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Windows 7 Repair



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 26th 18, 11:03 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
swalker
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 67
Default Windows 7 Repair


I recall that when you insert a WIN7 CD into the CD drive of a machine
that already has Win 7 installed that you have the option of either a
clean install or a repair.

My question is, if you choose repair what does the repair overwrite?

What user data is lost?

Thanks.
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  #2  
Old May 26th 18, 11:38 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Auric__
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 295
Default Windows 7 Repair

swalker wrote:

I recall that when you insert a WIN7 CD into the CD drive of a machine
that already has Win 7 installed that you have the option of either a
clean install or a repair.

My question is, if you choose repair what does the repair overwrite?

What user data is lost?


In theory, nothing.

"The Startup Repair tool repairs Windows 7 by replacing important operating
system files that might be damaged or missing."

Google "windows 7 repair" for some relevant info.

--
As they did in 2000, software will spectacularly crash, hardware
will explode, appliances will go haywire and attack their owners,
and nuclear missiles will simultaneous launch and destroy the world.
  #3  
Old May 27th 18, 12:20 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Windows 7 Repair

swalker wrote:
I recall that when you insert a WIN7 CD into the CD drive of a machine
that already has Win 7 installed that you have the option of either a
clean install or a repair.

My question is, if you choose repair what does the repair overwrite?

What user data is lost?

Thanks.


On the modern versions of Windows, Windows must be working
and healthy enough to accept a Repair Install attempt.

You insert the disc, and run "setup.exe" off the disk.
That starts the repair install.

The C:\Windows is moved to C:\Windows.old.

A new C:\Windows is made, and the install starts.

Programs and user files are preserved.

A dialog box should alert you to the conditions of
the install, and that Programs and user files will
be preserved once you kick off the process.

*******

Now, because that keeps so much of the original
configuration, it's also not going to be good at
removing malware. If the Repair Install keeps
the registry content (in support of the installed
programs), lots of stuff that launches malware could
still be enabled.

As a result, the utility of doing this, is a function
of what you think this is going to fix. Will it
remove a rootkit ? Probably not. Will it restore
that set of DLLs you foolishly deleted in haste. Yes,
it can put those back. It might even manage, by magic,
to put back your network stack or something. But, because
the process "respects" so much of what was there
previously, there are going to be *lots* of corner
cases it doesn't touch or fix. If a registry setting
screwed up your networking stack, then that registry
setting will still be present.

It's almost like the utility (on Windows) of removing a
program, using "Programs and Features" and expecting
a re-install to fix a mistake or corrupted setting.
Unfortunately, for better or worse, uninstalls don't
clean the registry - it is rare software which has
an uninstall option "remove all traces of settings"
when doing a Remove. Consequently, I cannot (on average)
recommend removing a program and reinstalling it again,
as it achieves almost nothing for the effort. A
Repair Install is similar. There will be some good
cases for usage (such as deleting a set of important
files or getting into a huff and deleting WinSXS or
something), but for the more common problems,
like malware or adware, there's no particular reason
it's going to help.

*******

A "Clean Install", where *everything* is thrown away,
that can fix stuff. But is very expensive in terms
of your personal time, to put everything back the way
it used to be. User data and Programs will be removed,
so you want backups of C: before doing that. As time
passes, you consult your backup of C: and bring forward
your email profile and so on, and gradually restore
things. It takes some people months to complete the
exercise, if done that way (because some people are
pack-rats and they have 500 programs to restore).

To do a clean install:

1) Don't be in a rush.
2) Make a backup of C: and friends.
3) Remove extraneous hard drives not involved in the
installation process. This prevents collateral damage
to the drives that you didn't back up. Your backup drive
should be unplugged too.
4) Boot the installer DVD.
5) Have it format C: and do the install.
6) Take your time restoring email profile and the
rest, using your backup image of C: to access the
files.

On one occasion, I had a Windows installer CD *delete*
the partition table, even though I'd clicked cancel
during an install. And this is yet another reason
for backing up a hard drive, before starting
an install. Just about anything can happen during
an install. Normally pretty safe, but if **** happens...
it can be very messy.

HTH,
Paul
  #4  
Old May 27th 18, 12:30 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Windows 7 Repair

ken1943 wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2018 22:38:59 -0000 (UTC), "Auric__"
wrote:

swalker wrote:

I recall that when you insert a WIN7 CD into the CD drive of a machine
that already has Win 7 installed that you have the option of either a
clean install or a repair.

My question is, if you choose repair what does the repair overwrite?

What user data is lost?

In theory, nothing.

"The Startup Repair tool repairs Windows 7 by replacing important operating
system files that might be damaged or missing."

Google "windows 7 repair" for some relevant info.


It is not as easy as XP was or 10 is now. Do research. I only did it
once.


The beauty of WinXP, is "Repair Install" could be applied
to a dead OS. You could boot the CD and do Repair Install
from there.

Vista+ only allow "Repair Install" from the running OS,
by executing "setup.exe" off the DVD. And that assumes
a healthy OS to start with. Maybe this was an attempt
by Microsoft to "discourage" the usage of Repair Install,
because of the small amount of use cases where it's really
going to work.

Win10 is no better than Win7.

Win10 has various flavors such as Reset, but it
doesn't materially improve things all that much. You
could Reset and still have a malware problem.

I prefer full backups to achieve a desired end,
as it's simpler for me to put back a couple of
programs I might have added since the last backup,
and do the necessary "delta" on my Downloads folder
and the current Downloads folder. I prefer a recent
(uninfected) backup as my "base".

I've gone back as far as two years with a backup,
and profited from it. I had a piece of software
that was refusing to install. By going back two years,
the software installed. Then it was my job, to figure
out what could have changed. And I found some files
made by the same company, which were conflicting with
the installation. So the two year old backup didn't have
those files. That's the oldest backup I ever used
(temporarily) and got a benefit from it.

The freshest backup I ever made, was only two hours
old, when my Win7 Home Premium on the laptop bricked
(corrupted file system, could not be fixed). And the
backup I made that day, was because "you know, I haven't
made a backup lately". I count myself very lucky on
that one. A Repair Install would not have been possible
in that case. I couldn't even get at my data, unless
I used the backup image. I think I was up and running
after about 20 minutes on that one (the laptop is a bit
slow, so restore takes a bit longer).

Paul
  #5  
Old May 27th 18, 04:02 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Auric__
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 295
Default Windows 7 Repair

ken1943 wrote:

On Sat, 26 May 2018 22:38:59 -0000 (UTC), "Auric__"
wrote:

[snip]
Google "windows 7 repair" for some relevant info.


It is not as easy as XP was or 10 is now. Do research. I only did it
once.


I've actually never done a repair. It's always been either some trivial
thing, or else a complete reinstall.

--
Even so... I don't feel good about this.
But, hell, when you're a professional target, what can you expect?
  #6  
Old November 17th 18, 11:27 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Windows 7 Repair

In message , ken1943
writes:
On Sat, 26 May 2018 22:38:59 -0000 (UTC), "Auric__"
wrote:

swalker wrote:

[]
My question is, if you choose repair what does the repair overwrite?

What user data is lost?


In theory, nothing.

"The Startup Repair tool repairs Windows 7 by replacing important operating
system files that might be damaged or missing."

Google "windows 7 repair" for some relevant info.


It is not as easy as XP was or 10 is now. Do research. I only did it
once.


What, if anything, _did_ you lose?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

While no one was paying attention, weather reports became accurate and the
news became fiction. Did not see that coming. - Scott Adams, 2015
  #7  
Old November 18th 18, 06:17 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Windows 7 Repair

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , ken1943
writes:
On Sat, 26 May 2018 22:38:59 -0000 (UTC), "Auric__"
wrote:

swalker wrote:

[]
My question is, if you choose repair what does the repair overwrite?

What user data is lost?

In theory, nothing.

"The Startup Repair tool repairs Windows 7 by replacing important
operating
system files that might be damaged or missing."

Google "windows 7 repair" for some relevant info.


It is not as easy as XP was or 10 is now. Do research. I only did it
once.


What, if anything, _did_ you lose?


Just a heads up.

You're on E-S.

Right now, the E-S spool has a problem. It's like the
indexing is broken. Messages from May 2018 are being
re-injected into your message list. You're actually
replying to a message from May.

I suspect Ray Banana is going to need to rebuild whatever
passes for an index on the E-S news server.

So if you're thinking "wow, a lot of new messages now",
well no, they're old messages being sent to you a
second time.

Paul (posted from AIOE)
  #8  
Old November 18th 18, 02:01 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Windows 7 Repair

In message , Paul
writes:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , ken1943
writes:
On Sat, 26 May 2018 22:38:59 -0000 (UTC), "Auric__"
wrote:

swalker wrote:

[]
My question is, if you choose repair what does the repair overwrite?

What user data is lost?

In theory, nothing.

"The Startup Repair tool repairs Windows 7 by replacing important
operating
system files that might be damaged or missing."

Google "windows 7 repair" for some relevant info.

It is not as easy as XP was or 10 is now. Do research. I only did it
once.

What, if anything, _did_ you lose?


Just a heads up.

You're on E-S.

Right now, the E-S spool has a problem. It's like the
indexing is broken. Messages from May 2018 are being
re-injected into your message list.


Yes, I'd spotted that ...

You're actually
replying to a message from May.


.... but missed that that one was. (Maybe I posted my followup before I
noticed the E-S problem.)

I suspect Ray Banana is going to need to rebuild whatever
passes for an index on the E-S news server.

So if you're thinking "wow, a lot of new messages now",
well no, they're old messages being sent to you a
second time.

Paul (posted from AIOE)


It doesn't seem _that_ bad (which is odd). I can live with what I've
seen so far. (The Turnpike 'group have suggested that use of the
NewNwews flag/facility/whatever would be useful to avoid this sort of
thing, but it makes more work for the server, so few do it [though
apparently NIN do]; not having much idea what it actually does, I can't
comment.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Veni, Vidi, Vomit (I came, I saw, I was ill) - , 1998
 




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