How to restore a computer to a previous Windows installation
after you install Windows Vista:
INTRODUCTION
You can perform a clean installation of Windows Vista on a hard
disk partition that contains an existing Microsoft Windows
installation. If you do not format the hard disk, all the following
items will be saved automatically in the Windows.OLD folder after
Windows Vista is installed:
The previous operating system
User data
Program files
To confirm that these items have been saved, make sure that the
Windows.OLD folder exists in the root folder of the Windows hard
disk. Typically, the Windows hard disk is the C drive. If the
Windows.OLD folder exists on this drive, files from the previous
Windows installation are saved during the Windows Vista
installation process. Therefore, you can restore the computer to
the previous Windows installation.
MORE INFORMATION:
To restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you
install Windows Vista, follow these steps:
1. Determine whether you have sufficient free space on the Windows
hard disk to copy the contents of the Windows.OLD folder. To do
this, determine the size of the Windows.OLD folder, and then
compare the size to the total amount of free space on the hard
disk. You will need this information in step 5.
2. Start the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE), and then
open a command prompt. To do this, follow these steps:a. Put the
Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then restart
the computer.
b. Press a key when you are prompted to restart from the
disc.
c. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or other
input method, and then click Next.
d. Click Repair your computer.
e. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then
click Next.
f. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command
Prompt.
3. Rename the Windows folder and the Program Files folder. To do
this, type the following commands. Press ENTER after you type each
command.
c:
cd\
ren Windows Windows.Vista
ren "Program Files" "Program Files.Vista"
4. Remove the Documents and Settings junction point.
Note A junction point is a pointer to another folder.
If the Windows Vista installation was a clean installation, the
Documents and Settings folder will be empty. To remove the
Documents and Settings junction point, type the following command,
and then press ENTER:
rd "Documents and Settings"
Important After you type this command, you may receive the
following error message:
The directory is not empty.
If you receive this error message, the Documents and Settings
folder contains data and is not a junction point. Back up the data
in this folder by copying the folder to another drive on the
computer. Alternatively, you can rename the folder by using the ren
command.
5. Copy or move the content of the Windows.OLD folder to the root
folder. To do this, follow one of these steps, as appropriate for
the situation:
If there is sufficient space on the hard disk to copy the
Windows.OLD folder, type the following command, and then press
ENTER:
xcopy /s /h c:\windows.old\*.* c:\
If there is insufficient space on the hard disk to copy the
Windows.OLD folder, type the following commands. Press ENTER after
you type each command.
move /y c:\windows.old\windows c:\
move /y "c:\windows.old\program files" c:\
move /y "c:\windows.old\documents and settings" c:\
move /y c:\windows.old\users c:\
Note When the previous Windows such as Windows 2000, Windows XP or
Windows 2003 is installed, skip the fourth command move /y
c:\windows.old\users c:\. When the previous Windows installation is
Microsoft Windows Vista, skip the third command move /y
"c:\windows.old\documents and settings" c:\.
6. Restore the boot sector for the previous Windows installation.
To do this, follow one of these steps, as appropriate for the
situation: If the previous Windows installation was Microsoft
Windows XP or Microsoft Windows 2000, type the following command,
and then press ENTER:
E:\boot\bootsect /nt52 c:
If the previous Windows installation was Windows Vista, type the
following command, and then press ENTER:
E:\boot\bootsect /nt60 c:
Note In the previous commands, drive E is the ROM drive, and drive
C is the system partition. The system partition contains the Boot
Configuration Data (BCD) store and the Windows Boot Manager
files.
7. Restore the Boot.ini file for the previous Windows
installation.
If the previous Windows installation was Microsoft Windows XP or
Microsoft Windows 2000, type the following commands, and then press
ENTER:
c:
cd\
attrib boot.ini.saved -s -h -r
ren "boot.ini.saved" "boot.ini"
attrib boot.ini +s +h +r
Note: During the clean installation of Windows Vista on a drive on
which a previous operating system is present, the boot.ini file is
renamed to boot.ini.saved. This is a hidden system file. Therefore,
you cannot see it unless you use the "dir /ah" command. If you do
not follow these steps, you may encounter the following error
message when you restart the computer:
Windows could not start because the
following file is missing or corrupt.
\system32\hal.dll
8. Close the Command Prompt window, and then click
Restart.
