WINDOWS 7 HELP - Panickiiinngg!

emzy · #1 13-01-2010

Hi guys,

I finally got round to doing the Windows 7 upgrade that I got sent from Dell a few months ago... I what it said, let it delete my wireless card's utility as it asked... off it chugged for an hour or so. It was on the last step (the transferring files or whatever) and I thought it'd finished but it just came up with a screen saying "The upgrade was not successful. Your previous version of Windows will be restored" and "Do not switch off your computer at this time.".

And since then its been continuously restarting itself, it comes up with the Dell Loading screen then gives me the choice between choosing "Windows 7" and "Windows Setup Rollback" but automatically chooses the Rollback thing after 3 seconds. It says "Windows Starting" then goes straight into the same screen about the upgrade being unsuccessful and restarts itself again.

After half an hour I'm starting to get quite worried...

What do I DO?!!?!?!

DaSloth · #2 13-01-2010

I presume you have windows vista as your original OS? If you have a Vista DVD (probably didnt come with the PC but it might) then you can use the restore feature which will try and fix vista for you and shouldn't lose any data.

did you back up your data? If you did then personally i would get the windows 7 disk they sent you and just do a format and full install (will be cleaner than an upgrade)

If you didn't you're in a bit of a predicament which will be hard to fix by yourself

If you need the data and you have a good friend who knows their stuff, they can take the hard drive from your machine and put it in another PC as a "slave" and recover the data ready for you to wipe it and start fresh.

I'd start with the Vista disc and try and repair.

MattW · #3 13-01-2010

You will need vista running regardless. Even if you do a "clean" install, it has to see an authorized copy of XP/Vista running before it will do the install.

That said, I think getting Vista up and running is the only real option, and hence probably re-installing Vista.

I guess calling Dell might also be an option??

DaSloth · #4 13-01-2010

It seems that you can do a clean windows 7 install with Dell's window 7 upgrade disk

MattW · #5 13-01-2010

You can do a clean install with the retail version, but I "believe" it has to be able to find a legit Vista on the HD. Can't remmeber if it's in teh official documentation, but I definitely found it stated on line.

I did the "clean" upgrade just last week

DaSloth · #6 13-01-2010

Fair enough, i've not done an upgrade but a quick google seemed to suggest they give you both options on the dell forums. Was there a "custom" option when you went through the install?

(http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=435401)

i4n · #7 13-01-2010

I did a clean install of 7 without anything on the drive first, I got a new drive after I had a keylogger (I thought I'm going to be wiping it with killdisk, why not get a bigger one for £35 instead of doing it later anyway). I thought I'd give it a go before installing Vista and it worked fine, you just have to chose the clean install option and not the upgrade.

This was a 'proper' Microsoft Upgrade version and not a Dell one if that makes any difference.

emzy · #8 13-01-2010

The "special" idiots at Dell wanted to charge me £69 just for talking to me so I told them to do one... but the guy did say that if I turn the computer off and do a restore on Vista... it should be OK.

DaSloth · #9 13-01-2010

Awesome (as long as it works

)

If you do want to go up to Windaz 7 once you've fixed it, make sure you back up all your data first

emzy · #10 13-01-2010

Ok now I'm a bit stuck - no matter what I do, I can't escape the restart cycle. I turned the laptop off, and it went straight back into the Windows 7 style blue screen telling me my upgrade was unsuccessful and to wait while Vista was restored, then restarting again. I've tried choosing Windows 7 instead of the Setup Rollback and it just says there's an error and says that the Setup will resume after the restart... but nothing happens. Just back to the same cycle.

I'm not an impressed little bunny. And I really don't know what to do.#

And clever little me hasn't done a backup this week. Grrrrrr.

DaSloth · #11 13-01-2010

do you have a windows Vista disc still, which came with your laptop?

If so you can use this: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...sked-questions

MatJohnson · #12 14-01-2010

http://techblissonline.com/pc-reboot...ndows7-failed/

Loads of stuff on the net on this so you are not alone. Check out the google http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...&meta=&aq=f&oq=

emzy · #13 14-01-2010

My problem was that Vista didn't appear in the list of available operating system and so I couldn't boot back into Vista.

Thanks to a LOT of help and patient from Rich Lowe, we tried to get the music and videos that I didn't have backed up off my harddrive but after a lot of dismantling that failed, so Rich helped me to wipe my laptop and do a clean install of Windows 7. A day in, and I MISS VISTA!

Thanks to everyone for their advice, and a MAAAJOR thank you to Rich for his 3 hours of MSN help!