

Dick

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I haven’t done the reinstall yet; and, before I do, I have a lingering question.
Right now I have 3 partitions on my main drive: a C: partition, one for data, and one for mail.
When M’soft forced people to use Outreach I installed Windows Live Mail (WLM) and use that to get to my Hotmail account.

I know if I do the reinstall I’ll have to reinstall programs. For some reason I’m leery of what might happen to my ability to reach Hotmail through WLM.

That’s a long-winded lead-in to my question:
Are there any preparations/precautions I should take to ensure that after I reinstall WLM I’ll be able to continue to use Hotmail through WLM?

Thanks,
Dick

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It looks okay if you need to reinstate your Hotmail address http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101913-windows-live-mail-set-up-hotmail-yahoo-gmail-aol-e-mail.html

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If you’re using Hotmail, your Email and Contacts should be on the Hotmail server unless you set it up as POP email. You only have a copy on your PC. Doing a reinstall should not impact your Hotmail account via WLM.

Jerry

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Me again, and acting like the ‘cowardly lion’ from Oz. I was just about to do the reinstall when I thought about the fact that I have a Linksys router on my system, installed with Cisco Connect. I said to myself: “Wait a minute. What happens to your router and your Internet connection when you do the reinstall? What do I have to do ahead of time so that I don’t foul up my Internet access? ” Since I didn’t know the answer, I decided to ask my friends here at the Lounge. Then I said a short prayer: “Help!”

Dick

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Dick,

I believe the install uses default drivers – in any case, the network connection works.
Remember my precautions earlier in this thread. I just reinstalled my Win7 SP1 32-bit netbook without a hitch.

Zig

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Me again, and acting like the ‘cowardly lion’ from Oz. I was just about to do the reinstall when I thought about the fact that I have a Linksys router on my system, installed with Cisco Connect. I said to myself: “Wait a minute. What happens to your router and your Internet connection when you do the reinstall? What do I have to do ahead of time so that I don’t foul up my Internet access? ” Since I didn’t know the answer, I decided to ask my friends here at the Lounge. Then I said a short prayer: “Help!”

Dick

Zig is right, everything should work out of the box. You will get internet access out of the box if you use a hardwired connection. If you use wireless, I cannot remember if you are asked to make a choice during setup, but you will have the option to access the wireless network, at least when you finish setup.

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Thank you Zig. I’ll try to do the same tomorrow; and I’ll remember your precaution. I’ll have all my “user” folders back in their default locations.
Best,
Dick

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As Rui has said, you’ll always have a wired connection and Windows Updates will drop a wireless driver in for you, but you can make doubly sure that you have the drivers that you need by first backing up the Drivers folders to something like an USB from Windows/System32 and then drop them back in after the reinstall.

Probably best to ensure that all of your drivers are up to date before doing that.

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I’m baaaack! I was away for a day; and just spent a day doing the reinstall, putting my programs and tweaks back on. Everything went smoothly – but took a long time. I probably should write a “lessons learned” posting Friday; so that others, particularly non-Geeks like me, don’t have to go through what I did to get up and running again.

Thanks to all for your help,
Dick

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Glad to hear that you have it sorted.

Don’t forget to make regular system images so that you don’t have to go through that again

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Believe it or not, but I take daily images (system and data), and rotate through 3 copies.
The problem started because I put on a “tweak” that added GPedit.msc to my W7 Home Premium system a while back.
It went in ok, and seemed to work. It wasn’t until a different problem surfaced, and I had to run SFC.
That’s when I found out that this “tweak’ had corrupted 4 DLL’s.
By the time I discovered this, I had already cycled through multiple system images (and therefore just carrying those corrupted DLL’s along for the ride.)

BTW, before I forget to mention, that “tweak” was available from the “Tweaking with Vishal” site. Nobody should put that tweak on.

The lessons I learned were:
I should have had a “gold standard” image made when I first installed W7, AND SAVED THAT IMAGE. With this reinstall I have done so.
The second lesson is that I spent way too much time trying to fix the corrupted DLL’s problem. It would have been better in my case to go straight to the reinstall after a short period of time.
The main lesson for me is to “leave well enough alone” and stop all the “playing around with tweaks and freebies.”

This adventure cost me days. I have used system images to restore my OS in around 8 minutes. The Gold Standard image will enable me to do so if I ever have to again.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep doing my regular imaging.

Again, thanks to all who helped my with this problem, and with all the other ones you have helped me with in the past.

Dick

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Ya, that’s all I have are two gold standard images for a bunch of systems. These are production PCs though, the OS is just the facilitator, nothing more!

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