Windows Vista won't boot on Dell Dimension,
September 17, 2008 at 1:46 AM
Hi Folks!
Windows vista is also causing lots of boot problems, so I often get questions like this:
I have a Dell Dimension, which won’t boot to Windows (Vista), and none the repair variants work:
Startup repair: Reports fix fail due to problem with registry
System Restore: Reports no restore points available
Windows Complete PC Restore: Reports no backups available
Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool: No memory problems
Command Prompt. Can’t think of any appropriate command to use here.
So I booted with the system DVD (as one would with XP) but the upgrade option has been greyed don’t want to do a new install. I want to repair existing installation.
You can't do a 'repair install' because you need to launch the Vista DVD from within Windows, not, as you have been doing, booting straight from the DVD; that is why the 'upgrade' is greyed out.
If you cannot launch Vista and none of the repair options will work a new install is the only other variant.
To save problems in future it is actually a good idea to make image of the hard drive, using something like True Image. What I do is install operating system, download all updates, check system I working okay for a day or two, activate system, then image the drive/partition. Any time I get a problem I can re-image the drive/partition quickly and be up and running without much inconvenience. And minor fixes are done by using any registry repair utility, there are plenty of them on the market today.