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Windows.old


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#1
Gene R

Gene R

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Computer: Dell Inspiron N4030 Laptop; OS Windows 7

A co-worker brought me her daughters' LT today and said it will not boot up. When I powered it up it comes up to the recovery screen. I rebooted to MiniXP and found a c and d drive plus the recovery drive. C does not have the normal C drive stuff, i.e., Windows folder, etc... nor the windows.old folder.

The D frive has 14 directories including windows.old; windows.old.001; windows.old.002 and windows.old.000. The girl and her boyfriend must of tried the 'recover' several times.... All of the original files, etc., is in the windows.old folder....

Having done a Windows restore from windows.old to windows in Vista recently, I searched the internet and found MS K971760 - 'How to restore a Windows 7-based computer to a previous Windows installation by using the Windows.old folder'.

Since windows.old is on the d drive I tried the steps in the KB as written with the error msg, 'the system cannot find the file specified' for every step. So, I changed dir to D and repeated the steps in the KB and get the msg, 'Access Denied'

Any thoughts/suggestions??? Thanks....

07/25/2012 - I found the '.old' folder wasn't on the C drive so I attempted to follow the KB referencing the actual drive the .old was in but then got a 'Access Is Denied' ....

Hope this adds some more detail so someone can help... Thanks....

Edited by Gene R, 25 July 2012 - 05:24 AM.

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#2
rshaffer61

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My suggestion is to backup the data they need saved and then using the recovery partition format and return the system to factory new condition. This would eliminate all the Window installations at least and they would have a fresh install.
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#3
Gene R

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I'll do that Monday. Thanks for the reply. I do not have the laptop at home with me this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again
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#4
rshaffer61

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OK no problem I will receive notice when you respond. :thumbsup:
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