Win7's no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall
This could be useful!
Thursday, July 14, 2011 by RedneckDude | Discussion: Windows 7
This looks like something a lot of people would find helpful. My luck, Doc has already posted this. 
TOP STORY
Win7's no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall 
By Fred Langa
Microsoft won't tell you this, but you can do a fast, nondestructive, in-place, total reinstall of Windows 7 without damaging your user accounts, data, installed programs, or system drivers.
That means you may never have to do a full, from-scratch reinstall again, even when your system is misbehaving so badly that a full reformat-and-reinstall seems the only answer!
As I'm sure you know all too well, from-scratch reinstalls are ordeals. They take hours. And when a reinstall is done, you still have to recreate all your settings, reinstall all your software, and so on. It can take days to fully recover from a total reformat/reinstall.
Windows' little known, in-place reinstall takes only a fraction of that time and effort and yet completely rebuilds, repairs, and refreshes an existing Windows installation. It leaves your other software alone (no reinstallation needed!) while also leaving user accounts, names, and passwords untouched.
When you're finished, your Windows installation is just as it was before, except that all the system files are fully repaired, refreshed, and ready to go.
This nondestructive-reinstall ability has been in Windows since XP. (See this XP reinstall article that I wrote for another publication, years ago, when XP was new.) But — for reasons unknown — Microsoft has never made nondestructive reinstalls an official repair. In fact, it's not even listed in Win7's System Recovery Options (Help & How-to page).
(Vista users, you're not forgotten! The nondestructive reinstall process for Vista is nearly identical to that described in the rest of this article.)
Get the rest of this awesome tip here:
http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/win7s-no-reformat-nondestructive-reinstall/
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Reply #22 Wednesday, July 20, 2011 12:36 PM
Quoting RedneckDude,
reply 20
Mark, they say great minds think alike
Yeah, right......you two dumbasses should get married........
Hey Gary!!! I love you too much for that, man!!! 
Reply #23 Friday, July 22, 2011 1:43 AM
Oh, okay.... just hope we didn't go proving somebody wrong there. 
Quoting RedneckDude, reply 20Mark, they say great minds think alike
Yeah, right......you two dumbasses should get married........
What, and risk being charged with bigamy? 
Nah, bugger that, we're better off living in sin. 
Reply #24 Friday, July 22, 2011 9:01 AM
The more I think about this, the more I think that chkdsk /f /r should be run before the 'reinstall' as I think it won't fix some errors....
yrag, what do you think?
Reply #25 Friday, July 22, 2011 10:36 AM
yrag, what do you think?
It's a good idea..... the odds are even that it/there could be disk sector errors.
The actual sequence of procedures are:
Elevated Command: chkdsk /f /r
Check for ongoing errors.
Elevated Command: sfc /scannow
Check for ongoing errors.
No joy: proceed with OP.
Reply #26 Friday, July 22, 2011 11:09 AM
Here are the requirements for a Repair install
Link for instructions is http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html
- You can only do a repair install with the same edition Windows 7 installation disc for the same edition of Windows 7 that you have installed.
- You cannot use a OEM Windows 7 "Factory" Restore/Recovery type of installation disc that came with or created from a store bought computer to do a repair install with. These can only be used do a clean install instead.
- You can use a retail OEM Windows 7 to do a repair install with.
- You can use a retail Windows 7 to do a repair install with.
- You cannot do a repair install with a System Repair Disc. A System Repair Disc is not a installation disc, and will only boot to the System Recovery Options screen.
- If you have a 32-bit (x86) Windows 7 currently installed, then you must use a 32-bit Windows 7 installation disc to be able to do a repair install with.
- If you have a 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 currently installed, then you must use a 64-bit Windows 7 installation disc to be able to do a repair install with.
- If you have Windows 7 SP1 installed, then you either must use a "retail" Windows 7 SP1 installation disc to be able to do a repair install, or uninstall SP1 to be able to use a retail Windows 7 installation discto do a repair install with.
- You can use a retail Windows 7 SP1 installation disc (ex: Technet (available), MSDN (available), or retail (when available)) to do a repair install with on a currently installed Windows 7 SP1.
- You can use a Windows 7 SP1 installation disc (ex: Technet (available), MSDN (available), or retail (when available)) to do a repair install with on a currently installed slipstream Windows 7 SP1.
- You cannot use a slipstream Windows 7 installation disc to do a repair install with on a currently installed Windows 7 SP1.
- You cannot use a slipstream Windows 7 installation disc to do a repair install with on a currently installed slipstream Windows 7 SP1.
- You can only do a repair install from within Windows 7.
- You cannot do a repair install at boot or in Safe Mode.
- You must be logged into Windows 7 in a administrator account to be able to do a repair install.
- You must have at least 8.87 GB of free space, more if you have a larger installation, on the hard drive/partition Windows 7 is installed on to do a repair install.
- If you changed the default location of the Program Files or Programs Files (x86) folder, then you will need to change it back to the C: drive, and change any shortcuts that pointed to the other location to also point to the C: drive before doing a repair install.
Reply #27 Monday, July 25, 2011 12:05 AM
@ RedneckDude on July 14, 2011
Ahh Fred Lange...I have read his article for such a long time. From differen eMags and the like. Interesting that he has showed up here, as I had not had a chance to look for him since February 2011.
OH, RND, I find your offereings on WinCustomize to be quite wonderful. I have downloaded a numberof your works. Just wish I could get WindowsBlinds to work. I kinda left that go as it was just taking too much time to figure it out. I do like the OD that works! So, I should whine too much I guess. <aybe I'll get a ticket on it and look and see if anything new happened in those threads.
Good wishes all!! 
BarJabba
Reply #28 Wednesday, September 7, 2011 10:22 PM
So, does anybody have an easy way to go from Vista to Win 7? AND, does anybody know how reliable Microsofts list of apps that will and won't work in 7 is? I've heard some say the list has such-and-such on it but it still worked in 7 for them.
Reply #31 Wednesday, September 7, 2011 10:56 PM
Ahh Fred Lange...I have read his article for such a long time. From differen eMags and the like. Interesting that he has showed up here, as I had not had a chance to look for him since February 2011.
OH, RND, I find your offereings on WinCustomize to be quite wonderful. I have downloaded a numberof your works. Just wish I could get WindowsBlinds to work. I kinda left that go as it was just taking too much time to figure it out. I do like the OD that works! So, I should whine too much I guess. <aybe I'll get a ticket on it and look and see if anything new happened in those threads.
Good wishes all!!
BarJabba
You too JC!!
Reply #33 Thursday, September 8, 2011 2:38 AM
Since W7 has so few problems, if it wasn't for the dumbasses yrag would have no use here 
Reply #35 Thursday, September 8, 2011 10:15 AM
Reply #37 Monday, September 19, 2011 12:22 AM
he..er...um...he meant me?
Took you 11 days to get here. I may be a dumbass, but I'm 11 days ahead of you, dickhead! 
Reply #38 Monday, September 19, 2011 2:28 AM
Now children, you will either play nicely or you will go to your rooms. 
And don't you think that the terms of endearment around here... er, are getting a little below the belt [dumbass and dickhead]?
Reply #39 Monday, September 19, 2011 7:13 AM
I'm always glad when people share such useful tidbits with the masses!
The fact that Windows 7 is actually just an iso partition with a bunch of migration wizards to transfer data has been a boon to every pro IT person I know since Windows 7 hit beta.
We all use Windows 7 upgrade as in place reinstall because it is just so bloody convenient!
Microsoft took note of this when they added this as a new "option" in Windows 8 (in place restore/repair, etc.), so soon everyone will know about this, not just IT professionals.
Thanks for spreading the word. 8)
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Reply #21 Wednesday, July 20, 2011 12:26 PM
Yeah, right......you two dumbasses should get married........