my system crashed! i cant start it up... startup repair is useless, windows restore points have never been saved automatically... ...and i dont even know how to send u information=(

mouseabuser - You could try to do an "in place upgrade" - installing Windows 7 on top of itself. This, provided the partition isn't damaged, your apps and data should still be there on the drive.

Hi mouseabuser, I agree with Wolfie2k6 that an in-place upgrade may fix the issue. Besides, I suggest you check the memory in WinRE. Here: How to Run Memory Diagnostics in Windows 7 Good luck. Cecilia Zhou

Wolfie2k6 If the "in place upgrade" is used, will one have to still reinstall all of the previously installed programs? Unless the RTM is different this is as I understand it Reinstalling Windows 7. If I am incorrect I would like to know how this is done. Will my registry settings be the same? Is windows.old just copied over into Windows. I tried this once before and ended up having to reinstall everything again. Also in instances as mouseabuser has my final step that worked has been to remove the hard drive and plug it up into another computer. Then run that computer in safe mode(as not to have the System Volume folder changed). Then run scan disk. The repair, MBR or chkdsk has not worked. This has been necessary after a power outage and several times when over clocking of CPU (usually causing the memory to go too high) or Video Card has caused a crash or when an error has caused my unit to try to start up on a non-raid drive . Not only with Windows 7 but also with Vista 64 and XP. Have the days of Windows ME and Windows XP Pro (SP1) gone or is there some setting that I have missed? It used to always give you the choice to run scandisk after a crash or improper shutdown. JB

JB - An In-place Upgrade is what it sounds like. You insert the DVD. You run the setup as if you were upgrading from Vista or XP. It'll detect a valid installation of Win 7. You reboot. You tell it you want to do an upgrade and you tell it NOT to delete or reformat your partition. In the case of the RC - it's a "full" version - not an upgrade - tho you CAN do an upgrade - so it will work.Your existing data and programs do NOT need to be reinstalled. You WILL need your product key and you will likely need to activate Windows 7 again. But because you're "upgrading", your data and programs will stay put. What you will have, is a fresh copy of Windows 7 in whatever flavor you had before but in a "virgin" state so you'll need to visit Windows Update to grab your patches. As a side-note - the Windows Anytime Upgrade for the RTM works the same way. You launch the utility in the Control Panel and tell it what versionyou want, you give it a credit card number and you get the key. Then you insert your Win 7 DVD into the machine, and give it the NEW product key. It will then go ahead and install the updated version. Of course, if you've got access to an external drive bay or another computer and have the space, backing up your data is ALWAYS a good idea so long as you do it manually as the XP backup isn't compatible with Windows 7.

So you can do the update even though the OS on the drive will not load or start? Must try this. JB

JB - Well.. Provided the partition itself is in good shape - which is why I put that caveat out there. If the partition and it's contents are trashed,you're data and programs are toast anyhow.The other caveat isyou need a full product key-not an upgrade key. To install with an upgrade key, you're supposed to install Windows (Vista or 7) from within Windows (XP, Vista or 7) so it can validate the previous installation. Obviously, in this case, that isn't possible unless he's running the RC - which is a full product license - not an upgrade only license. If he's got an RTM upgrade, he's up the proverbial crick without the proverbial steering implements.

Wolf- All my experience of reinstalling windows (all versions) says me that i loose everything! Cause any installations NOT from windows interface (from bois dos...) clear win registry and it couldn't be recovered except by the data moving tool. I"ll try as u suggest... but beforehand i know that its useless.

Hi mouseabuser, Actually, I would like to explain that the In-place Upgrade is a tool to repair the system. It is different from a clean installation. Through the special upgrade process, we will be able to repair the system. The In-place Upgrade will not affect settings like photos, movies, documents, etc. that are saved on the computer. However, it is recommended to first backup your important information and files to other partitions or other disks. Follow the steps below to perform an in-place upgrade: In-place Upgrade ============= Though this operation will not remove or modify the installed programs and files, I still suggest that we backup the important files before doing this. In addition, we may have to reinstall the device drivers after this operation. Thank you for your understanding. 1. Insert the Windows 7 DVD in the computer's DVD drive. 2. Click Start and choose Computer. 3. Please find the "setup.exe" file in the DVD-ROM and double click it. 4. Click Install now. 5. When we are prompted to input the product key, please click Next without inputting any key. The setup wizard will prompt and ask if you agree to install Windows 7 without the key. Please choose to confirm. 6. When you reach the "Which type of installation do you want" screen, click Upgrade to upgrade the system files of Windows 7. Note: While performing the In-place Upgrade, the system will restart automatically (several times) to merge the files and programs. Please leave the computer alone and do not configure it until In-place Upgrade is completed. The system will start Windows Vista once it is upgraded.Cecilia Zhou

the problem is that i cant run setup.exe from windows interface... if i do it from my Vista version it will upgrade only Vista and there is no way to choose another partition. I have done it from "run" function through "task manager" cause my win 7 finished its loading on black screen after welcome screen. explorer.exe was unable to run.

I am having the same problem Win 7 will not boot past the spinning colours logo it get there and stops and returns to the BIOS boot. I have used bcdedit and bootrec with all switches no good although it does see the Win 7 install. Booting from a live disk I can see the OS on that partition but the bootmgr does not seem to. With XP I would have use the install option then when it saw the old installation used the repair where it removed some of the files and replaced them with virgin fresh but that option is not present in Win 7. The problem came about when I removed XP from dual boot, I have now removed all other drives apart from the CD/DVD so there should not be any problem with it seeing where it should boot from. It look like a fresh install but I hate it when something like this beats me, any suggestions gratefully received.

here i just can post the instruction how not to lose ur files when reinstalling in this case... Cecilia Zhou 's and all upper are impossible to do.