In a pickle...

K

Kahuna

Member
Hi Folks...

Hopefully someone here can give me a hand with the problem I've run into. A little while ago...I noticed our computer was running fairly slow...so I decided to reboot it. Upon rebooting the computer...I encountered an error screen indicating that I had a missing or corrupted pci.sys file. The error screen suggested that I use my Windows Vista disc to repair/replace the file in question. When I put the Windows Vista disc in the drive & did a reboot...it took me through the opening screens...but it did not give me an option to repair my installation of Windows Vista on my computer. I clicked on the Next button on the prompt & before I knew it...Windows was installing a fresh copy of itself on our hard drive. It took the old copies of our Windows software package & saved it to a directory called Windows.old.

Instead of having to re-install all of the drivers & software that was on the previous version of Windows. Is there a way for me to undo what I just did?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Kawika
 

My Computer

System One

Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Thanks for the link Richard. I believe the main issue I'll have is trying to get the Windows Recovery Environment. When I attempted to boot from the Windows Vista disc the last time around...I never got the option to repair my original Windows installation.
 

My Computer

System One

As I think about it, I am not sure you will have all of your original programs either.
You were attempting to do a repair install but instead did a new install.
The method that I gave you is the only way that I know.

If you carefully follow the instructions, it should work
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
The problem I am having is that I am unable to access the Windows Recovery Environment. When I attempt to boot from the Windows Vista CD...the only option I am getting is to reinstall Windows again.
 

My Computer

System One

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I'm not sure if this will end up being the same solution...but I plan to remove the hard drive from the PC & hook it up as an external hard drive to another PC in order to do the renaming that was suggested on the solution page you linked.
 

My Computer

System One

Read above post, first. Read the tutorial, carefully. It should work.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Perhaps it is because it is a Systems Recovery disc & not a genuine copy of Windows Vista? When I boot from the CD...I can get to the screen where I pick the language, time & keyboard. It then goes to a screen that shows me my hard drive. I do not get screens that look like step 4 or 5 in Method Two.
 

My Computer

System One

Do you boot from the CD or from within Windows?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
If you booted from a Vista DVD, and you have the windows.old, I am afraid that there is not much that can be done other than limit the damage. You can go to windows.old and get your documents, pics etc, but programs are lost and have to be reinstalled. If you are not able to follow my origianal post (and I doubt if programs would be reinstalled) not much else to do.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
My plan at the moment is to follow the basics of the original link you posted by renaming the directories that were created when I re-installed Windows...and then copying over the Windows.old directories back to where they were. Then I'll attempt to reboot to see if that puts me back to my original starting point. If that doesn't work...I'll just reverse the process & attempt to re-install the entire system from scratch.
 

My Computer

System One

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