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Windows 7 repair

gleneagles
Aspiring Legend
Posts: 11,105
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Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Windows 7 repair

A few days ago windows 7 failed to load properly and came up with a message that it would attempt a repair of the files, this went OK and since then no further problems.
Is this just one of those things that can happen at random or could it be a sign of a hard drive starting to pack up or a symptom of something else ?
Just curious !
We are born into history and history is born into us.
9 REPLIES 9
gadfly
Grafter
Posts: 39
Registered: ‎02-09-2010

Re: Windows 7 repair

That is all right.
Windows 7 has far more advanced automatic recovery system than the previous versions of windows (Windows XP/Vista).
Note that if using System Restore has failed to fix a problem and Windows 7 doesn't launch an automatic recovery,  you  can perform a repair installation from within Windows. Due to its complexity, it is no longer possible to perform a repair installation by booting from the Windows 7 (or Windows Vista) installation DVD as it was in Windows XP.
Here is how to perform a repair installation from within Windows 7:
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/Use-Restore-Recover-Repair-Windows-7-Win7.htm#repairinstall
julesandsand
Grafter
Posts: 176
Registered: ‎18-02-2009

Re: Windows 7 repair

I had exactly the same thing (W7 64bit),  it began with a very occasional boot failure, W7 did the start-up repair, but become more frequent. The laptop would boot into Ubuntu without fail but as it was still under warranty I sent it back to Sony who diagnosed a failing HDD.
gleneagles
Aspiring Legend
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Re: Windows 7 repair

Thanks for the comments. It has only happened once so I guess there is no need to worry unless it recurs a few more times.
I have a recovery disk and a backup of everything on a external hard disk and DVDs.
I Tend to just muck about on my computer, keeping anything important on an external hard drive and set my own system restore points.
If the hard drive did pack up I could reinstall windows 7 from scratch but just out of interest could I recover my system to a new hard drive using the recovery disk previously made along with the backup saved to DVD ?
We are born into history and history is born into us.
julesandsand
Grafter
Posts: 176
Registered: ‎18-02-2009

Re: Windows 7 repair

If it is a true recovery disc, then yes you can. With the Vaio the recovery discs are usually 2 or 3 DVDs from which you can boot the PC and reinstall the OS and software.
It's a belt and braces system really - the recovery partition on the HDD if there is a problem with the OS and the recovery discs if there is a problem with the HDD.
gleneagles
Aspiring Legend
Posts: 11,105
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Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Windows 7 repair

It was misleading when I referred to a recovery disk, what I should have said was I have a system restore disk along with a full backup of my system so using the system restore disk and my backup disks could I get windows 7 up and running on a new hard drive or is this a non starter ?.
I Guess my incorrect description of ' recovery disk'  may have mislead you into thinking a recovery disk had been provided with my computer.
We are born into history and history is born into us.
julesandsand
Grafter
Posts: 176
Registered: ‎18-02-2009

Re: Windows 7 repair

I didn't know that you could make a system recovery disc in W7. It seems, reading the help file, that you can reinstall the OS from the system recovery disc. Presumably once you've done that you can restore your settings etc. from the back up disc.
There must be some system that identifies your PC as being the one that W7 was originally installed on, otherwise you could be installing W7 all over the place!
gadfly
Grafter
Posts: 39
Registered: ‎02-09-2010

Re: Windows 7 repair

If you have a Windows 7 installation disc, you would install the new hard drive and use it to partition and format it and then install Windows 7 and any backup or disk-imaging software if you didn't use the Windows 7 backup software. Then you would just restore the master image or backup using the Restore otion of whichever backup software  you are using to get Windows back the way it was.
You won't be able to use a Recovery Disc provided by a PC manufacturer to install Windows on a new hard drive, because you have to format it first and the Recovery Disc won't be able to do that because it can only return the system to the state it was in when the computer left the factory, but it would require a formatted hard drive to do that. With a very large hard drive, you can partition it into several partitions that can all be formatted to use the NTFS file system.
gleneagles
Aspiring Legend
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Re: Windows 7 repair

Gadfly,
Formatting a new hard drive (which is likely to already be formatted for NTSC) or indeed formatting an active system drive would not be all that difficult as there are a number of programs (some free) that allow you to burn an ISO image to CD that can be used for that purpose providing your computer is set to boot from there first.
So assuming you formatted the drive first could you then proceed to use the system recovery disk to get everything up and running from the full backup on your hard drive ?
Must admit this is all hypothetical as I would take the easy option and reinstall via the original windows 7 disk but ask the question as a matter of curiosity ?
We are born into history and history is born into us.
HPsauce
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Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Windows 7 repair

Quote from: julesandsand
I didn't know that you could make a system recovery disc in W7.

You can't, it's more as Gleneagles said.
You create a REPAIR disk (about 164MB for W7x64) and (additionally) system backup disks (a set of DVD's normally). The combination can be used to reinstate your system after serious damage.
This includes (by implication) after replacing a faulty hard disk.
That may result in activation issues but these are normally resolved by a phone call to MS.